Dodge, Martin and Kitchin, Rob (2004) Flying through code/space: the real virtuality of air travel. Environment and Planning A, 36 (2). pp. 195-211. ISSN 0308-518X

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Abstract

Commercial air travel is a key global industry facilitating the complex daily movements of planes, people, goods, and services across the world. In this paper we analyse contemporary air travel through the conceptualisation of a culture of real virtuality.We contend that air travel now consists of passage through 'code/space'. Such code/space includes travel websites, check-in, security check- points, flight decks, air-traffic control, immigration, and customs checkpoints, which together form assemblages that define the practices and experiences of air travel. Code/space is qualitatively differ- ent to coded space, in which software influences the production of space, in that code and space are mutually constitutedöproduced through one another. This mutual constitution is dyadic so that if either the code or space 'fail', the production of space 'fails'. Our formulation of code/space is non- deterministic and nonuniversal, and how code/space operates and is experienced is embodied through the performances and interactions of the people within the space (between people, and between people and code). In this sense, code/space is constantly in a state of becoming. We illustrate the nature of code/space, and the discursive regimes that support its production, and demonstrate how the code/spaces of an air travel are simultaneously local and global and induce Castells' notions of 'space of flows' and 'timeless time'.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Dodge M, Kitchin R, 2004. The definitive, peer-reviewed and edited version of this article is published in Environment and Planning A, volume 36, issue 2, pages 195-211, 2004, [DOI:10.1068/a3698]
Keywords:	Flying; code/space; real virtuality; air travel; coded space; space of flows; timeless time; Castell;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > National Institute for Regional and Spatial analysis, NIRSA
Item ID:	3877
Depositing User:	Prof. Rob Kitchin
Date Deposited:	19 Sep 2012 15:28
Journal or Publication Title:	Environment and Planning A
Publisher:	Pion
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://www.envplan.com/index.html
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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