Description
Book SynopsisWhat is time? How has our relationship to time changed through history and how does time structure our social lives? In this lively introduction, Barbara Adam explores the changing ways in which time has been understood and how this knowledge is embedded in cultural practices.
Trade Review“Read a few paragraphs and your mind is racing onto other themes, examples and questions. The book can be used in a variety of different ways and the reader is fortunate that Barbara Adam has not lost her gift for bringing a sense of urgency and excitement to the topic.”
Sociology “An obvious candidate to be the book which anyone should read if they want an overview of the field, but it will also offers fresh insights to those who have already made their own temporal investigations ... it is a delight to me to see the full flowering of such a persistent and imaginative scholar.”
British Journal of Sociology
“This is a very wide-ranging and erudite examination of countless notions of time throughout history. Barbara Adam sets out a whole new agenda for ‘time’ analysis.”
John Urry, University of Lancaster
“In a book grounded in top-notch scholarship, Barbara Adam traces how time has been viewed and lived through history and civilization.”
Ronald Purser, San Francisco State University
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements.
Prologue.
PART I What is Time?.
Interlude: Time Is.
1 Time Stories.
Gods of Time.
In the Beginning.
Paradise and the Fall.
Encounters with Death.
Journeys to the Otherworld.
Cycles of Renewal and Regeneration.
Beyond Death: Resurrection and Redemption.
Reflections: Myth for Today’s Theory and Practice.
Interlude: Representations of Time.
2 Time Theories I.
Western Philosophy: From Ontology to Epistemology.
Natural Science: Clockwork Universe and Change.
Enlightenment Theories: A Priori and Dialectic.
Social Theory: Practice, Value and Category.
Interlude: Time Perspectives.
3 Time Theories II.
Western Philosophy: Time Within.
The Sciences of System-Specific Times.
Social Theory and the Past, Present and Future.
PART II What is the Role of Time in Social Life?.
Interlude: Time Transcendence.
4 Cultural Practices of Time Transcendence.
Making Time Stand Still.
Knowing Fate, Forging Futures.
Creating Immortality and Permanence.
Modifying Nature’s Times and Rhythms.
Superimposing Phases and Social Structure.
Interlude: Body Time, Clock Time, Social Time.
5 In Pursuit of Time Know-how.
Reckoning Time.
Creating Clock Time.
Mobilising World Time.
Networking Instantaneity.
Interlude: Time Complexities & Hierarchies.
6 The Quest for Time Control.
Commodification.
Compressions.
Colonization.
Control.
Interlude: Futures.
Epilogue.
Notes.
Further Reading.
Bibliography.
Index
