VIRTUAL MADE REAL IN INFORMATION AGE ECONOMY: THE MALAYSIAN CYBERCITY

摘要

This paper sees the cybercity as a direct development of resource architecture and modern technology. It discusses the cybercity in a new light, away from the formerly accepted notion of being a dematerialized space only. Instead, it is seen as existing simultaneously in the materialized and dematerialized forms. This bi-spherical existence is seen as an economic necessity of the Information Age. The paper's main question is then, "In what ways might the cybercity represent a new form of capitalist urban space?" It turns to the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in Malaysia for the answer and sees the MSC as a particular form of cybercity. The paper also clarifies the link with capitalistic economic exchanges by looking at the MSC following Henri Lefebvre's method on the analysis of space, i.e. Spatial Practices, The Representations of Space, and Representational Spaces. Characteristics of the cybercity are then investigated to show the direct association between the cybercity and the Information Age capitalism. Beyond this relationship, the paper also proposes the cybercity as a new model for future urban development whilst positing another signification of the cybercity.