Network Society

With the advent of the 21st century, the way characters and identities interact under the influence of dominant powers has brought a new world into existence, a world dubbed by Manuel Castells as the ‘Fourth World’. Within the Castellsian theoretical matrix of the Fourth World and politics of identity, the present study seeks to investigate the true nature of the futuristic world Margaret Atwood hascreated in the MaddAddam trilogy. The trilogy literarily reflects a global crisis that ultimately leads to dystopia and the destruction of the human race: what remains of humanity is a small group of survivors who must struggle to conserve what remains of humanity. Identity as the main determining factor in the Fourth World represents personal and public privileges, characteristics, and means of differentiating oneself from others. The Fourth World and its political peculiarities reflect contemporary powers, i.e. the power of the network society, network communication and media. Humankind, in this wheel, is just a toy in the hands of an intelligence broker. What exactly happens to human and semi-human characters in Atwood’s trilogy is the result of Fourth World structures andvalues, and how they shape and reconstruct identities to lead the world toward fabricated truths and values, and terminate in dystopia.

Technology affected human life in many ways in different eras of mankind history. Today, the information and telecommunication technology has revolutionized basic structures of human life. Changes are from the whole to the parts and vice versa, which include family and society too. Family lost its former structure in the information age and differentiated from patriarchy family. Societies have been formed based on logic of networking and new network societies are predominant form of our societies with their advantages and flaws comparing with the traditional societies. Basic concepts of the life i.e. space and time also have been transformed and living in space of flows and concurrency of functions require a special structure or body. Architecture constitutes the body of our societies which must meet physical and mental needs of humankind. In a transforming world, architecture is connecting ring between society and surrounding environment, previous traditions and future world, which its borders between reality and virtuality are very close. Architecture with a global-local approach can assist human who is wondering in the virtual world to redefine its own identity and finds its position in labyrinth of global networks and also safeguards his survival via respecting nature and paying attention to sense of place as one of the principles of vernacular and traditional architecture. Technology has affected on the architectural design, leading to creation of new shapes and distinct erections. Architectural design by employing networks and collective intelligence, overcome temporal and spatial limits and became a collective activity. Architecture by creating spaces according to global, regional and local considerations and emphasis on principles of design supported by collective intelligence and strengthening bonds among the human, nature and technology, will act as a panacea which will heal crisis of identity and cultural multitude; the crisis that storm out human body and soul in our present stressful world.