Time & Society recent issues

Editorial

Hassan, R., Rosa, H. — 2009-09-02

Domestic orchestration: Rhythms in the mediated home

Nansen, B., Arnold, M., Gibbs, M. R., Davis, H. — 2009-09-02

The steady proliferation of media and connectivity reconstitutes domestic rhythms in ways that make them emergent, relational, negotiated, and multiple. In an attempt to capture some of the entangled dynamics characteristic of contemporary domestic chronometrics (time-measured), chronaesthetics (time-felt) and chronomanagement (time-ordered), we use the terms ‘reticular rhythms’ and ‘technologies of reticulation’. In our analysis of interviews with five families over three years we identify four interrelated forms of reticular rhythms that together constitute the rhythms of contemporary domestic life. These four are: a polyphonic drone, a polychronic dissonance, an asynchronous consonance, and an orchestrated performance. Each of these forms of rhythm are described and illustrated.

Discourse analysis of a childcare drama: Or the interfaces between paradoxical discourses of time in the context of social work

Fahlgren, S. — 2009-09-02

This article presents a discourse analysis of a childcare drama. The purpose is to focus upon paradoxical discourses of social work that include different time orders. Social work seems to be carried out according to a linear time order implicitly assuming improvement over time. At the same time the social worker is supposed to assist the individual according to the individual’s current subjective needs within a time order referred to as the time of the mindful body. It is of great significance to critically reflect upon the power of these discourses that set the framework of social work thus creating ethical dilemmas.

Accumulating care: Mothers beyond the conflicting temporalities of caring and work

Maher, J. — 2009-09-02

Women who mother and undertake paid work are often represented as moving between separate spheres of caring and paid labour whilst facing intractable temporal conflicts. Despite this conflict, often represented as a ‘care time deficit’, mothers in western societies have continued their movement into the paid workforce. I examine the different temporal modes of paid work and caring labour that women undertake and argue that there are temporal commonalities as well as conflicts in paid work and care. I propose that women’s diverse labours across these spheres are directed towards accumulating care, and suggest women may be generating a new temporal framework for work and care beyond conflicting schedules. I argue that women’s practices do occur across complex and potentially conflictive temporalities but are unified by a focus on the accumulation of care. Recognizing women’s capacity to draw together and synthesize work across diverse temporal orders may allow for greater understanding of how women create and use time to give care.

Gendered relations to working time and union agreements: Contradictory outcomes in acute and community nursing settings in Australia

Willis, E., Henderson, J., Toffoli, L., Walter, B. — 2009-09-02

The intensification of working time is a major impediment to the recruitment and retention of nurses worldwide. This article examines the outcomes of negotiations between the Australian Nursing Federation (South Australia), the major nursing union and the South Australian Government, with a particular focus on working-time tools introduced to deintensify nurses’ labour. The article compares two strategies negotiated by the union: one for public sector nurses working in acute hospitals where the throughput of patients is short term, the other in the community sector where most patients have chronic mental or physical conditions and their care requirements are long term. The outcomes of the two tools for reducing work intensification reflect gendered relations to time, but are contradictory in terms of control over the labour process. The tool used in the acute sector is highly successful in reducing work intensity but shifts control of the labour process to management. The community-based tool provides nurses with control over the labour process, but is less successful in reducing work intensification or working hours.

Working status and leisure: An analysis of the trade-off between solitary and social time

Kraaykamp, G., van Gils, W., van der Lippe, T. — 2009-09-02

Paid labour is often said to come at a price. Using time-budget information on 9063 Dutch respondents and their partners, we investigated whether couples working full time economize on their solitary and social time budget. Results show that individuals who are part of a full-time working couple spend a smaller share of their available time budget on social interaction with relatives and friends than individuals from single-earner families or combination households. Instead, in full-time working couples, partners prefer to spend a relatively large share of their leisure time on institutionalized social interaction, such as volunteering, cultural participation and attending sports events.

'Agency time': A case study of the postindustrial timescape and its impact on the domestic sphere

Ladner, S. — 2009-09-02

This article investigates the postindustrial temporal landscape, or ‘timescape’, through a case study of a specific industry: Internet advertising. The theoretical portion of this article finds that the expansion of digital information communication technologies (ICTs) has radically transformed time keeping into ‘calculation’ in many of today’s workplaces. Additionally, globalized production has also rendered many locally constructed symbols of time less relevant. The author contrasts these events to the domestic time, which is constructed through contextual events and symbols, thereby making the postindustrial timescape further estranged from the domestic than even the Fordist timescape. The empirical portion of this article summarizes qualitative findings of time reckoning among Internet advertising workers. Time is not constructed out of local, material experiences but through digital means. This estranges domestic time even further, which has unintended but differential gendered effects. The implications of these findings include the emergence of a new sense of precarity, one based on ‘productivity’ of time spent on work. Additionally, a potentially new ‘glass ceiling’ could be emerging, based on the increased levels of home-based paid work. Women’s domestic responsibilities may make it relatively more difficult for them to advance when home-based paid work is expected.

The relationship between timing of entry into a foreign market, entry mode decision and market selection

Gallego, M. A., Hidalgo, E. R., Acedo, F. J., Casillas, J. C., Moreno, A. M. — 2009-09-02

Companies that decide to internationalize have to respond to some basic questions, such as where and how to carry out their strategy. Classic literature regarding the internationalization process has focused on entry mode and market selection decisions. However, the recent international entrepreneurship perspective considers a new dimension: timing of entry. This new approach has opened up a new line of research, arguing that time is a dimension that must be explicitly considered in order to develop a proper understanding of the internationalization process of firms. However, very few papers have looked at all these questions from this perspective in an integrative manner. This article puts forward a proposal about the relationship that exists between the timing of entry into foreign markets, the entry mode decision, and market/country selection. Starting with a review of the variables that have traditionally been used to explain timing of entry and then looking at the different forms of internationalization, the aim of this article is to propose a link between these important questions in order to increase our understanding of a company’s internationalization process.

Toward a psychology of chronic time pressure: Conceptual and methodological review

Szollos, A. — 2009-09-02

Complaints about time shortage permeate contemporary western societies. Many disciplines, from sociology to economics, have been involved in research and theorizing about time shortage, in contrast to the paucity of psychological research. This review of the extant heterogeneous terminology proposes that chronic time pressure (CTP) be used as temporary overarching term, subsuming the objective component of time shortage and the subjective-emotional component of being rushed. Feeling rushed may lead to the perception of time shortage. The review explores how most previous research on CTP used surveys and time-diaries that were developed to assess time allocations and have limited usefulness in examining subjective temporal experience. The recently developed Experience Sampling Method and Daily Reconstruction Method, combined with in-depth interviews, augment existing methods and may provide detailed analyses of the being rushed component of CTP. Conceptual ties to other disciplines and to well-being and stress research are also emphasized.

No longer young, not yet old: Biographical uncertainty in late-adult temporality

Facchini, C., Rampazi, M. — 2009-09-02

The article explores the pluralization of biographical time perspectives in contemporary transition from adulthood to old age, focusing on the relationship between life-time structuring in late adulthood and the different ways in which individuals experience ‘biographical uncertainty’ at psycho-physical, economic and relational levels. Finally, the concept of ‘reflected uncertainty’ is proposed, to analyse the ambiguous effects of young people’s ‘biographical uncertainty’ on late adults’ own perspective. The discussion is supported by the results of qualitative research on Lombard 55—65-year-olds, in light of the Italian situation.

The body in times of acceleration and delimitation

Gerisch, B. — 2009-09-02

This article discusses the evident popularity of the body as an expression of manipulative attacks on time-bound physicality or, to be more exact, the dialectics of aestheticizing and destructive body practices. The perspective is explicitly psychoanalytic-psychodynamic and claims neither to be a statement of totality nor does it draw on traditional empirical evidence. The topic is triggered by the fact that we are faced with a paradoxical situation: on the one hand, unimagined technical methods of perfecting the body are available as never before — body-shaping possibilities in the broadest sense — while, on the other, we are aware of the increase in grave, wordless self-destructive practices, such as eating disorders and self-harming. This article examines the complex interaction of the inner and outer world, and plumbs the depths of the unconscious to question why, in the late modern era, the body has become a stage on which intra-psychic and social productions are enacted. These theories are exemplified by means of clinical experience.

The re-enchantment of time: Death and alternative temporality

Lee, R. L.M. — 2009-09-02

Rationalization of time is generally taken as part of the human effort to break free from the vicissitudes of nature and to actualize greater stability in social life through structured routines predicated on temporal measurements. As a result, abstract notions of time allow the conceptualization of the future to be framed as calculable alternative possibilities related to decisions and actions made in the here and now. However, the problem of reflexivity in modernity as well as the question of fragmentation in postmodernism introduced deep scepticism to the idea of calculable and predictable futures. Variable risks and yawning uncertainties accompany the endeavour to see and plan the future. Rationalization has ironically increased the inexactitude of the means to perceive the future. Here, a parallel can be drawn with the fear of death as the delimitation of the life space where the means to perceive the future are not conceived as applicable beyond the point of death. In the modern world of hard-nosed empiricism and hard-driving technology, death is reckoned as the final frontier in which the future is simply unknowable, and so it comes to present a source of consternation for any individual inquiring into the possibility of existence beyond the life space. Yet re-enchantment of this life space is providing new means for perceiving alternative time and reviving ideas about the afterlife. In a sense, the uncertainty of what the future holds for individuals living in late modernity is compensated by alternative beliefs in transcendental futures.

Editorial: Time and Society Review of Books

Watts, L., Sabelis, I. — 2009-09-02

The Poetics of Waiting Without Value: Harold Schweizer, On Waiting. London: Routledge, 2008. ISBN 0415775078

Bissell, D. — 2009-09-02

The Irony of Memory Politics: Geoffrey C. Bowker, Memory Practices in the Sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008. ISBN 0262524899

Danyi, E. — 2009-09-02

Editorial

2009-02-19

Cultural Future Matters: An exploration in the spirit of Max Weber's methodological writings

Adam, B. — 2009-02-19

This article argues that human futurity is central to cultural being in general and contemporary social life in particular. It suggests that the social sciences have difficulty engaging with this important subject matter; that it poses problems at the level of theory and methodology. In his methodological writings, Max Weber addressed social futurity implicitly through the concepts of rationality and progress, ethics and values, purposes and motives, options and choices, calculation and the means-end schema, responsibility and vocation. This article uses Max Weber's methodological writings to focus discussion on some of the central tensions and difficulties that arise when sociologists seek explicitly to encompass in their work the temporal domain of the `not yet'. The overall aim of the article is to open up futurity and contemporary social extension into the long-term future as issues for social science consideration and debate.

The Spatio-temporality of Capitalism

Castree, N. — 2009-02-19

This essay seeks to explain the constitutive role that space-time plays in the dynamics of capital accumulation. Through a close reading of David Harvey's work, I show that time and space work together in ways particular to the capitalist mode of producing, distributing, selling, consuming and disposing of commodities. This does not, I argue, mean that space-time is reducible to capital accumulation — there are, to be sure, other forms of space-time that are relatively autonomous from the now dominant mode of production. My aim is not to provide a definitive account of space-time tout court but, instead, to show both the organic connection between space and time within capitalism specifically as well as the necessary — rather than simply contingent — role that space-time plays in the dynamics of accumulation. My argument is that capitalist space is inconceivable in abstraction from capitalism's temporal compulsions, and that space-time functions as a concrete abstraction that internalizes the whole gamut of contradictions that Marx identified over a century ago. The essay makes its analytical contribution by surveying previous Marxist and non-Marxist contributions to understanding space and time in the social sciences, en route to a close reading of Harvey's Limits to Capital. The political implications of paying careful attention to capitalist space-time are explored by counter-posing Harvey's work with Doreen Massey's recent writings about spatio-temporality.

Conflicting Temporalities: State, nation, economy and democracy under global capitalism

Hope, W. — 2009-02-19

The information and communication technology (ICT) driven, real-time tendencies of global capitalism are predominant, but they are not universal. Fast, short-term profits undermine long-term strategies of capital accumulation. In this respect, the structures and activities of global capitalism are riven by temporal contradictions. Such is evident between and within different fractions of capital. Fast and long-term imperatives also conflict within transnational corporations and business administration. On a global scale, the clash between different cultural traditions of corporate capitalism reflects opposing temporal logics of profit maximization. How then do these temporal contradictions play out empirically? My response to this question explores the general idea that spatio-temporal fixes enable the cohesion and reproduction of capitalist systems. To this end, I will point out that under global capitalism spatio-temporal fixes cannot be guaranteed. There are no built-in congruities interlinking state, nation, economy and society. Global networks of finance, production and corporate governance may weaken the conjunctures between nation, state, economy and society and exacerbate temporal disjunctures within them. From these observations, I will argue that state-centred constructions of time and temporality are weakening against the general, real-time tendencies of global capitalism. This sharpens temporal conflicts within the nationally constituted economy and the nationally circumscribed state. As upper reaches of the nation state conform to the temporal urgency of institutionalized supranational decision making, the marginalized national polity is answerable to the slower temporal rhythms of representative assembly, the election cycle, public policy formation and civil society. Against this background, worldwide coalitions opposed to ruling global interests are also riven by conflicting temporalities. Such conflicts reflect the temporal contradictions of global capitalism and the associated temporal conflicts within states, nations and economies.

Governmentality, Temporality and Practice: From the individualization of risk to the `contradictory movements of the soul'

Binkley, S. — 2009-02-19

Recent scholarship on the governmentality of risk has revealed ways in which rationalities of government are directed at the transformation of mundane time consciousness in daily conduct. Reflexive temporalities are inscribed through what Ulrich Beck has termed the `individualization of risk'. Such an account, however, has been criticized for its overemphasis on the reflexive, cognitive dimensions of temporal practice, by theorists drawing on a Bourdieusian notion of the habitus, as a pre-reflexive basis for action. This article attempts to mediate these two positions by emphasizing the practical work by which individual temporalities are made reflexive. Drawing on the theory of ethical practice developed in Michel Foucault's later work, the governmentality of temporality is read as a multi-dimensional practice of ethical self-transformation. More precisely, drawing on Bourdieu, this article considers the pre-reflexive, unthought and embodied future orientations incorporated in the bodily habitus as the ethical substance of a reflexive project of temporal self-government.

Social Change and the Timing of Family Transitions in West Germany: Evidence from cohort comparisons

Scherger, S. — 2009-02-19

This article addresses the timing of family transitions in early adulthood. Theoretical and empirical analyses are used to investigate the appropriateness of the notions of destandardization, differentiation and individualization for characterizing recent changes in West German life courses. Data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) are used for a comparison of (West German) birth cohorts and the respective timing of moving out of the parental home, first marriage and first parenthood. These transitions have, in fact, undergone a certain temporal destandardization. However, the results suggest that this destandardization is limited to certain dimensions, is clearly socially structured and is in part brought about by changing structural conditions. Furthermore, these changes in timing can be partly explained by differentiation according to education. Individualization, too, is only applicable to a certain degree and in particular to women's life courses.

Time at R&D Work: Types and strategies of time in the collaborative development of a chemical technology

Yli-Kauhaluoma, S. — 2009-02-19

This article seeks to increase understanding of the temporal aspects in technological innovation processes. Based on an empirical case, the aim is first to identify various types of time and then to study how R&D professionals in chemistry interact with time as they collaborate in developing and applying technological inventions. The article suggests that the distribution of work to collaborators can be seen as an attempt to extend the time resources in a project. Furthermore, participation of R&D professionals in short-term projects can be seen as an attempt to build long-term collaborative relationships. The study participates in a debate on how people in an R&D context approach collaboration from the time perspective.

Temporary versus Permanent: Time framing in the Israeli political arena

Moshe, M. — 2009-02-19

This article juxtaposes `temporary' versus `permanent' based on a study of the Israeli Prime Minister's `permanent incapacity' (the result of illness) and of the President's `temporary incapacity' (the result of a police investigation). Analysis indicates that: a) temporal maps are mainly framed by focusing on `temporary' states; b) the temporal structure of `temporary' is associated simultaneously with a sense of stability and with a search for change and transition; c) the temporal structure of `permanent' is linked both to uncertainty and confusion and to the maintenance of continuity. It seems that the inherent tension between `temporary' and `permanent' is challenged by the notion of risk and the rise of `second modernity'.

Review Essay: W. E. Scheuerman, Liberal Democracy and the Social Acceleration of Time, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. 312 pp. ISBN: 978-0801878855

Hope, W. — 2009-02-19

Precariousness, the Secured Present and the Sustainability of the Future: Learning from Koselleck and extrapolating from Elias

Carvounas, D., Ireland, C. — 2008-08-20

Theorists concerned with the current status of the future have rightly acknowledged their debt to Koselleck's historicization of modern future-oriented temporality. Koselleck, however, does not address how such a temporality can be sustained. Elias can be of help here. Anticipating recent inquiry into the effects of precariousness on temporality, Elias established a historical link between a present secured from unpredictability and the capacity for temporal extension beyond immediate concerns. Although Elias does not directly address modern temporality, his work, when combined with Koselleck's, can shed light on some of the preconditions for the sustainability of modern future-orientedness. Such a combination of Koselleck's work with Elias's can help lay the groundwork for a more historically informed diagnostic assessment of our current temporal horizons.

Fuzzy Holes and Intangible Time: Time in a knowledge industry

O'Carroll, A. — 2008-08-20

The knowledge economy is characterized by highly skilled, highly educated employees whose work is centred on the manipulation of information. This article looks at the work process of workers in the software sector, as their work is both central to the knowledge economy and shares many of the characteristics of other knowledge workers. It describes the temporal frameworks found, grounding them in the work process. It documents specific characteristics of work and work organization that give rise to a time experienced as both intangible and fuzzy. It argues that there is a deep irony at the centre of the knowledge economy. On one hand, speed is the key metaphor of the knowledge economy. Yet the use of metaphors of speed and efficiency bypass any appreciation of the qualitative nature of time found within these work processes. Knowledge production is based on creativity, communication and knowledge development, processes that move at their own pace. These processes sit uncomfortably within temporal frameworks, which are based on a predictable and quantifiable time.

Why Open-mindedness Needs Time to Explore and Exploit Knowledge

Cegarra-Navarro, J. G., Cepeda-Carrion, G. — 2008-08-20

It is clear from the literature that in situations where organizations and their members face changing environments, it is necessary that mechanisms (learning) exist to capture the new knowledge which enables the firms to address those changes. This article examines the relative importance and significance of the existence of an `open-mindedness context' to the existence and nature of `organizational learning'. We include time as a variable in the analysis and focus on the need to unlearn at a moment (T) in order to learn more efficiently at a moment after (T+1). These relationships are examined through an empirical investigation of 107 Spanish small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within the telecommunications industry. The results indicate that the effects of exploration and exploitation of knowledge at moment T+1 is conditioned by the existence of an `open-mindedness culture' at moment T.

Time-Spaces of In/dependence and Dis/ability

Schillmeier, M. — 2008-08-20

The article highlights the temporal construction of everyday spaces that make up the societal relevance of in/dependences and dis/abilities. Employing an account of empirical philosophy, the article links self-conducted empirical research with philosophical ideas. Introducing Heidegger's notion of `time-space', the proposed view tries to avoid bifurcating in/dependences and dis/abilities a priori as the effect of given realities. Rather, they appear as highly fragile mediations of heterogeneous elements that make up the times and spaces of emerging in/dependences and dis/abilities. With special reference to `visual disability', I explore how ordinary acts of `dealing with money' and `going shopping' configure multiple `blind' times and spaces of in/dependence and dis/ability.

The Best of Times is Now: A study of the gay subculture's attitudes toward time

Brodowsky, G., Granitz, N., Anderson, B. — 2008-08-20

Although researchers have found that cognitive temporal structures differ across cultures, few have studied the cognitive temporal structures of subcultures within them — and in a consumer behavior context. Integrating the literature on time, culture and consumer behavior, this study empirically tests for variations in time perceptions between the dominant heterosexual culture and the gay subculture. Results indicate that there may be socio-cultural elements of a subculture that produce variation in a subculture's temporal cognitive structure. Compared to heterosexuals, gays are more present-oriented. This finding is then applied to predict differences in consumer behavior.

Time, Cycles and Tempos in Social-ecological Research and Environmental Policy

Wood, C. H. — 2008-08-20

The execution of successful social-ecological research and the formulation of effective environmental policies crucially depend on a deep knowledge of the temporal complexity of the interactions between social and biophysical systems. To promote a keener awareness of the relevance of time, cycles, and tempos, this study assembles examples drawn from a range of disciplines to delineate the ways temporality enters into human behavior, resource management, and the conduct of social-ecological research. Anthropological and historical studies document the culturally embedded temporal subjectivities that shape the way humans exploit or conserve natural resources. Analyses of environmental policy show how temporal considerations enter into intervention strategies via such concepts as discount rates, property rights and the precautionary principle. The centrality of temporal assumptions is further evidenced by the time-dependent foundations of disciplinary specializations. The likelihood of temporal mismatches between the specializations that participate in interdisciplinary research and between the scientific findings and environmental policy can be mitigated by giving attention to temporal grain, temporal fallacy and temporal extent.

Internet Use and Time Use: The importance of multitasking

Kenyon, S. — 2008-08-20

Scholars are beginning to question the impacts of the Internet for the conceptualization of time and time use. However, discussion in terms of the impacts of the Internet for multitasking has been absent from this debate. Multitasking has, until recently, been a forgotten dimension of time-use research. The phenomenon has long been recognized as important, yet it is only in the past decade that time-use researchers have begun seriously both to record and analyse related data. Such studies have shown that a more fully informed understanding of the true extent of time use and activity participation can emerge through the consideration of multitasking. This, in turn, can present a more accurate picture upon which measures of change in time use can be assessed. This article is concerned with an exploratory discussion of the impact of the inclusion of multitasking data upon perception of change in time use as a result of Internet use. Following theoretical discussion, the article presents evidence from a longitudinal, diary-based panel study with around 100 participants and a questionnaire survey with 1000 participants. The article explores the prevalence of multitasking and reveals clear implications of Internet use for the same. In conclusion, those seeking to understand the influence of Internet use upon time use must include multitasking in their analysis if they are to avoid an incomplete and potentially misleading account of time use (and change therein) in the information age.

Understanding Event-based Business Networks

Hedaa, L., Tornroos, J.-A. — 2008-08-20

This article deals with the temporality in business networks. Marketing as networks approach stresses interaction processes and interdependence among actors noting that business markets are mainly socially constructed. The approach has increased our understanding of business marketing but further attention for theory development and empirical validation is needed. Theoretical foundations of the approach are conceptually analysed here, taking time and timing into particular consideration. A model of event networks is developed as an approach to understand temporality in business networks. The event network perspective is exemplified using practical cases. It is argued that extensions of network theory, methods and models can be approached using connected events as a base.

Waiting and Rejection: An Organizational Perspective: 'Cooling out' rejected applicants

Sellerberg, A.-M. — 2008-08-20

Time spent waiting is frequently regarded as time wasted, and therefore as something to be avoided or at least minimized. In this article, however, waiting is viewed from an organizational perspective: delay and waiting are seen as integral to the strategic functioning of organizations, and to their handling of individual requests. Various kinds of waiting or intended organizational delays are described in terms of their contribution to `cooling out'. Waiting as cooling out means that waiting pacifies those frustrated (or possibly frustrated) by the organization. The analysis also addresses various manifestations of the social dialogue between the organization and the rejected, including those cases where waiting does not have a cooling out effect.

Time to Change, Time for Change: Time as a catalyst for organizational change

Lee, H., Lee, J.-H. — 2008-08-20

Time is often mentioned as a key aspect of organizational culture and organizational change. However, the role of time has rarely been explored in direct relation to organizational change. This article presents a case in which time was used as a catalyst for organizational change. The case shows how time can play a role in organizational change. In the early 1990s, one of the largest conglomerates in Korea introduced a new temporal scheme, which replaced the standard working hours. We examine the case to find out how a new temporal scheme affected various aspects of culture, which in turn caused changes in organizational members' behaviour and attitudes. Our discussion focuses on the new temporal system's contribution to facilitating organizational change in three ways: a) by creating a sense of crisis for change, b) by generating new ways of working, and c) by enhancing awareness of time as a resource.

Book Review: Freek Broekman, Alle Waar is Naar Zijn Tijd: Tijdfundamenten van Duurzaam Leven in de 21ste Eeuw [Every Commodity in its Own Time: Fundamentals of Time for Durable Living in the 21st Century]. Aspekt: Soesterberg, 2005. 288 pp

Korver, T. — 2008-08-20

Book Review: Barbara Adam & Chris Groves, Future Matters: Action, Knowledge, Ethics. Leiden : Brill, 2007. ISBN 1873-7463 ; ISBN 978 90 04 16177 1, 218pp. {pound}39.72

de Saint-Georges, I. — 2008-08-20

Busyness, Status Distinction and Consumption Strategies of the Income Rich, Time Poor

Sullivan, O. — 2008-02-18

This article addresses the dilemma of consumption for those in income-rich, time-poor households in the contemporary affluent economies of the West. Following Linder, two `temporal strategies of consumption' are proposed, reflected in the consumption profiles of high status groups. The first is `voracious' consumption, denoting a fast `pace' and variety of leisure participation. The second is inconspicuous consumption — the purchasing of expensive consumer goods without the time to use them or the primary intent to display them. From a political economic perspective a solution is provided as to how to increase consumer spending among those with high disposable incomes and little leisure time.

Understanding Business Travel Time and Its Place in the Working Day

Holley, D., Jain, J., Lyons, G. — 2008-02-18

This article argues that there is a need to understand business travel time in the context of the wider organization of work time. It considers why travel time use is potentially changing with the use of mobile technologies by the increasing number of individuals engaged in `knowledge work', and examines existing evidence that indicates that travel time use is part of a wider work-related `taskscape'. However, it not only considers material productive output, but suggests that travel time as `time out' from work-related activities also plays a vital role for employees. It also suggests that business travel time use that is not of benefit to the employer may not be at the employer's expense. This is contrasted with the assumptions used in UK transport appraisal. Data gathered from the autumn 2004 wave of the National Rail Passenger Survey (GB) is used to illustrate some key issues concerning productivity and `anti-activity'. A case study of an individual business traveller then points towards the need for a new approach to exploring the role played by travel time in the organization of work practices to be considered.

Time Perspective and Correlates of Wellbeing

Drake, L., Duncan, E., Sutherland, F., Abernethy, C., Henry, C. — 2008-02-18

This study investigated correlates of five time perspectives (TPs) and the Balanced Time Perspective (BTP) construct proposed by Zimbardo and colleagues. Two hundred and sixty Scottish participants completed the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI: Zimbardo and Boyd, 1999), Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky and Lepper, 1999) and Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (Brown and Ryan, 2003). The most prevalent TP profile was moderate to high scores on all five TPs of the ZTPI. BTP participants were significantly happier and more mindful. Happiness and mindfulness were positively correlated but a future TP did not correlate with subjective happiness.

The Coming of the 24-hour Economy?: Changing work schedules in Belgium between 1966 and 1999

Glorieux, I., Mestdag, I., Minnen, J. — 2008-02-18

This study mapped the changes in the timing of working hours in Belgium as reported in workers' daily work schedules, obtained from the Belgian Time-Use Surveys of 1966 and 1999. A typology of working schedules was drawn up by means of a sequence analysis. This approach showed that work performed beyond the standard times, that is, in the evening, at night, or on weekends, did not grow in importance in the intervening years. In 1999, standard working hours clearly accounted for a larger share of the work schedules of the active population. Although the analyses did certainly not corroborate the often alleged trend towards a 24-hour society in Belgium, it could be shown that certain categories of the working population are more susceptible to flexible working hours than others.

`Things That Stay': Feminist theory, duration and the future

Coleman, R. — 2008-02-18

Taking up Grosz's proposal for the `complexities of time and becoming' to be considered seriously, this article explores the status of time and the future within feminist theory through empirical research in which teenage girls describe things `staying'. Focusing on these `things that stay' and drawing on Bergson's concepts of duration and the virtual, the article argues that time is dynamic and heterogeneous; things endure through divergence and transformation. It argues that if the relations of temporality are understood as both continuous and discontinuous, enduring and changing, feminist theory orients to the future in `novel' ways.

Issues of Social Memory and their Challenges in the Global Age

Halas, E. — 2008-02-18

The social experience of time is investigated in connection with the transformation of global power relations expressed symbolically. Collective memory in postmodernity is featured as a temporal distinctiveness of the global age. Consequently, problems of the politics of memory, followed by conflicts of memory come to the fore. Symptomatic for postmodernity in the context of globalization is the phenomenon of reshaping problems of memory into social problems. The global politics of memory and globalizing symbolic conflicts over memory are a new phenomenon. They are exemplified by the problems of memory in post-communist countries, with the focus on the case of Poland.

How Breakfast Happens in the Cafe

Laurier, E. — 2008-02-18

In this article I present an ethnographic study of `breakfast in the café', to begin to document the orderly properties of an emergent timespace. In so doing, the aim is to provide a description of the local production of timespace and a consideration of a change to the daily rhythm of city life. Harold Garfinkel and David Sudnow's study of a chemistry lecture is drawn upon as an exemplary study of the collective creation of an event. Attention is drawn to the centrality of sequentiality as part of the orderly properties of occasioned places. As part of examining the sequences I chart the ongoing emergence of features of breakfast time in the café such as `the first customer', `crowded' and `quiet'. In closing the article, I consider how changes in the rhythm of the city are made apprehensible to its residents.

A Note on Antonio Negri's Break with the Ontology of Time

Boca, I. — 2008-02-18

The article demonstrates that Antonio Negri's view of time intersects with other post-modern approaches, departing from them in that it reverses space-time, while also keeping it in place. His ontological break with tradition reflects itself in the phenomenology of time, while the phenomenological event turns into the ontological `to-come'. The double bindings of temporality and spatiality submerge to and emerge from the engagements of both tradition and the future, in an intricate exodus from and return to space-time.