Cognitive Scaffold

Preparing your thinking workspace

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MENTAL MODEL · M3270

Space of Flows

Space of Flows
BusinessHigh supportEconomics
Included
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Version 1.0.0 · Updated 2026-07-30

CORE DEFINITION

In the information age, the importance of physical territory (space of places) declines, replaced by a "space of flows" composed of information flows, technology flows, and capital flows. Although New York and London are physically distant, because they are in the same flow node, they are socially "closer" than New York and its suburbs.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

New geography perspective. Used to reassess locational advantages. In the digital economy, your position does not depend on your GPS coordinates, but on your bandwidth and node weight in the global information network.

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

Manuel Castells proposed: in the network society, space is composed of electronic networks and nodes, a "space of flows" that can detach from physical territory, as opposed to the "space of places" constrained by locality, where power and capital circulate at high speed.

MINIMUM ACTION

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Source support: Explicit

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    zh.wikipedia.orghttps://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B5%81%E7%A9%BA%E9%97%B4ZH · Explicit
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