A Reconsideration of Personal Boundaries in Space-Time

Abstract

An appropriate image of the person for geographers is an entity with fluctuating boundaries that reach through space and time in constantly changing patterns. Such extensions through space and time are not merely “internal” or psychological states of being in the world; they are integral to economic, political, and cultural processes. Human extensibility is fundamental to the ongoing processes of social structuration in which social practices are constitutive of social structures and social structures constrain persons and practices. Whereas the body is a point‐entity located at a particular space‐time, important aspects of personhood are not confined to this point entity. Authority depends on ranges of sensation, knowledge, and action through diverse communication systems. While extensibility is partly determined by the body, as categorized by society, the distinction between presence and absence can be considered as a gradation rather than a binary opposition. Extensibility transcends the body, allowing a person to overcome social and physical limitations and to participate in distant social contexts which affect his or her personal situation and shape social processes.

Communication, télécommunication et centralité

“…La télévision devient un vecteur important de socialisation, qui s'apparente même au rôle tenu par les lieux de rassemblement (Adams, 1992).…”

“…Conséquemment à la prolifération dans la sphère privée des technologies de communication à distance, on peut postuler que l'expérience de la ville s'est aussi individualisée. Elle peut se faire physiquement, à partir d'« ailleurs », puisque les télétechnologies autorisent un détachement, une distanciation permettant à l'individu de transcender le lieu immédiat tout en s'immisçant dans des contextes sociaux éloignés (Adams, 1995). Faisant écho à ces propos, estime que :…”

Matter(s) of interest: artefacts, spacing and timing

“…Although Häger-strand pointed out that landscapes are not necessar-ily local, time-geography could benefit from further conceptual development of the relations between material entities that are separated in physical space (cf. Adams, 1995). This, I believe, is important because processes such as globalization and technological advances have increased opportunities for action at a distance and reconfigured the meaning of the words near and far in everyday parlance and scientific discourse (Amin and Thrift, 2002;Callon and Law, 2004).…”

“…They thereby effectively resolve the presence/absence binary characteristic of time-geography (Hägerstrand, 1975;Adams, 1995). Two kinds of items are particularly important in this process of delegation: mobile telephones and notebooks.…”

“…The latter include, for instance, the impossibility of two bodies or objects occupying exactly the same position in physical space at a given moment in time and the indivisibility of the human body. Simple as they may seem, these basic conditions have profound implications, including a presence/ absence binary: corporeal presence at one location implies absence elsewhere (Adams, 1995).…”