Time, Geographies of

Social Time: The Geographies of Rhythms

Social time essentially focuses on social content, recognizing that the way in which people experience time is dictated by a range of social processes. Jon May and Nigel Thrift provide a comprehensive discussion of social time, identifying four domains that interact to produce people's experience or sense of time. These domains invoke a way of interpreting experiences through considering the rhythms they generate. Rhythm is used in its widest sense to identify anything from a repetitive process to a recurrent pattern. Anne Buttimer provides an in-depth discussion of Time-space rhythms, emphasizing the complex interactions of people's sensations and representations of time and space.

The first domain considers the variety of cycles and timetables people are subject to, some of which are fixed, such as tidal movements, while others are relatively applied, for example, a woman's menstrual cycle. Most, however, are constantly under negotiation; take, for instance, the socially constructed pressure of shift work, which requires people to adjust their circadian rhythms to fit in with factory hours or differing time zones in order to meet the demands of the job.

The second domain relates to the regulation or demarcation of time for specific activities. For example, in many Western societies, the prescribed Monday to Friday working week is closely monitored by time sheets and surveillance mechanisms, while the weekend is often equated with family or leisure time. When either time interferes with the other, for instance, taking work home, these norms are broken, disrupting the regulation of social time and demonstrating the combination of forced and voluntary rhythms that make up daily life.

The third domain involves the increasing array of tools and technologies designed to expressly monitor, inform, or direct how people allocate time. Many of these have been around for millennia, from the calendar to various forms of the clock, both of which reinforce the sensation of time moving forward in a linear fashion. The advent of mass transportation and communications led to what is termed the standardization of time, as clock time became uniform the world over. These technologies are often described as leading to Time-space compression, perpetuating the perception of an increased pace of life. They often dictate rhythms of particular representations associated with saving time, or being more productive with the time available.

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