SPACE, TIME, AND THE (UN)DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTEGRATED REALITY

Abstract

Geography has assisted the dialogue between man and the world since classical antiquity. Investigationsfocusing on relationships that take place between unity and diversity, as revealed by the world, are amongthe classical subjects of this knowledge transformed into modern science. Modern science was accomplishedby the ability of the bourgeois revolutions in ensuring the triumph of human reason against myths and beliefsthat, for centuries, condemned man to a condition of servitude. To this end, there was a series of scientificimprovements to meet the demands of a bourgeoisie in need of knowledge, essential to the domination of natureas well as to its transformation into commodities. In this process of adaptation of reality to the demands ofproduction, time and environment were decanted and classified according to virtues and faults attributed tothem previously. The environment was classified as an immobilizer of social dynamics. This category ofanalysis has been linked to studies which are prone to linear perspectives, as time took on a mediating conceptualrole in which the contradiction was present. To break this mistaken perspective, the environment isbeing reinserted into critical social theories in order to overcome the reductionism of such arbitrary separation.