Cyberspace, Subjectivity and Decentering: The Political Emancipation As Problem of Time and Space

There are many authors of contemporary social theory, - philosophy, psychoanalysis, anthropology, history, economics, sociology, - that underpin the preponderance of the space category over time category. In economic, cultural and political spheres, we can observe the increasing primacy of “space” in the constitution of subjective experience in relationship with the advent and spread of digital technologies, and their reflections in the field of political culture. Especially from the second half of the 20th century, new relations between time and space are impregnating the production, consumption, labor ethic, world-views, artistic productions, new behaviors, political practices and sensibilities. The new political practices based on immediate subjectivity, which live in an eternal present, that prevents the imagination of the future and their ruptures, can dismiss the idea of political project, totality and universality. A short-term political economy dissolves the representation of the arrow of time and blocks the perception of any dimension beyond the present surface. The “online” metaphor puts us exactly on the line of history. The time flows on this line, but between its banks, we feel only the exigencies of an absolute present time. It no longer offers the prospect of a vanishing point, but the inertial speed. In fact, "we don't have time"; a new kind of space made by instantaneity - the cyberspace - involves us, showing off like all the possible space of action.