Space and Culture

David Harvey: Time and space compression

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David Harvey discussed the issues of "time-space compression" by explaining the possible meanings of spatialization and spatial practices on aesthetic level, political level, social level, as well the level of everyday life during the transformation during the transformative period from ”Fordist system” to “ flexible accumulation of capital” of capitalism In this essay, I will outline his theory and write critical account by giving examples.

Harvey illustrated his view of "time-space compression" by saying that capitalism is transforming himself from “modernity to postmodernity”. He described the turning point as from ”Fordist system” to “ flexible accumulation of capital” by tracing back the “long postwar boom, from 1945 to 1973, was built upon a certain set of labour control practices, technological mixes, consumption habits, and configuration of political-economic power, and that this configuration can reasonably be called Fordist-Keynesian. The break up of this system since 1973 has inaugurated a period of rapid change, flux, and uncertainty. “(Harvey,1990 ,p.124)

What he meant by Fordism is that the “new kind of society could be built simply through the proper application of corporate power. The purpose of the five-dollar, eight-hour day was only in part to secure worker compliance with the discipline required to work the highly productive assembly-line system. It was coincidentally meant to provide workers with sufficient income and leisure time to consume the mass-produced products the corporations were about to turn out in ever vaster quantities" (Harvey,1990 , p.126).

By flexible accumulation, Harvey meant that “"marked by a direct confrontation with the rigidities of Fordism. It rests on flexibility with respect to labor processes, labor markets, products, and patterns of consumption. It is characterized by the emergence of entirely new sectors of production, new ways of providing financial services, new markets, and, above all, greatly intensified rates of commercial, technological, and organizational innovation. (Harvey,1990 , p.147)

Within this framework drawn from Marxism, he entailed a new round of what he call 'time-space compression in the capitalist world that “the time horizons of both private and public decision-making have shrunk, while satellite communication and declining transport costs have made it increasingly possible to spread those decisions immediately over an ever wider and variegated space" (Harvey,1990 , p.147). Harvey further explained Compression of time and space that "I use the word 'compression' because a strong case can be made that the history of capitalism has been characterized by speed-up in the pace of life, while so overcoming spatial barriers that the world sometimes seems to collapse inwards upon us" (Harvey,1990 , p.240).

Harvey’s concern on compression of time and space consisted of several part : Different senses of time; the emphasis on time by social theory; on space by modern aesthetic theory and spatialization and representation. He said “Any system of representation, in fact, is a spatialization of sorts which automatically freezes the flow of experience and in so doing distorts what it strives to represent" (Harvey, P.206).In fact, individual spaces and times in social life, different spatial approaches to our social existence. I would like to use Stephen Chau’s movie “ King of comedy” as an example to illustrate Harvey’s theory.

There is an episode when Stephen Chau was giving a lecture to his fast food restaurant’s employees about the ideal operation by saying that “ Put the tables as near as possible, chair as narrow as possible, make the French Fries as hot as possible so that they will be thirsty and buy a drink; therefore, make the cup of drinks as small as possible, make the ice as big as possible, make the tube as wide as possible so that people will finish their drink really fast and buy a new one” In his saying, the compression of time and space has been concisely represented.

“Put the tables as near as possible, chair as narrow as possible” implies what the spatial setting should be in a fast food restaurant. Without a doubt, fast food restaurant is the product of capitalism to satisfy people’s speedy lifestyle. In a fast food shop, spatial setting must be, according to Stephan Chau’s movie, as stuffed as possible because “fully utilize” the space is one of the keys to generate space to be capital. Given the fact that the number of visitors is equal to the possible income of a business, therefore, stuffing people together with tight spatial setting can make the space “fully-utilized” so that the total income will be rise along with this logic. In addition, this saying also implies the compression of time. In that episode, Stephan Chau didn’t only smartly adjusted the spatial setting of a fast food shop, he also had the market-sensed of what the food should be represented. To apply the compression of time and space, restaurant operation should not let the visitors staying too long, the more they stay, the slower movement of visitors become and the fewer money transaction on beverage becomes and it will finally cause the lose of income.

Harvey said “Time and space as sources of social power” (Harvey,1990 , p.238), for those who have the social power to manipulate the perception of time and space, they, in a Marxist sense, gain the most power, which means the economic one, in a capitalist mode of society. Money, in this sense, is interlocked with space and time as sources of social power. However, Harvey hold a different notion from Marx that time-space compression and the rise of modernism is a cultural force, whereas Marx would say it is only an ideology. Harvey noticed that the financial crisis will lead internationalism of money power, that related to crisis of representation in arts.

I am not going to discuss part of aesthetics illustrated by Harvey in this essay, but what I am trying to say is that Harvey brought up a new perspective which is different from classic Marxism that capitalism itself is a self-reflexive system, it means the system would adjust their own momentum of production by managing their time-line and schedule to avoid Marx’s prophecy of “Business crisis”. Moreover, Marx also wouldn’t pay attention to how the transformation of capitalism would influence cultural representation as his two class views have distinguished culture from the economic basis. However, Harvey noticed that “time-space compression and the rise of modernism as a cultural force” which affect the changes the arts representation from time to time. Harvey traced back the changes of art representation from medieval time, which emphasize at sensuous; Renaissance, which aim at creating the ideology of objectivity, practical and functional image; to Enlightenment which concerns for both the rational mapping of space and its rational division for purposes of administration. His theory was even furthered to “Time-space compression and the postmodern condition” that bring us new perspective to rethink the analytical angle of Marxism could be extending to the level of culture.

Reference

Harvey David, (1990) The Condition of Postmodernity : an enquiry into the origins of cultural change, Oxford [England] ; Cambridge, Mass., USA : Blackwell

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