ABSTRACT
Space and time have been altered by culture, but the ecological imperatives remain. Bureaucracies are shifting towards matrices and fluid structures in response to the fluid fast-changing economy, where borders no longer provide buffers so reactions have to be fast. As Toffler (1990) outlined in Power Shift, the change from cubbyhole thinking to systems thinking or network thinking will require changes in the way societies are organised. Space is no longer merely local and neighbourhood-based; communication through interactive technology has created close links with the national and international domains. Cyberspace has effectively impacted on local space, but people cannot dictate the imperatives of the environment unless they wish to experience pollution, erosion and climatic disasters. Castells (1997) argues that it is through the flows of information in cyberspace that the real power lies, because it is more powerful than that wielded by state bureaucracies. This is partially true, but the power of cyberspace needs to be harnessed to benefit local groups in geographical human space.
