From physical to virtual: redefining space in the age of the Metaverse

Nowadays, rapid technological changes and their pervasiveness are leading to changes in all fields of knowledge and geography, as a spatial science par excellence, is bound to be affected. In particular, the concept of space as traditionally understood by the discipline of geography, that is as the physical space where human activities take place, is being challenged by the emergence of a new concept, that of virtual worlds, which are increasingly relational and increasingly less territorial. Indeed, virtual reality and Metaverse generate, in a process that T. L. Friedman would define as the flattening of the world, new territories that escape the traditional framing in determined boundaries, thus moving beyond the spatial and territorial dimension of geography. The contribution intends to provide an overall framework of the theme, reasoning on the evolution of the concept of geographic space and providing some insights into the new virtual worlds, with the aim to encourage a wider reflection of its geographical conceptualization.