Social Time: The Heartbeat of Culture

No individual can arrive at the threshold of his potentialities without a culture in which he participates. Conversely, no civilization has in it any element that the last analysis is not the contribution of an individual. Where else could any trait come from except from the behaviour of a man or a woman or a child? (253)

In ‘Run Lola Run’ time is shown to be an important theme right from the beginning. We

In E.P. Thompson’s essay “Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism”, he argues how the rise of standardized time, which coincided with employed labor and capitalism, changed how people view time from how “time passes” to “time spent”. Time became a commodity in which it could be bought and sold. Time that was not spent “properly” was considered wasted, which Thompson calls time-thrift, which preindustrial societies were not very preoccupied with in comparison. Thompson explores this transition of the sense of time in relationship to the Industrial Revolution, benefits and disadvantages to the new time-discipline, and a possible mixture of the old and new time-disciplines in the future.

disagreements will happen (is not when it happens). Everyone that runs a business always has his or

Three ways that people in monchronic and polychronic cultures differ may be identified in viewpoints of time, concentration, and commitments.

Time, from one person’s experience to another, from day to day, from emotion to emotion, varies more than the individuals who experience it. Yet time still can be measured. People, almost from the earth’s inception, have had a desire to regulate time. This is still seen today, with all the watches, phone clocks, wall clocks, analog clocks, digital clocks, grandfather clocks, atomic clocks, timers, and stopwatches. Unfortunately, while it is possible to measure the actual emissions from an atom’s atomic transition, it is impossible to measure time perception in different circumstances. Both the poem “Time Is”, and the statue “Father Time”, portray the integral role of time in humanity.

An individual will inevitably relate a personal understanding to a historical event or to a cultural situation. When I travel to my father’s village in Greece, I often find things that people do strange. Although I have been to many Western and Southern European countries, including other places in Greece, I still find the beliefs and customs in my father’s village strange. This is because through the sociological imagination I have come to accept certain types of behavior as normal. In my father’s village, greetings amongst close family friends are always formal.

In order to show the circle in which ordinary people live in our current culture, Ferriss provides applicable examples that differentiate between the new rich and the deferrers in their current lifestyles. Another example in which Ferriss has used current culture in presenting his ideas is in time management. In our current culture, everyone is working long and hard in order to make an extra coin to be happy. Ferriss approaches this issue on a lighter note by

Time, as viewed in this framework, is not only defined as the time on a clock, but the way culture perceives time. Time can be viewed by the calendar; furthermore, some cultures use different calendars or have varying number of days in their week. Some cultures also see clock time as less strict. There are certain cultures where it is normal to be late and others where the time decided is the time one is expected to be there.

Nowadays, as modern societies provide an almost fixed time-table for humans to operate in various fields, we have far less freedom regarding our natural and momentary impulses than in the past. In other words, "we are increasingly detaching ourselves from organic and functional periodicity which is dictated by nature, and replacing it by mechanical periodicity which is dictated by the schedule, the calender, and the clock"(Jackson, 1994). The influence of this modern style of living on our sense of time can be seen on our relationship to every object we interact including buildings and architectural works.

In the essay “Social Time: The Heartbeat of Culture” written by Robert Levine With Ellen Wolf, the article illustrates the differences of time in different countries. Also, the article talks somehow countries and culture differ in many ways. First of all, the writer showed how some people from Brazil and some countries tend to deal with time and how they prefer to spend their time as they want. Furthermore, the writer mentioned something which I really liked he said, “How a country places its social life is a mystery to most outsiders, one that we’re just beginning to unravel” those words made me thinking about what makes those differences on cultures and how people became the way they are today. Another example that the writer mentioned

No matter how hard we try, or how much we study, it is pretty much impossible to become an expert on all the world’s cultures. It is possible however, to be enlightened on a few cultures through some effort and understanding. That is just what we did, through interviewing three people who were raised in cultures different from ours. The following are results from what we learned about different cultural dimensions.

With the rapid sequence of events around us, it can be difficult to keep pace. It can

D. Japan 's consensus decision making system turns out to be very efficient and effective in the new speed-based economy

Uncountable hours have been spent on searching for the best way to use the time we have on the Earth and to live our lives to the fullest. Nevertheless, it seems that no ones has found the perfect answer. Throughout The Little Prince (1943), Antoine de Saint Exupery gives the reader a look on how society views time. In particular, de Saint Exupery offers up a critique on how many individuals value saving time and efficiency over anything else. The Little Prince is able to see this first hand through his various interactions with grownups along his journey. The novella is able to convey the fact that society has become overly consumed with the pursuit of efficiency, while some people become enthralled with a task at hand, they would not “waste time” to enjoy other things in life that may be more meaningful. However, taking your time is often more rewarding than rushing in an attempt to save time.