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Jameson described postmodernism as a change in Western urban populations' ‘cognitive maps' of the world. But this seemed to suggest a totalising change in our space-time regimes or ‘social spatialisations’ which does not fit with everyday experiences of contemporary life. There is a continuity of most aspects of social spatialisation (which, denying locality and regionalism, once unified the empire of Western modernity). Yet, even small shifts may have notable impacts. If “space makes a difference” (Sayer), it is more important than ever to go on to specify what is different about space and spatiality today. Only changes in the spatialisation of presence and absence (a dialectic which was at the heart of modernity) can be empirically demonstrated. The distinction between modernity and postmodernity must be argued on this basis. After a survey of ‘what remains the same’, postmodern spatial differences, and why they …