On Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity

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We continue working through the 2024/25 syllabus with the first theme, The Future of Place, asking, is politics possible without a sense of place. We discuss Marc Augé's much-referenced 1992 work on 'non-places': airports, shopping malls, corporate hotels, motorways... We discuss:

Are non-places proliferating, and what would this mean for society and politics?

Are non-places the spatial accompaniment to post-politics, to the foreclosure of political contestation?

Is the distinction between non-places and places/spaces useful?

Is there anything to the notion of a hyper- or super-modernity?

Is Augé too deterministic? Does he miss how non-places can be places for culture or politics?

Links:

2024/25 Bungacast Syllabus (with links to readings)