Timescapes of the Network Society

Abstract

Argues that a central element of the changes associated with 'globalization' is our relationship with time and how this is changing, in turn, the nature of power and politics. Looks at nexus between neoliberalism and ICT revolution, and the emergent network society this has created. This article seeks to examine changing temporal organization of everyday life within postmodern network society. Central questions: How do we experience time? 'Pressed', 'squeezed'. Adam (2004) identifies range of different 'timescapes': tempo, timing, time point, time patterns, time exensions. Timescapes are social, cultural, dialectical - emerging through interaction. As archeologist Christopher Gosden (1994: 34-5) put it: People create time and space through their actions. Time and space, in turn, become part of the structure of habitual action, shaping the nature of reference between actions. What is the nature of time in the network society? How does it compare with our relationship with 'clock time' - abstract, empty social construction which has dominated since industrial revolution? 'Clock time', revolutions in science and technology, and capitalist system of production were mutually dependent factors in industrialisation process and in creation of modernity. Necessary for global rule of capital to displace local / diverse times with universal / undifferentiated times. Buries and frustrates our relationship with 'other' times (dragging, passing in a second, ...) Alliez (1996): 'potential' time has been conquered by 'power' time, though the presence of these alternate timescales is still felt. On the structural level, clock time necessary for functioning of capital continually clashes with timescapes of humans and nature. "The logic of capital and the clock constantly seek to synchronize the fluid and emerging temporal worlds of humanity and nature to its own measure—that of control, commodity and rationality. Harmeet Sawhney put the argument succinctly when he wrote, "[the] bygone world was a world of rhythms. Today, we live in a world of [attempted] synchronization" (2004:360). The differing timescapes in biology, in chemistry, in all organic life and in the environment, conflict with a rigidly clock-entimed capitalism. The result is a "dischrony" that underscores what Ulrich Beck terms the "risk society" (1992). " Examples: BSE, where temporal imperatives of agribusiness clashed with human and animal biology. Landmines: fluid, emergent timescapes of war clash with imperatives of industrial arms production, guaranteeing bomb-makers overcompensate and leave people at risk of death and destruction long after war has finished. "This clash of human, biological, chemical and environmental timescapes with that of industrialized clock time ensures an increasingly risk-prone society. As industrialized society becomes more complex, then so too will the risk factor continue to increase. This is inevitable unless the time of the clock and capitalism can harmonize (work in cooperation with, not to seek control over) the deeper timescapes in nature and in humans. " What does 'network time' portend for 'timescapes' - Adam (98), times that interpenetrate and permeate our lives, displaced, marginalised and sublimated by industrial clock time? Through use of ICT technologies, we are creating a digitally based, spatial and temporal ecology. Diversity of spaces and times. Globally compressed, but millions of time fractions. Ubiquitous computing and ever more dense levels of interconnectivity > network society. Dale Southerton (2003): Fordist time frames disrupted through neoliberal / ICT-induced flexibilisation > growing anxiety of those who experience 'time squeeze'. Personal control over time diminished. Hocschild 'Time Bind' makes similar case. He suggests this leads to a more risk-prone capitalism - weaker because of wild stock fluctuations, suddenly companies in trouble, etc - capitalism digging its own grave. I'm not so sure about this. While risk is increased for individual companies, isn't it decreased for capitalism as a system? Digital networking supports new social movements and global civil society.