Social Perception of Time, Distance and High-Speed Transportation

Abstract

The aim of this article is to throw light on the link between high-speed means of transportation - especially the TGV - and the present-day temporal structures of society. The first part describes how the industrial timeis born out of industrial capitalism and its conceptions of the work. This model changes but it is still very topical, regarding certain important aspects of contemporary socioeconomic structures. Nevertheless, this permanence can’t explain the whole current evolutions. The second part shows how high-speed travel behaviours - considering only professional purposes - also reveal some mains breaks with the model of industrial time. The third part of the article looks into the model of fragmented time, which appears gradually surimposed to industrial time. Finally, the fourth part presents the concepts of high speed as an opportunityand high speed as a necessity. This dual reading of the ways in which we can deal with the distance in high speed means of transportation appears adapted to the double temporal structure which prevails today.