CFP Variations of temporal belonging

CFP Variations of temporal belonging: time, sociality and difference (Michael Stasik and Alena Thiel)

We would like to invite you to propose a paper to our conference panel “Variations of temporal belonging: time, sociality and difference” at the DGV Conference “Belonging: Affective, moral and political practices in an interconnected world”, Berlin, 4-7 October 2017. To propose a paper, please email abstracts of max. 1.200 characters (incl. spaces) and also a short version of max. 300 characters (incl. spaces) to michael.stasik[at]uni-bayreuth.de and alena.thiel[at]giga-hamburg.de by 15 February 2017.

The category of time is, as Émile Durkheim (1915) observes, essentially social. Edmund Leach (1961) furthers this point by stating that collective representations of temporal relations not only express time but produce it. Distinguishing, measuring and “knowing” time in its sequences and rhythms is not only a collective effort but (re)produces a sense of being in, belonging to and attunement with the social world. Indeed, the task of keeping together in time is a key prerequisite for the creation and cohesion of social groups and thus of affective, moral, political and economic relationships. Yet given that, as Alfred Gell (1992) notes, “myriad forms of society have evolved and sustained their distinctive temporalities at different places and during different historical epochs”, what happens to these multiple and heterogeneous temporalities in moments of their encounter, triggered for example by processes of globalisation, migration, technological change, mass mediatisation, conflict or the workings of capital?

Taking the classic anthropology of time as a point of departure, in this workshop we invite empirically-grounded contributions to explore how cultural constructions of time and “temporal belonging” (Bastian 2015) play out in a world where social formations appear increasingly synchronised while, at the same time, being subjected to constant multiplications of forms of belonging? Which affective, moral and political changes occur in these temporal convergences and how do they affect belonging? What makes some temporalities more dominant than others? How do hegemonic timescapes, or “chronocracies”, facilitate exclusion and what are the limits and possibilities of temporal agency? Which temporal affordances are contributing to social change and, conversely, which social practices are conducive to produce temporal difference?