Time-Space Convergence

5 Key excerpts on "Time-Space Convergence"

• 

  eBook - ePub

  The Political Economy of Communication

  • Vincent Mosco(Author)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  social space to denote the number of social contacts over a specific territory, one variation of which measures the probability of communication against the distance between communicators (Abler, Adam, and Gould, 1971; Hagerstrand, 1968). Measures of social space are used most in research on patterns of innovation and diffusion to measure the time it takes, for example, for a new technology to move from one area to another.

  In addition to these objective measures of time–space convergence, geographers take into account the perceptual or cultural dimension of convergence. In fact, Abler, et al. (1975: 53) suggest that:

   

  What people think about distance and space is more important in the long run than the “real” nature of space and distance. Even if … convergence succeed[s] in producing a functionally dimensionless world, people will continue to have strong feelings about places and what they perceive to be distance.

  It is also the case that convergence measures vary by the individual’s place within society. Although it is clearly the case that time–space and cost–space convergence demonstrate that places are moving closer together, Abler suggested that “for those possessing lesser means, time–space convergence may be negligible. In fact, there is reason to believe that convergence contributes to the polarization of the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’” (Abler, et al., 1975: 9). For example, he cites research suggesting that, in large US cities, the average distance between home and work decreased for whites but increased for African Americans.

  The research literature offers a number of general conclusions. The declining price–performance ratio of transportation and communication technologies has contributed to spatial convergence. The extent of the convergence is widespread but varies by cultural, social, and political conditions. Cultural conditions include the values embedded in specific places and in the distances between them. For example, a person based in Akron, Ohio, headed for New York City has a different perception of New York and the distance from Akron depending on whether the trip is viewed as a chance to visit the center of cosmopolitan culture or a descent into barbarism. Social variations include an individual’s place in various economic, educational, and social status hierarchies which would make convergence a taken-for-granted reality or, at the other extreme, practically unthinkable. Finally, political economic decisions about transportation (do airline carriers fly the route? Non-stop? How often? For how much?) and communication (what is the quality and cost of communication between the two cities?) influence the nature of convergence. Not so much “the end of geography,” research suggests that convergence transforms

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Making Globalisation

  • Robert J. Holton(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Red Globe Press

    (Publisher)

  81 4 Globalization and the Transformation of Space, and Time Much recent attention has been given to innovations in global communications technology and the profound social changes with which they are associated. The digitalization of information, and its virtually instantaneous transmission across the globe has, for example, been seen by many as ushering in radical transformations in the spatial and temporal organization of social life. Just as virtual communication through the Internet and the mobile phone reduces spatial barriers to communi-cation, so the time frames within which social life takes place seem to have speeded up. A range of debates have ensued as to the meaning of such changes. Does globalization of communications mean the end of geography, as distance matters less and less to the capacity to communicate? And if so, does this indicate a growing cosmopolitanism divorced from any close tie with particular spatial locations? Meanwhile, does the virtually simultaneous access to information spread across multiple sites bring with it a speeding-up of social learning and inter-connection, and also perhaps a greater capacity for powerful interests to control and shape the direction that interactions made possible by new technology may take? In this chapter we look in more depth at spatial and temporal changes associated with globalization, and their connection with human agency. Space and time are interpreted not simply as natural processes within which human life takes place but also as socially constructed ways of understanding and organizing social life. From this perspective the challenge is to understand how different conceptions of space and time have emerged, how they have been embodied in social institutions through human agency, and what light such conceptions shed on globalization.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Connecting the Nineteenth-Century World

  The Telegraph and Globalization

  • Roland Wenzlhuemer(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  His concept of the space of flows provides an alternative to the space of places (meaning geo- graphic space). The space of flows constitutes itself around practices of time-sharing made possible by advanced communication technology and detached from concerns of geographic proximity. The space of flows is an example of a version of space with an extremely pronounced time dimen- sion. It is closely related to what has here been called communication space, but differs in the details as long-distance time-sharing depends on communication while communication does not always lead to time- sharing. Castells provides us with an alternative model of space in informa- tion societies that drops geographic distance in favour of time as the prime relational factor. And yet, as Castells himself acknowledges, the space of The annihilation of time and space? 43 flows is only one of many relevant spaces. 34 In the understanding of space outlined here, time is connected with space only if the defining question is time-related. The first two of the above examples have a time dimension. The relations between objects in communication space or transport space mirror how long it takes to communicate or transport something between them. There is an obvious time–space relation. Instances of time define space. In other cases, however, time is not directly connected with space – telephone cost space and transport cost space serve as examples. These spaces are formed without time or duration playing any part in the process. Importantly, geographic space belongs in this category as well. In the perspective suggested here, geographic space is defined solely by the dis- tance between objects. There is no dimension of time. Sure enough, people or things can move through geographic space and, in doing so, change their relations and therefore space itself – but this is not a time dimension in our sense of the word.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Object-Oriented Design for Temporal GIS

  • Monica Wachowicz(Author)
  • 1999(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  However, a question still remains about integrating absolute and relative views. How can we have both perspectives placed in the same representation? Perhaps the answer lies in time geography: ‘Owing to the circumstances under which … [Time Geography] has been developed, its contents, and its applications to date, there is a great danger that Hägerstrand’s time geographic framework will be mistakenly construed as nothing more than a planning tool. On the contrary,… the potential usefulness of the framework... is of much greater range’ (Pred, 1977, p. 213). Consequently, this book proposes that the concepts of Time Geography should be exploited by GIS to capture the absolute space-time view as well as the relative space-time view. The next section provides an overview of Time Geography.

  2.8TIME GEOGRAPHY

  The pioneering work of Torsten Hägerstrand during the 1960s unfolded the Time Geography research that emerged from the Royal University of Lund in Sweden. The concepts developed in time geography have been mostly consolidated in the work of Hägerstrand and his students and collaborators Lenntorp, Mårtensson and Carlstein. Pred (1977) provides an overview of the main uses of Time Geography in several domains, among them domains concerned with regional development policies, nationwide physical planning, and urbanisation and settlement policies. The Swedish government has implemented many of the applications of Time Geography in order to provide adequate job-market opportunities, and a satisfactory level of social and cultural services. Some examples are the accessibility simulation of daily individual activities in urban environments and regions (Lenntorp, 1978), comparative studies of living conditions in different populated regions (Martensson, 1978), and analysis of various activities in the quaternary sector, mainly concerned with employment distribution (Olander and Carlstein, 1978).

  Space and time in Time Geography are considered as orthogonal dimensions that become fused into a space-time path representing the trajectory for the lifespan of an entity (Figure 2.4

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Exploring Human Geography

  A Reader

  • Stephen Daniels, Roger Lee(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  22 ‘Between Space and Time: Reflections on the Geographical Imagination'

  Reprinted in full from: Annals of the Association of Geographers 80, 418–34 (1990)

  David Harvey

  DOI: 10.4324/9781315832555-22

  The question I wish to consider is the construction of a historical geography of space and time. Since that sounds and indeed is a double play on the concepts of space and time, the idea requires some initial elaboration. I shall then explore the implications of the idea in relation to the historical geography of everyday life and the social practices of those who call themselves geographers.

  The spaces and times of social life

  Durkheim pointed out in The elementary forms of the religious life (1915 ) that space and time are social constructs. The writings of anthropologists such as Hallowell (1955 ), Lévi-Strauss (1963 ), Hall (1966 ) and, more recently, Bourdieu (1977 ) and Moore (1986 ) confirm this view: different societies produce qualitatively different conceptions of space and time (see also Tuan, 1977 ). In interpreting this anthropological evidence, I want to highlight two features.

  First, the social definitions of space and time operate with the full force of objective facts to which all individuals and institutions necessarily respond. For example, in modern societies, we accept clock time, even though such time is a social construct, as an objective fact of daily life; it provides a commonly held standard, outside of any one person’s influence, to which we turn again and again to organize our lives and in terms of which we assess and judge all manner of social behaviors and subjective feelings. Even when we do not conform to it, we know very well what it is that we are not conforming to.

  Second, the definitions of objective space and time are deeply implicated in processes of social reproduction. Bourdieu (1977

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book