Time-space compression

Time-space compression

Time-space compression is a term used to describe processes that seem to accelerate the experience of time and reduce the significance of distance during a given historical moment. Geographer David Harvey used the term in "The Condition of Postmodernity", where it refers to "processes that . . . revolutionize the objective qualities of space and time" (240).

Time-space compression often refers to technologies that seem to accelerate or elide spatial and temporal distances, including technologies of communication (telegraph, telephones, fax machines, Internet), travel (rail, cars, trains, jets) and economics (the need to overcome spatial barriers, open up new markets, speed up production cycles, and reduce the turn-over time of capital). According to theorists such as Paul Virilio, time-space compression represents an essential facet of contemporary life: "Today we are entering a space which is speed-space ... This new other time is that of electronic transmission, of high-tech machines, and therefore, man is present in this sort of time, not via his physical presence, but via programming" (qtd. in "Decron" 71). Virilio also uses the term dromology to describe "speed-space." The present moment, which some would characterize as postmodern, presents one example of an historical period marked by time-space compression.

Theorists generally identify two historical periods in which time-space compression occurred: the period from the mid-nineteenth century to the beginnings of the First World War, and the end of the twentieth century. In both of these time periods, according to Jon May and Nigel Thrift, “there occurred a radical restructuring in the nature and experience of both time and space . . . both periods saw a significant acceleration in the pace of life concomitant with a dissolution or collapse of traditional spatial co-ordinates” (7).

References

*Decron, Chris. "Speed-Space." Virilio Live. Ed. John Armitage. London: Sage, 2001. 69-81.
*Harvey, David. "The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change". Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1990.
*May, Jon and Nigel Thrift. "Introduction." TimeSpace: Geographies of Temporality. NY: Routledge, 2001. p. 1-46.

Further reading

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