Non-Places

An ever-increasing proportion of our lives is spent in supermarkets, airports and hotels, on motorways or in front of TVs, computers and cash machines. This invasion of the world by what Marc Augé calls “non-space” results in a profound alteration of awareness: something we perceive, but only in a partial and incoherent manner. Augé uses the concept of “supermodernity” to describe a situation of excessive information and excessive space. In this fascinating essay he seeks to establish an intellectual armature for an anthropology of supermodernity.“Unsettling, elegantly written and illuminating: essential reading for anyone seeking to understand our supermodern condition.”—PD Smith, Guardian

“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 Augé 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. Augé’s Non-Places is such a book—a powerful message, modestly delivered, which stands out as a unique and refreshing anthropological voice.”—Current AnthropologyMarc Augé is Director of Studies at the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris.