AGENDA DU LaSSP : Conférence de David Morley

The Geography of Newness: Globalisation, Modernity and Technology

This talk addresses the `newness` associated with globalisation and modernity as a spatial as much as a temporal phenomenon, strongly associated with particular geographical regions, which functions to inscribe a particular spatialisation of history. The talk will also explore the problems of the abstracted Grand Narratives which currently dominate the field of globalisation studies and will consider alternative approaches, derived from Area Studies, which relativise the taken for granted cartography of ‘modernisation`.

The differing spatio-temporal roles commonly ascribed to technology in contemporary models of globalisation/modernisation will also be explored here – from that of constituting a new technological era of instantaneous communication, to those of transcending geography and providing for the de-territorialisation of social life and the overcoming of social divisions.

In this context, the viability and consequences of different procedures for distinguishing between spatial areas and historical periods will be examined , alongside   the empirical evidence for the continued inter-mixing of areas, cultures,   times, and technologies. The talk will also address some often neglected infrastructural questions concerning the material dimensions of communications.

David Morley is Professor of Communications in the Dept of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is the author of Spaces of Identity: Global Media, Electronic Landscapes and Cultural Boundaries (Routledge 1995, with K Robins); Home Territories : Media, Mobility and Identity (Routledge 2001) and most recently, Media, Modernity and Technology (Routledge 2006)