Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity - Tapa dura

"Shopping malls, motorways, airport lounges--we are all familiar with these curious spaces which are both everywhere and nowhere. But only now do we have a coherent analysis of their far-reaching effects on public and private experience. Marc Auge has become their anthropologist, and has written a timely and original book."--Patrick Wright"It is indeed very seldom that one finds it difficult to put down a book because of the intellectual excitement it generates. Auge's "Non-Places" is such a book--a powerful message, modestly delivered, which stands out as a unique and refreshing anthropological voice."--"Current Anthropology"

Most people spend an increasing amount of time in soulless, impersonal places: motorways, airports, in front of cash machines, TVs and computers. For the author, this is symptomatic of the experience of "supermodernity" or late-capitalist existence. The invasion of modern life by these "non-places" is central to this work. The book explores the distinction between "place", encrusted with historical meaning and creative of social life, and "non-place", to which individuals are connected in a uniform, bureaucratic manner and where no organic social life is possible. Marc Auge is the author of "Pouvoirs de Vie, "Pouvoirs de Mort", "Genie du Paganisme", Un Ethnogue dans le Metro" and "Domaines et Chateaux".