Mobility, Space and Social Structuration in the Second Modernity and Beyond
Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftliche Fakultät
The recent social structuration theories speak about liquefaction. However, these liquid models fail to deliver satisfactory explanation of contemporary sociation; the thesis of this article is that this is due to insufficient reflection on space-time. Three points are to be discussed: 1) the questionable distinction between social and geographical space, which these models use to diagnose current patterns of social structuration as resulting from new time-space experience; 2) the certainty of periodisation, which privileges time over space; and 3) the persistence of a ‘container’ understanding of space. It is necessary to work out a better understanding of the current time-space relations on the one hand, and to develop a method to grasp conceptually the meta change on the other hand. The second can be achieved with the help of the theory of reflexive modernization. This theory, however, does not offer much insight on the exact time-space relations, thus the first postulate requires further empirical research. The article, basing on a study of mobile transnational professionals attempts to fulfill both postulates and to work out its own theoretical frameworks for researching mobility, spatialisation and social structuration.
