De omstandigheid van posmoderniteit, met als centrale vraag die David Harvey in

hoeverre de opkomst van het postmodernisme als cultureel fenomeen, de flexibele

kapitaalaccumulatie, en vernieuwing van de compressie van tijd en ruimte in de
organisatie van kapitalisme, zijn tot elkaar verhouden.

The Condition of Postmodernity (David Harvey)

How do we experience space and time? Time-space compression in the organization of
capitalism: the experience of space and time as one singularly important mediating link
between the dynamisms of capitalism’s historical-geographical development and
complex processes of cultural production and ideological transformation.
P. 45.

“Flexible accumulation, as I tentatively call it, is marked by a direct confrontation with

the rigidities of Fordism. It rests on flexibility with respect to labour processes, labour
markets, product 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.” “It has also entailed a new round of what I shall call ‘time-
space compression’ in the capitalist world 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.”
“All of this has put a premium on ‘smart’ and innovative entrepreneurialism, aided and
abetted by all the accoutrements of swift, decisive, and well-informed decision-
making.”
“Accurate and up-to-date information is now a very highly valued commodity. Access
to, and control over information, couples with a strong capacity for instantaneous
response to changes in exchange rates, fashions and tastes, and moves by competitors is
more essential to the centralized co-ordination of flar-flung corporate interests.”