index
Less hierarchy does not mean all are equal
click on images for full-size:
Map of hypertext link patterns among blogs
Map of rail connections in northern England
The weakening of hierarchy and center does not mean that all places are now on the same level. We might compare our new spatiality to the hypertext found on the Web. There the links do not produce a flat collection of evenly-empowered nodes. Instead of measuring centrality by degree in a hierarchy, the Web develops traffic patterns. The most frequently visited sites become centers, and as their rankings are published (by ranking agencies that are themselves ranked), the rich get richer as more links are made to them. So too our non-hierarchical spatiality does not mean that all places get leveled out into a bland availability. In the non-hierarchical, non-concentric world, linkage connects but it also differentiates and distances. Substantive and significant sites may be ignored in the process, but that is not much different from the way significant texts have been ignored by publishers, or significant places by transport systems. No topology of connection will by itself save us from the need for discernment and judgment.