Home as a pocket of local order: everyday activities and the friction of distance

TLDR

Discourse on the information society emphasizes networks, flows, and mobilities as key organizers of time‑space relations, promoting flexible use of time and space, decoupling from place, and the belief that distance does not matter. This article argues that everyday life’s geographical stationarity and proximity create pockets of local order, highlighting the enduring relevance of distance friction. The authors empirically investigate the home as a pocket of local order by measuring the intensity and spatial reach of people’s corporeal, virtual, and media‑related activities, projects, and contacts using population, household, and individual‑level data.

Abstract

Discourse on the information society currently highlights issues of networks, flows and mobilities as prime organizers and re‐organisers of time—space relationships. Such discourse promotes notions of the flexible use of time and space, of people's decoupling from place and even of the end of geography — the belief that distance does not matter. Yet, in this article we argue that the roles of geographical stationarity and proximity in everyday life — understood as the creation and maintaining of pockets of local order — indicate the continuing and often neglected importance of the friction of distance. We demonstrate this empirically by focusing on the home as a pocket of local order, investigating the intensity and spatial extension of people's everyday activities, projects and contacts — their corporeal, virtual and medial (media‐related) mobilities — with the world outside. We support our thesis with data from the population, household and individual levels.