Understanding the Hybridization of Everyday Activities from a Time-Geographic Perspective

Abstract

In contrast to the dichotomous distinction between offline and online activity in much previous research, we argue for hybridization as a key feature of the digitalized postpandemic society, shaping and constraining the everyday lives and activities of individuals in new, unforeseen ways. The current understanding of the complex ways in which hybridization plays out and reorders everyday life is limited, partly due to a lack of relevant conceptualizations and methodological tools. The aim of this article is to further develop the time-geographic approach, as theory and method, to understand and visualize the hybridization of everyday activities. The article contributes to previous literature on everyday life digitalization in several important respects. The notions of hybrid activities, grounds, and sequences are proposed for an enhanced theoretical understanding of hybridization. Moreover, we argue that interrelated hybrid constraints shape the spatiotemporal organization of everyday activities. The concept of pocket of mediated order is proposed as a new domain of everyday activities in the hybrid era, supporting the accomplishment of everyday projects, yet also transforming the local pockets of order. Finally, drawing on a real family case, we refine the time-geographical notation system to capture and visualize the full complexity of hybridization in the time–space setting of daily life.

现有文献主要研究了线下活动和线上活动的区别。本文认为, 复合化是数字化后疫情社会的主要特点, 并以不可预见的新方式塑造和约束了个人日常生活和活动。然而, 我们并不理解复合化影响和重新配置日常生活的复杂方式, 部分原因是缺乏相关的概念和方法。本文旨在推动时间-地理研究, 以此作为理论和方法, 来理解和可视化日常活动的复合化。本文在日常生活数字化的几个重要研究领域做出贡献。提出了复合活动、基础和排列的概念, 旨在加强对复合化的理论理解。复合的各种约束相互关联, 从而塑造了日常活动的时空配置。本文提出“小区域排列”的概念, 它是复合时代下日常活动的新领域, 支撑了日常项目的完成, 同时也改变了小区域排列。最后, 根据一个真实的家庭案例, 本文完善了时间地理表述体系, 籍此获取并可视化了日常生活时空环境的复合化的各种复杂性。

En contraste con la distinción dicotómica entre las actividades offline y online de gran parte de la investigación precedente, apoyamos la hibridación como un rasgo clave de la sociedad pospandémica que, de modos nuevos e impredecibles, configura y restringe las vidas cotidianas y las actividades de los individuos. La comprensión actual de las maneras complejas como la hibridación juega con la vida cotidiana y la reordena, es limitada, en parte debido a la falta de conceptualizaciones relevantes y herramientas metodológicas. El propósito de este artículo es seguir desarrollando el enfoque temporal-geográfico como teoría y método, para entender y visualizar la hibridación de las actividades cotidianas. El artículo contribuye a la literatura precedente sobre la digitalización de la vida cotidiana en varios aspectos importantes. Se proponen las nociones de actividades híbridas, terrenos y secuencias en pro de un entendimiento teórico fortalecido de la hibridación. Aún más, argüimos que los limitantes híbridos interrelacionados configuran la organización espaciotemporal de las actividades cotidianas. Se propone el concepto de bolsa de orden mediado como un nuevo dominio de las actividades cotidianas en la era híbrida, que respalda los logros de los proyectos cotidianos, aunque también propicia la transformación de las bolsas de orden locales. Finalmente, a partir de un caso familiar real, refinamos el sistema de notación temporal-geográfico para captar y visualizar la total complejidad de la hibridación en un escenario espaciotemporal de la vida cotidiana.

Key Words:

• digitally transformed daily activities
• information and communication technologies (ICTs)
• mediated togetherness
• pockets of mediated order
• time geography

关键词:

• 数字化日常活动
• 信息和通信技术
• 协议团结
• 小区域协议排列
• 时间地理

Palabras clave:

• actividades cotidianas transformadas digitalmente
• convivencia mediada
• bolsas del orden mediadas
• geografía del tiempo
• tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones (TIC)

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The survey data used in this article were supported by the National Science Foundation of China (42071203 and 42271199). Chunjiang Li was also supported by China Scholarship Council (202106010139).

Notes on contributors

Chunjiang Li

CHUNJIANG LI is a PhD student in Human Geography at Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. E-mail: [email protected]. His research focus is digital transformation of daily life from the perspective of time geography. He also contributes in the practical fields of fifteen-minute city and life circle planning.

Eva Thulin

EVA THULIN is Professor in Human Geography at the University of Gothenburg, SE 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include time-geography, digitalization, and how the ubiquitous presence of digital spheres restructures people’s everyday lives, their sociality, and uses of time and place. Research topics include the leisure-time shifts and relocations occurring in the Swedish population due to digitalization; the recoupling of online sociality and the mounting binds and constraints associated with massive use of mobile media; and the implications of mobile ICTs on the boundaries of work and family life.

Yanwei Chai

YANWEI CHAI is Professor in the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences at Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include spatiotemporal behavior, life circle planning, and smart cities, mainly focusing on how human behavior is influenced by the built environment and how human behavior reshapes the spatial and temporal resources of the city.