"[3][1][4] The common suffix -scape denotes these terms as being "perspectival constructs inflected…by the historical, linguistic, and political situatedness of different kinds of actors: nation-states, multinationals, diasporic communities, as well as subnational groupings and movements (whether religious, political or economic)," as well as "intimate face-to-face groups, such as villages, neighborhoods and families.
He instead proposes that "flows" or "scapes" move through the world, carrying capital, images, people, information, technologies, and ideas.
"[1] Appadurai further states that, despite disjunctures having always existed between the flows of people, machinery, money, ideas and images, the world is at a crossroads where this is happening to a larger extent; he thus points to the importance of studying the "-scapes.
The Olympic Games, for instance, organize financescapes (regional, national, and international business networks come in to invest in the host city) and mediascapes (the opening and closing ceremonies showcase national cultures), as well as ideoscapes (images of the host city and country, their history, and customs circulate worldwide to attract tourists) and ethnoscapes (migrations of business networks and localities that are removed from parts of the city to make space for Olympic venues).
This includes migrants, refugees, exiles, and tourists, among other moving individuals and groups, all of whom appear to affect the politics of (and between) nations to a considerable degree.
[7][2]: 297 Appadurai claims that this is not to say there are no relatively stable communities and networks of kinship, friendship, work, and leisure, as well as of birth, residence, and other filial forms.
[6] The fluidity of capital has been expounded on further by sociologists such as Anthony Giddens, who, in his 1999 BBC Reith lecture on globalization, claims that the advent of electronic money has rendered the transfer of capital and finance around the world subject to an increasingly easy process that posits a major paradigm shift.
Today, the global transfer of money has only accelerated in pace, with transactions in various large, international finance hubs (e.g. NYSE) have almost immediate effects on economies around the globe.
"[2]: 298–9 In particular, advertising can directly impact the landscape (in the form of posters and billboards) and also subtly influence—through persuasive techniques and an increasingly pervasive presence—the way that people perceive reality.