Timewatch - by Barbara Adam (Paperback)

About the Book

In this book, the author moves beyond the time of clocks and calendars in order to study time as embedded in social interactions, structures, practices, and knowledge in artifacts, in the body, and in the environment.

Book Synopsis

In this book the author moves beyond the time of clocks and calendars in order to study time as embedded in social interactions, structures, practices and knowledge, in artefacts, in the body, and in the environment. Adam suggests ways not merely to deconstruct but to reconstruct both common-sense and social science understanding.

From the Back Cover

Time forms such an important part of our lives that it is rarely thought about. In this book the author moves beyond the time of clocks and calendars in order to study time as embedded in social interactions, structures, practices and knowledge, in artefacts, in the body, and in the environment. The author looks at the many different ways in which time is experienced, in relation to the various contexts and institutions of social life. Among the topics discussed are time in the areas of health, education, work, globalization and environmental change. Through focusing on the complexities of social time she explores ways of keeping together what social science traditions have taken apart, namely, time with reference to the personal-public, local-global and natural-cultural dimensions of social life.

Barbara Adam's time-based approach engages with, yet differs from postmodernist writings. It suggests ways not merely to deconstruct but to reconstruct both common-sense and social science understanding.

This book will be of interest to undergraduates, graduates and academics in the areas of sociology, social theory environmental/green issues, feminist theory, cultual studies, philosophy, peace studies, education, social policy and anthropology.

Review Quotes

"Barbara Adam is rapidly establishing herself as one of the authorities on the field of time and reflexive social theory. She shows how our present perspective on time is fully out of key with the problems we face in the risk society. This highly original book not only points out the problems but also makes valuable suggestions for a new contextual approach to social theory." Ulrich Beck, University of Munich

"This book will delight many, including many at late-school or early-university level; since Adam has managed to write at a level accessible to such readers, while simultaneously introducing complexities and depths of theoretical concern often excluded from texts at that level, because seen as too complex. It is a considerable feat to overcome this barrier; and in my view Adam accomplishes it most deftly and successfully." Fiona Mackie, LaTrobe University

"This ... encourages the reader to think resoundingly, reverberatingly, long after the moment of reading it ... Barbara Adam's Timewatch is a most excellent book. Like time itself, it is more than the sum of its parts. It should be used, not just read, to think through how we can all 'do things with time'." Time and Society

About the Author

Barbara Adam is Professor of Sociology at Cardiff University.