Timespace and Society
Timespace, strictly speaking, is a feature of an individual human life. It is, however, a social feature of an individual life, for much of it derives from and depends on social phenomena. Indeed, the timespaces of different lives substantially depend on the same social phenomena, namely social practices. Because of this, the timespaces of different lives are partly the same and partly different.
Most actions that a person performs are constituents of social practices. By a ‘social practice’, I mean an organized manifold of doings and sayings. (For more on practices, see Schatzki 2002.) The doings and sayings that compose a practice are organized by items of four types: (1) action understandings, which are abilities to carry out, recognize and respond to particular actions; (2) rules, which are formulated instructions, directives, admonishments, and the like; (3) teleoaffective structures, which contain enjoined and acceptable ends, enjoined and acceptable projects and actions to carry out for those ends, and enjoined and acceptable emotions; and (4) general understandings – of matters germane to the practice.
The timespaces of (the lives of) the people who participate in a practice derive from the practice because its organization circumscribes the teleologies – the endproject-action orderings – of these people’s activities. A popular practice among visitors to Keeneland is betting on horse races. A variety of ends are deemed acceptable in betting practices, including maximizing winnings, being entertained, having fun, impressing a date and trying to beat the odds makers. Various projects and actions are enjoined or found acceptable in the practice for the sake of these ends, including studying the racing form, safeguarding a credit card with one’s spouse, waiting until the last moment to bet, betting only on horses with green silks, standing in long lines and putting aside 10% of each winning. In participating in betting practices, people tend to act for the ends and to carry out the actions that fall within this normative range. This is the sense in which the teleological structure of the practice circumscribes the futures of those participating in it. This teleological structure also – together with the actions that compose the practice and the teleological structures of other practices that are carried on at the track (e.g. people gazing, eating, spectating, excretion) – underlies the spatialities of betters lives. The past dimensions of their timespaces likewise overlap since participants in a practice often react to, or act in the light of, the same states of affairs.
Other components of practice organization also help shape participants’ timespaces. A sign (rule), for instance, might designate where people should line up before the betting windows open, just as an usher might tell people where they can stand to watch the race (another rule). Rules can also determine common pasts, as when the clerks who take bets are instructed to begin accepting them when a certain green light illuminates. A general understanding of courtesy, moreover, might pick out places where a person may stand to watch a race (and not obstruct others’ views), just as in Keeneland corporation practices a general understanding of customer service or of pursuing profit might determine ends and projects for track managers and employees. Practices vary in which components of their organizations bear greatest responsibility for the futures, pasts and spatialities of their participants lives.
Timespace and the Organization of Social Life
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