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This paper discusses the concept spacetime in the context of some traditional notions of space and time in sociological and anthropological literature. The paper argues that the concept of spacetime, together with other post‐Newtonian insights, can provide a useful metaphor with which to interpret societal phenomena. The paper concludes by illustrating the argument with a brief review of the ethnohistory of a Caribbean territory.

I / Causality and Time -- Causal Models and Space-Time Geometries -- Temporally Symmetric Causal Relations in Minkowski Space-Time -- Notes on the Causal Theory of Time -- Earman on the Causal Theory of Time -- Kant's Formulation of the Laws of Motion -- On Travelling Backward in Time -- The Flow of Time -- II / Geometry of Space and Time -- Poincaré's Philosophy of Space -- On the Structure of Space-Time -- Topology, Cosmology and Convention -- Grünbaum on the Conventionality of Geometry -- Reflections on a Relational Theory of Space -- The Ontology of the Curvature of Empty Space in the Geometrodynamics of Clifford and Wheeler -- Relativity Principles, Absolute Objects and Symmetry Groups -- Nondirected Light Signals and the Structure of Time -- Coordinate-Free Relativity -- Some Open Problems in the Philosophy of Space and Time -- The Naive Conception of the Topology of the Surface of a Body.

ARCHITECTURE AND "THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT" ARE NOW INFUSED BY A SHOPPING-MALL CULTURE THAT DEPRIVES LIVED SPACES OF BOTH COHERENCE AND COMPLEXITY. IN THIS ESSAY, THE AUTHOR ARGUES THAT THIS CONCEPTUALIZATION OF SPACE IS NOW WIDELY SHARED AND LIES BEHIND THE APPROACH OF ERNESTO LACLAU'S "NEW REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION OF OUR TIME." SHE IS CONCERNED THAT SUCH SCHOLARS VIEW GEOGRAPHIC SPACE AS A PASSIVE AND DEPOLITICIZED ARENA, SEEING ONLY TIME AS THE DOMAIN OF CONTRADICTION AND DYNAMISM. SHE POINTS OUT THAT RADICAL AND FEMINIST GEOGRAPHERS HAVE UNDERMINED ANY SUCH DICHOTOMY OF SPACE AND TIME. THEY HAVE SHOWN NOT ONLY THAT SPACE IS SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED BUT THAT SOCIETY IS SPATIALLY CONSTRUCTED; THEREFORE, CHAOS, CONTRADICTION, AND CHANGE ARE INTEGRAL TO THE SPATIAL.

Interculturality has been one of key concepts in phenomenological literature. It seeks to clarify the philosophical basis for intercultural exchange within the horizon of our life-world. The essays in this volume focus on the themes around space, time and culture from the perspectives of Chinese and Western phenomenologists. Though the discussions begin with classical phenomenological texts in Husserl, Heidegger or Merleau-Ponty, they extend to the problems of Daoism and Buddhism, as well as to sociology and analytic philosophy. The collection of this volume is a fruitful result of inter-cultural exchange of phenomenology