In the 1990s, the mavens of high \ntechnology praised in breathless tones a new \u201cplacelessness.\u201d Thanks to \nthe Internet and the forces of globalization, we were told, physical \nlocation would become irrelevant to our public and private lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps these claims were exaggerated. Indeed, place has urgently \nreasserted itself in the last decade \u2014 most powerfully after deadly \nworld events, from terrorist attacks to massive natural disasters. \nStill, a subtler kind of placelessness does seem to be growing. The ties\n of social stability and economic security that bind us to places are \nweak. Commerce and communication have diminished regional and cultural \ndifferences. And many new technologies seem to encourage ignorance of \nthe real world or to tempt us with virtual ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a collection of essays, we consider place and placelessness in modern American life. Ari N. Schulman explains how GPS and location-awareness technologies<\/a> are transforming travel and the way we experience the world around us. And a symposium of essays examines the meaning and importance of place from a variety of angles: memory<\/a>, mobility<\/a>, transportation<\/a>, politics<\/a>, and home<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13743,"template":"","collection_type":[2247],"topics":[2266],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection\/13736"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/collection"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"collection_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection_type?post=13736"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=13736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}