The paper examines the processes and the mechanisms of the formation of social space and social time in a civilizational context. The author proposes a model assessing the development of social space – time from preindustrial societies, where it was determined predominantly by the implications nature and geography had for societal development and by the specific characteristics of local cultures – and industrial society, where the diffusion of industrial technologies, material artefacts and forms of social regulation became the main trend influencing this development – through to the present day, when the multiplication of identities forming new social spaces and the communicative, project-oriented and virtual transformative activities of the individual and small groups are gaining priority importance.