The global body in sites: stasis and flow Runette Kruger Tshwane University of Technology krugerr@tut.ac.za This article investigates the effect of globalisation on six ‘global bodies’, namely the cosmopolitan, the neo-nomad, the worker, the immigrant worker, the homeless person and the protester. These bodies are discussed in relation to the architectural environment, or more specifically, the broader built environment, they frequent (by choice or by necessity), and furthermore hinges on their relative degrees of flow and stasis, as well as the concept of centre / margin. Globalisation establishes some built environments as centres, and relegates others to the margin, and can be seen to directly determine the mobility of the bodies interacting with these environments. Keywords: Flow, stasis, global body. Die globale ligaam in plek: stase en vloei Hierdie artikel ondersoek die effek van globalisering op ses ‘wereld l iggame’, naamlik die kosmopolitaan, die neo-nomadiese reisiger, die werker, die immigrante-werker, die hawelose persoon en die protesteerder. Hierdie liggame word bespreek in terme van die argitektoniese-, of eerder, die grootskaalse beboude-, omgewing waarin hul hulself bevind, hetsy uit eie wil of nie. Die bespreking van die ses globale liggame neem verder die konsep van middel / periferie in ag. Globalisering bepaal dat sekere omgewings as ‘sentraal’ funksioneer, terwyl ander omgewings periferaal word, ‘n toestand van sake wat die globale liggaam se mobiliteit direk affekteer. Sleutelwoorde: Vloei, stase, globale liggaam. In this article, the ways in which the global body has been and continues to be affected by globalisation, particularly by the phenomenon of flow, will be discussed in relation to postmodern urban environments. The influence of globalisation on urban environments, and subsequently on the mobility of the ‘global body’, is not related to architecture as such. Reference is made to specific parks, and the notion of ‘non-space’ is related to public spaces of transit, such as airports. This article might be argued to focus on processes (by nature abstract), on a meta-structural scale, and on the urban ‘spaces’ that are the sites of such processes. Lastly, specific maps of urban centres as well as of the globe serve to index a particular kind of global body, and a particular type of global space. The global body is here viewed on the scale of the city building or park, a city map, and ultimately a world map. Flow The notion of the global body, as developed here, can be related to the meta-phenomenon of flow, which itself unfolded as part of the mid-twentieth century ‘spatial turn’. The so-called spatial turn gained momentum during the twentieth century and can be read as a reaction, reflected in social and cultural theory as well as in philosophy, against the dominance (for some two centuries) of temporal and historical models which had been used to analyse and theorise social phenomena. The ‘temporal’ bias and preponderance of historical models in the humanities in the west culminated during the nineteenth century (Casey 1998: x), as exemplified in Marxist theory, which is predicated on an historical model of progressive stages of social development. Turning their focus on space, and avoiding a temporal treatment of social phenomena, Michel Foucault (1995[1975]), Michel de Certeau (1984[1980]), and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (1993[1987]), for instance, characterise late modern space as the site for politicised minority agency (Genocchio 1996: 35-36).