Status Updates From Non-Places: Introduction to...

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This idea echoes Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception, which contrasts geometric space (abstract) with anthropological space (existential, tied to lived experience). De Certeau further likens space to language: just as a word gains meaning through speech, space is shaped by human action, context, and time.

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In The Practice of Everyday Life, Michel de Certeau distinguishes between place (a fixed, ordered location) and space (a “frequented place” animated by human movement and interaction). A street, for instance, is a place when mapped by planners—but becomes a space when pedestrians transform it through their presence.

"As soon as his passport or identity card has been checked, the passenger for the next flight, freed from the weight of his luggage and everyday responsibilities, rushes into the 'duty-free' space; not so much, perhaps, in order to buy at the best prices as to experience the reality of his momentary availability, his unchallengeable position as a passenger in the process of departing."

"...by totalling all the air, rail and motorway routes, the mobile cabins called ‘means of transport’ ..., the airports and railway stations, hotel chains, leisure parks, large retail outlets, and finally the complex skein of cable and wireless networks that mobilize extraterrestrial space for the purposes of a communication so peculiar that it often puts the individual in contact only with another image of himself."

"Place and non-place are rather like opposed polarities: the first is never completely erased, the second never totally completed; they are like palimpsests on which the scrambled game of identity and relations is ceaselessly rewritten. But non-places are the real measure of our time; one that could be quantified - with the aid of a few conversions between area, volume and distance..."

"We should add that the same things apply to the non-place as to the place. It never exists in pure form; places reconstitute themselves in it; relations are restored and resumed in it;..."

"The hypothesis advanced here is that supermodernity produces non-places, meaning spaces which are not themselves anthropological places and which, unlike Baudelairean modernity, do not integrate the earlier places: instead these are listed, classified, promoted to the status of ‘places of memory’, and assigned to a circumscribed and specific position."

"If a place can be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity, then a space which cannot be defined as relational, or historical, or concerned with identity will be a non-place."

"‘Bass line’: the expression Starobinski employs to evoke ancient places and rhythms is significant: modernity does not obliterate them but pushes them into the background. They are like gauges indicating the passage and continuation of time. They survive like the words that express them and will express them in future. Modernity in art preserves all the temporalities of place,..."

Language shapes how we define and experience place. It doesn’t just describe space—it sets the boundaries of spatiality itself.

Modernity is defined by a polyphony of futures and existences, all resonating within a shared framework: a linear progression of history acting as the dominant bass line, while cyclical aspects of the world hum in the background of daily life. These rhythms—progress and recurrence—create a tension that shapes how societies perceive time, identity, and possibility.

"The presence of the past in a present that supersedes it but still lays claim to it: it is this reconciliation that Jean Starobinski sees the essence of modernity."

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Monuments alone can’t reverse this. The real question is whether we’ll redesign spaces to reclaim social vitality or accept passivity as the price of progress.

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The result? A paradox: even as monuments and historical sites are preserved, their ability to invite active participation fades. They’re no longer living spaces but curated backdrops, while the urban fabric shifts toward transience and consumption. The consequence isn’t just less foot traffic—it’s a quieter, less engaged society.

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But in supermodernity, these spaces often become static relics, overshadowed by “non-places” like malls and transit zones, which prioritize function over interaction.

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Augé’s idea of “anthropological places”—spaces rich with cultural and social meaning—highlights how traditional hubs of community (town squares, markets, religious sites) once fostered connection.

Yet, this pursuit exists in tension with the rise of “non-places”: transient, impersonal spaces like airports, shopping centers, and transit hubs that prioritize efficiency and consumption over social engagement. While these projections of identity may secure economic and cultural capital, they also risk accelerating the erosion of traditional communal bonds, highlighting a paradox at the heart of modern urban life.

Cities and states in the modern era deliberately craft and project an image of longevity and cultural distinctiveness to attract wealth, foster social stability, and cultivate a sense of belonging. This curated identity often relies on symbolic spaces—what Marc Augé terms “anthropological places”—that reinforce heritage, community, and continuity.

"Louis Marin, for his part, borrows Furetière’s Aristotelian definition of place (‘Primary and immobile surface of a body which surrounds another body or, to speak more clearly, the space in which a body is placed’) and quotes his example: ‘Every body occupies its place.’ "

The ability to define a space boundaries, especially in relation to other bodies of spaces, is diffcult owing to the fact that different spaces can exist inside or overlap with each other.