A digital space feels like somewhere you go. It is actually something somebody made, and three decisions made it: who may enter, what may be said, and what is shown first.
The three decisions that turn an empty service into a place that feels natural.
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A physical place
- Everyone in it sees the same room
- The boundary is visible — a door, a wall
- Changing it takes time and money
A digital space
- Every person is shown something different
- The boundary is a rule you cannot see
- It can be changed overnight, for everybody
The one with no physical equal: Two people standing in the same digital space do not see the same space. There is no physical place where that is true, and it is why arguments about what “is on” a platform are so hard to settle.
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The direction that matters most in the exam is the one that runs back out: decisions made in a digital space rearrange real places and real people.
Real-world examples you can name
Short-term letting platforms and city housing — Barcelona fines from 2016; ban on tourist flats announced for 2028
Platforms let residential flats be rented to visitors nightly. Cities argue this removed homes from the long-term market and pushed rents up; Barcelona has fined platforms for unlicensed listings and announced it will end tourist flat licences entirely.
Who it affected: Residents priced out of central districts, hosts earning from spare rooms, and visitors.
Decidim, Barcelona's participation platform — launched 2016, open source
A platform where residents propose, debate and vote on city policy, with proposals traceable from submission to decision. Its code is open, so other cities run their own instances.
Who it affected: Residents who would not attend an evening meeting but will use a phone.
The pattern: In Short-term letting platforms and city housing (Barcelona, Amsterdam, Lisbon and others, Barcelona fines from 2016; ban on tourist flats announced for 2028) a change in how a platform matched people changed who could afford to live in a neighbourhood.
Nothing was built and nothing was demolished.
How this is tested — space questions are really ownership questions, and the marks are in naming who decided. It comes up two ways:
Paper 1 — structured question
- Part b: explain how a platform shapes a place
- Part c: evaluate the impact of a platform on a community
Paper 2 — source-based question
- Q2: explain what a source says about a place
- Q4: synthesise sources on a city and a platform
The trap: describing the website: The question is about the space, not the software. Say who set the boundary, who benefits from where it sits, and who is outside it.
Explain one way in which a digital space differs from a physical one.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Analyse the impact of short-term rental platforms on a city neighbourhood.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.