They might think they belong here. The flexible office is not meant to be a place where you nestle in. Alongside skin architecture, we have the standardisation of public consumption a global network of shops selling the same commodities in the same kinds of spaces whether they are located in Manila, Mexico City or London. Put it another way. Attachment and engagement with specific places is dispelled under the aegis of this new regime.
Cities cease to offer the strange, the unexpected or the arousing.
Equally, the accumulation of shared history, and so of collective memory, diminishes in these neutral public spaces. Standardised consumption attacks local meanings in the same way the new work-place attacks ingrown, shared histories among workers. The third expression of the new capitalism is less visible to the eye. High-pressure, flexible work profoundly disorients family life. The familiar press images neglected children, adult stress, geographic uprooting do not quite get to the heart of this disorientation.