BIBLIPEDIA

Places and non-places

Marc Augé describes the reconfiguration of space in contemporary society. Here history bites our heels, space expands yet the world shrinks, and the individual is supposed to be allowed to be, do, but most of all, consume, whatever is necessary for them to achieve selfhood.

Of place, we might have thought that "all the inhabitants need do is recognise themselves in it". Now, in the supermodern space, we misrecognise ourselves: we obey direction, and we are permitted to experience only solitude: the consequence of individualism is solipsism, that of consumerism is solitude.

Tags: alienation anthropology consumerism individualism place solipsism space supermodernity

Note posted by: joe soap, the hopeless hobo on Fri 16 May 08

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