For Marc Augé, a non-place comes into existence when human beings do not recognise themselves in it. (see place / identity) Non-places begin with uprootedeness -- uprooted nineteenth century countrymen, migrants, refugees, etc. They provide the "passive joys of identity loss." While anthropological places create the organically social, so non-places create solitary contractuality. (p.94) Thus a space which cannot be defined as relational, or historical, or concerned with identity will be a non-place, and these non-places are the real measure of our time. (pp.77-79)
"Today all of our circulation and information spaces can be considered as non-places." These spaces of supermodernity "deal only with individuals, but they are identified (name, occupation, place of birth, address) only on entering or leaving" (p.111) ...in the manner of "immense parentheses."