“Velocity runs through any consideration of capitalist development, from the carrier birds used to share information that Benjamin mentions were in use in the 19th century, to the edge provided by hyper-fast fibre optic cabling used for high-speed transactions (HSTs) in the current period. Further speed is added by the use of software algorithms for financial market decisions, eliminating time wasted on human hesitation and reflection. Conversely, in the sphere of consumption, time spent on purchase is reduced by the replacement of barter, arguably a social interaction. Whatever its purpose, to barter has a social dimension missing from, e.g., making an automated purchase in a supermarket.

Bourgeois history is envisaged as a vast accumulation of things or facts or events, and Benjamin notes the extent to which velocity affects the nature of perception. To slow it down sufficiently is to be able to view life as an inter-connected process, rather than a series of discrete instances, temporal or substantial.

In an overcrowded and claustrophobic city, social space becomes both a geographical and a psychological phenomenon. The latter dimension is perhaps more apparent in a city such as London, where traditionally, different classes, cultures, and ethnicities have tended to live cheek by jowl in many areas, in contrast to the ghettoisation of cities, e.g., in the USA. This heterogeneity is, however, very clearly the target of the next phase of capitalist valorisation in London.”
interesting article @ http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/phantamasgoric-capitalism-benjamins-arcades-today/