Hyper-places: new geography of globalization

Hyper-places: new geography of globalization

Tue, 31/01/2017

Publication

Publication of the latest works from Michel Lussault

And what if we looked at the world differently? This is what the book focuses on. It is based on the observation of analyses relating to the evolution of the contemporary world to emphasize its irremediable standardization. The standardization of landscapes, objects and practices, imposed by the globalization of financialized capitalism, would install a smooth and flat space where distances disappear, where each position is like another, where cultural differences fade, where individuals are alienated and their sociability depleted.
However, careful observation immediately reveals much more complex situations. Indeed, it is striking that the world differs more and more in places that are calling themselves “power plugs" of globalization - the attractors and anchors of social life. These are places where individuals co-habit, develop and experience society in all its richness, creativity and intensity of experience. The hyper-places, where humans and material and immaterial realities converge are the emblem of this society: in a willy nilly fashion, societies develop and even new political forms are sketched out. In this way, the world is, on the one hand even more globalised and homogeneous and on the other, more localized and heterogeneous: this tension is constitutive of the new geographies of globalization.
Michel Lussault is a geographer (at the EVS laboratory). Moreover, he has published:
  • "L’Homme spatial"
  • "La construction sociale de l’espace humain" (Seuil, 2007)
  • "L’Avènement du Monde. Essai sur l’habitation humaine de la Terre" (Seuil, 2013)

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