ABSTRACT
One of the most challenging questions regarding the transformation of space refers to media and communications: How do digital media change space and our experience of space? This question is often discussed in isolation, losing sight of its overarching context. This chapter develops a theory of the refiguration of society by digital media and their infrastructures and provides an understanding of how profound today’s media-related changes are for the individual as well as institutions, organizations, and communities. First, the chapter briefly highlights how we should not regard deep mediatization as a process that is homogeneous within a society, or even across societies, but as something that is domain specific. On the basis of these reflections, the chapter develops a figurational approach to media and communications in order to explain how we can imagine a refiguration of society as part of deep mediatization. To conclude, the chapter refers to the consequences of this for an analysis of media and space. In sum, the main argument is that the media-related transformations of space must be placed in the broader context of deep mediatization’s contribution to societal transformation.
