Postgraduate Course: Time, Place, Belonging: understanding time in society (ARCH11264)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | In everyday life, time most often appears in the form of the clock - abstract, seemingly objective, a 'natural' fact of life. However, as anthropologists and sociologists have long noted, time is not a neutral container for social life, but a source of values, concepts and logics that are used to negotiate everyday life. One of the implications of this is that time plays an important role in our feelings of belonging (or not belonging) within social groups. Importantly, when we understand time as just a background issue, the work it does in society can be hidden. This suggests that for those interested in issues to do with community, belonging, place-making, inequality, globalisation, politics, migration and more, it is essential that time is foregrounded and analysed in more detail. This course provides you with the tools to critically analyse the role of time in social life, and to develop ways of intervening into, and perhaps even changing, time. |
| Course description |
This course will introduce you to the emerging field of critical time studies. Complementing work that highlights the politics of place and space, we will focus on the complex role of time in social life and how it enters into contested social, cultural and political terrains. While time can often seem like an external dimension, or a simple container for social life, this course will explore the way that time is contested and contestable. By paying attention to time in place, we will uncover the multiple kinds of time that are used by powerful and less powerful social actors. In particular we will tie time to experiences of belonging (and not belonging) to place. Topics may include speed theory and the slow movement, time and global mobilities, time pressure and labour time, time and colonialization, queer temporalities, critical approaches to clock-time and the anthropology of time. The coursework will support your personal exploration of your own experiences of time and the development of interventions into the time of social life. At the conclusion of the course, you will have a greater understanding of the complexities and diversity of the time of our lives and how it shapes understandings of place, community, politics and hopes for the future.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge of a range of theories on time, particularly its role in social life and the ways that it is contested and contestable.
- Implement a practical understanding of how and why to apply theories and methods from multiple disciplines in order to apply time-focused research to the complex issues that form the focus of social research.
- Develop complex and effective responses to social issues that demonstrate a critical approach and an ability to engage with cutting edge research.
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Reading List
Sample Bibliography |
Adam, B. (1994). Time and Social Theory. Cambridge, Polity.
Allen, T. M. (2008). A Republic in Time: Temporality and Social Imagination in Nineteenth-Century America. Chapel Hill, N.C., UNC Press Books.
Aveni, A. (1989). Empires of Time: Calendars, clocks and cultures. New York, Basic Books.
Birth, K. K. (2012). Objects of Time: How things shape temporality. New York, Palgrave Macmillan.
Freeman, E. (2010). Time binds: queer temporalities, queer histories. Durham, NC, Duke University Press.
Gell, A. (1992). The Anthropology of Time: Cultural Constructions of Temporal Maps and Images. Oxford, Berg Publishers.
Greenhouse, C. J. (1996). A Moment's Notice: Time Politics across Cultures. Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press.
Hall, E. T. (1989). The Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time. New York, Anchor/Doubleday.
Honoré, C. (2005). In Praise of Slow: How a worldwide movement is challenging the cult of speed. London, Orion.
Hoy, D. C. (2009). The Time of Our Lives: A Critical History of Temporality. Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press.
Huebener, P. (2015). Timing Canada: The shifting politics of time in Canadian Literary Culture. Montreal and Kingston, McGill University Press.
McNeill, W. (1997). Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.
Nanni, G. (2012). The colonisation of time: ritual, routine and resistance in the British Empire. Manchester, Manchester University Press.
Ogle, V. (2015). The Global Transformation of Time 1870-1950. Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
Sharma, S. (2014). In the Meantime: Temporality and Cultural Politics. Durham and London, Duke University Press. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
In this course, we will be learning to:
- deal with complex issues and make informed judgements in situations where it is not always possible to have complete or consistent information.
- apply critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis to issues that are informed by developments at the forefront of the area.
- develop a range of routine and specialised skills to communicate with peers, more senior colleagues and specialists
- exercise substantial autonomy and initiative in developing an approach to the materials
- respond to complex ethical issues that may not be addressed by the current professional and/or ethical codes or practices in our home disciplines. |
| Keywords | time,social time,interdisciplinarity,politics,social life,society,anthropology |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Michelle Bastian
Tel: (0131 6)51 5779
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Siobhan Byron
Tel: (0131 6)51 5744
Email: |
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