Between points A and B
August 20, 2010 11:34 PM Subscribe
Subways, highways, airports, train stations. Is there a catchall name for places that people only go because they want to go somewhere else? The closest I've come is 'interstitial zone' but that doesn't seem quite right.
'port' implies coastal/maritime and 'hub' implies a star topology -- neither of those necessarily apply to highways, airports, etc. Moreover, some people go to airports because they work there are some people go to train stations to sleep/loiter there so it's not even quite true that people only go to these places on their way to other places.
posted by Rhomboid at 12:14 AM on August 21, 2010
posted by Rhomboid at 12:14 AM on August 21, 2010
Transit nodes
posted by downing street memo at 12:22 AM on August 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by downing street memo at 12:22 AM on August 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
(check out the section for Liminality in Places: "These can range from borders, to no man's lands and disputed territories, to crossroads to perhaps airports or hotels, which people pass through but do not live in.")
posted by unknowncommand at 12:31 AM on August 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by unknowncommand at 12:31 AM on August 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
seconding liminal spaces, but your examples have differing degrees of liminality. I only ever go 35,000 feet in the air because I want to go to another place, but I might go to an airport to meet a friend or because I work there. Similar distinction between subway tunnel and subway station.
posted by acidic at 1:28 AM on August 21, 2010
posted by acidic at 1:28 AM on August 21, 2010
There are also people who come to Oslo's central station to while away their day.
posted by dance at 2:58 AM on August 21, 2010
posted by dance at 2:58 AM on August 21, 2010
Definitely liminal spaces. And I'd argue that a space can be a destination for some, while still being liminal for others. There are people who work in subway tunnels, after all.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:49 AM on August 21, 2010
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:49 AM on August 21, 2010
Subways, highways, airports, train stations.
Stated like that, it sounds like you want more than the stops along the way; you also want the way. You want the vertices and the edges. The "transportation infrastructure" or the "transport grid" is closer to that goal than anything limited to things like stations.
Or are you trying to be cooler or vaguer?
posted by pracowity at 5:13 AM on August 21, 2010
Stated like that, it sounds like you want more than the stops along the way; you also want the way. You want the vertices and the edges. The "transportation infrastructure" or the "transport grid" is closer to that goal than anything limited to things like stations.
Or are you trying to be cooler or vaguer?
posted by pracowity at 5:13 AM on August 21, 2010
Transportation infrastructure? Kinda of engineer-y, so maybe not what you're after.
I'd agree that many of the things you mention could be considered liminal spaces. However, liminality is a much broader concept--the root word means "threshhold" and it refers to transitions of any sort (such as transitions of social status) and not just spatial ones. The concept carries a whole lot of analytical baggage--the purpose of a liminal space is not just one of transit-ion, but transformation.
And some types of spatial displacement can't be considered liminal, in that you're not crossing over into anything that is significantly different from where you were before. If you fly on an airplane from New York to Beijing, you've definitely crossed a limen. If you hop on the freeway to go to the mall in the next suburb over--not so much.
posted by drlith at 5:37 AM on August 21, 2010
I'd agree that many of the things you mention could be considered liminal spaces. However, liminality is a much broader concept--the root word means "threshhold" and it refers to transitions of any sort (such as transitions of social status) and not just spatial ones. The concept carries a whole lot of analytical baggage--the purpose of a liminal space is not just one of transit-ion, but transformation.
And some types of spatial displacement can't be considered liminal, in that you're not crossing over into anything that is significantly different from where you were before. If you fly on an airplane from New York to Beijing, you've definitely crossed a limen. If you hop on the freeway to go to the mall in the next suburb over--not so much.
posted by drlith at 5:37 AM on August 21, 2010
Best answer: My wife and I have talked about it this. We travel a lot and we always refer to these places as "Places you Schlep through" or "Schleppy Places". Our definition is broader though and may even include long hallways. We both enjoy riding on trains so that means train-rides fit this definition less than airports. And, of course, for a friend of ours who goes to airports in his free time to gaze at planes, an airport is the destination. It is a personal thing.
The definition is, essentially, "Places you are in because you want to be somewhere else" as opposed to "Places you want to be in" I don't think there is a definition that succinctly covers this.
posted by vacapinta at 6:06 AM on August 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
The definition is, essentially, "Places you are in because you want to be somewhere else" as opposed to "Places you want to be in" I don't think there is a definition that succinctly covers this.
posted by vacapinta at 6:06 AM on August 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
If you're referring to a category that could include a highway or a network of subway tunnels, I'd suggest "mode of transportation" or "transportation infrastructure".
If you're talking about a subway station or an airport, then, transit point.
If you're talking about something like what vacapinta calls "schleppy places" - that long walk down the corridor that connects the Times Square subway station with the Port Authority subway station is distinctly associated with the idea of a transit hub, for me. Though I don't think I'd use "hub" for any point on such a system. O'Hare feels like a transit hub. New Orleans' Louis Armstrong Airport doesn't.
posted by Sara C. at 6:35 AM on August 21, 2010
If you're talking about a subway station or an airport, then, transit point.
If you're talking about something like what vacapinta calls "schleppy places" - that long walk down the corridor that connects the Times Square subway station with the Port Authority subway station is distinctly associated with the idea of a transit hub, for me. Though I don't think I'd use "hub" for any point on such a system. O'Hare feels like a transit hub. New Orleans' Louis Armstrong Airport doesn't.
posted by Sara C. at 6:35 AM on August 21, 2010
Best answer: Non-places.
In an essay and book of the same title, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (1995), Marc Augé coined the phrase "non-place" to refer to places of transience that do not hold enough significance to be regarded as "places". Examples of a non-place would be a motorway, a hotel room, an airport or a supermarket.[1]
Lifted from his Wikipedia article, but Google "non-places" and there's more.
posted by gmm at 6:46 AM on August 21, 2010 [2 favorites]
In an essay and book of the same title, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (1995), Marc Augé coined the phrase "non-place" to refer to places of transience that do not hold enough significance to be regarded as "places". Examples of a non-place would be a motorway, a hotel room, an airport or a supermarket.[1]
Lifted from his Wikipedia article, but Google "non-places" and there's more.
posted by gmm at 6:46 AM on August 21, 2010 [2 favorites]
I've always called this "travel-space" a term entirely of my own creation, as far as I know, but something I started using shortly after Neuromancer and cyberspace were popularized.
From the perspective of the traveler, there are similarities between all of the places you mention that define travel-space. Close contact with other anonymous people, bad food (menu offerings are weirdly similar throughout most of the world), lack of a proper place to sleep, you spend a lot of time listening to things on head phones, staring into space, public restrooms and a lack of real hygeine. The only place anyone ever reads magazines is in travel space.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:18 AM on August 21, 2010
From the perspective of the traveler, there are similarities between all of the places you mention that define travel-space. Close contact with other anonymous people, bad food (menu offerings are weirdly similar throughout most of the world), lack of a proper place to sleep, you spend a lot of time listening to things on head phones, staring into space, public restrooms and a lack of real hygeine. The only place anyone ever reads magazines is in travel space.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:18 AM on August 21, 2010
'port' implies coastal/maritime [...] neither of those necessarily apply to highways, airports
airwhats? airWHATS?
posted by mendel at 9:21 AM on August 21, 2010 [4 favorites]
airwhats? airWHATS?
posted by mendel at 9:21 AM on August 21, 2010 [4 favorites]
The reason why you have to add 'air' in front is to indicate that you're not talking about coastal/marine docking areas, because the word long predates airplanes and has the distinct connotation of 'a coastal/marine docking area'.
posted by Rhomboid at 9:32 AM on August 21, 2010
posted by Rhomboid at 9:32 AM on August 21, 2010
we call them "places of alienation", in Melvin Webber's sense
posted by ivanka at 10:10 AM on August 21, 2010
posted by ivanka at 10:10 AM on August 21, 2010
The word long predates airplanes and has the distinct connotation of 'a coastal/marine docking area'.
erm River ports? (London has bee a port since 50 to 270 BCE, and its not on a coast though it does handle ocean traffic aka an inland port). The word the distinct connotation of 'a coastal/marine docking area' is Seaport. They are called airports because they handle air traffic not boats.
I would agree that liminal space is closest to the sense you seem to mean, though it refers to much more than parts of the transport infrastructure (which is is probably the closest functional definition).
posted by tallus at 1:27 PM on August 21, 2010
erm River ports? (London has bee a port since 50 to 270 BCE, and its not on a coast though it does handle ocean traffic aka an inland port). The word the distinct connotation of 'a coastal/marine docking area' is Seaport. They are called airports because they handle air traffic not boats.
I would agree that liminal space is closest to the sense you seem to mean, though it refers to much more than parts of the transport infrastructure (which is is probably the closest functional definition).
posted by tallus at 1:27 PM on August 21, 2010
Slight derail, but I just read a book which has at least two important scenes at rest stops. The author says:
posted by timepiece at 1:23 PM on August 24, 2010
Rest stops (and public restrooms) often play major parts in my books. The big thematic answer is that rest stops, and airports, and train stations and places like them, are sort of places that float in space, untethered…they don’t really exist anywhere, in a way. Nobody lives there, and everyone passing through is on his or her way to somewhere else. I liked that idea of impermanence, of unreal places where anything can happen.OK, she doesn't have a term, but I thought you'd be interested.
posted by timepiece at 1:23 PM on August 24, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by sanka at 11:39 PM on August 20, 2010