Representing distance, consuming distance

Title: Representing Distance, Consuming Distance

Abstract: Distance is a condition for corporeal and virtual mobilities, for desired and actual travel, but yet it has received relatively little attention as a theoretical entity in its own right. Understandings of and assumptions about distance are present in theoretical and empirical elaborations on mobility, but these remain largely implicit and unchallenged (Bauman 1998). This talk will endeavour to unmask distance as a theoretical entity by exploring ways in which distance can be understood and by discussing distance through its representations and consumption. Often thought of as static and tangible, distance remains a social construct that is closely related to space and mobility - it is not just a simple measure of physical difference that is above and beyond social and theoretical importance. Thus distance must be understood through its relations to mobility and its social context. Such an understanding can be approached through representations, as distance is being represented in various ways, most noticeably in maps and through the notions of space and Otherness. The question this talk subsequently asks is whether these representations of distance are being consumed in the contemporary society, in the same way as places, media, cultures and status are being consumed (Urry 1995, Featherstone 2007). An exploration of distance and its representations through contemporary consumption theory could expose what role distance plays in forming the spatialities and mobilities of society and culture.