Fast Times in Hallowed Halls: Making Time for Activism in a Culture of Speed
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26522/ssj.v9i1.1148Keywords:
social acceleration, time, neoliberal university, social movements, collective action, activist-scholarsAbstract
This article examines the implications of the social acceleration of time for the capacity of activist-scholars to engage in collective action. Drawing on interdisciplinary literature on time and temporality, the article argues that the neoliberal university is driven by the same speed imperative that underpins the capitalist mode of production, and that the resulting and growing time pressures inhibit academics' (and others') involvement in social movements in profound and deleterious ways. To explore this argument empirically, I draw on insights gleaned from semi-structured interviews with Canadian activist-scholars. Despite the manifest diversity of temporal experiences and challenges faced by scholar-activists in contemporary high-speed society, it is clear that academics today face severe time pressures that apply across individual differences and across disciplines. These pressures, which can only be properly explicated with reference to the ruling political-economic paradigm, militate against the capacity to engage in reflexive thought (for both scholarly and activist purposes) and also against a higher level of involvement of ‘public intellectuals’ in social movements. The article's conclusion offers a few tentative thoughts about tempering the speed imperative for the purpose of self-care and by extension, for the common good in the long run.References
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Agger, B. (2004). Speeding up fast capitalism: Cultures, jobs, families, schools, bodies. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishing.
Comor, E. (2006). Neo-imperialism and the crisis of time. TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, 10, 1-21.
Corrigall-Brown, C. (2012). Patterns of protest: Trajectories of participation in social movements. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Downton, J. Jr., & Wehr, P. (1997). The persistent activist: How peace commitment develops and survives. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Eriksen, T. (2001). Tyranny of the moment: Fast and slow times in the information age. London: Pluto Press.
Gutiérrez y Muhs, G., & Niemann, Y. F. (2012). Presumed incompetent: The intersections of race and class for women in the academy. Boulder: University of Colorado Press.
Hall, E. T. (1983). Dance of life: The other dimension of time. Garden City, NY: Anchor/Doubleday.
Harvey, D. (1989). The condition of postmodernity: An enquiry into the origins of cultural change. Oxford: Blackwell.
Hassan, R. (2003). The chronoscopic society: Globalization, time and knowledge in the network economy. New York: Peter Lang.
Hassan, R. (2009). Empires of speed: Time and the acceleration of politics and society. Lieden: Brill.
Hearn, A., & Hanke, B. (2012). Introduction: Out of the ruins, the university to come. TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, 28, 11-20.
Hunnicut, B. K. (2013). Free time: The forgotten American dream. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Innis, H. (1951). The bias of communication. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Jacobs, J. A., & Winslow, S. E. (2004). Overworked faculty: Job stress and family demands. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 596, 104-129.
Leccardi, C. (1996). Rethinking social time: Feminist perspectives. Time & Society, 5(2), 169-186.
Levine, R. (1997). A geography of time: The temporal misadventures of a social psychologist; Or how every culture keeps time just a little bit differently. New York: Basic Books.
Levy, D. M. (2007). No time to think: Reflections on information technology and contemplative scholarship. Ethics and Information Technology, 9(4), 237-49.
Linder, S. B. (1970). The harried leisure class. New York: Columbia University Press.
Manzerolle, V., and Kjøsen, A. M. (2012). The communication of capital: Digital media and the logic of acceleration. Triple C: Communication, Capitalism & Critique, 19(2), 214-229.
Martineau, J. (2015). Time, capitalism and alienation: A socio-historical inquiry into the making of modern time. London: Brill.
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1969). Theses on Feuerbach. In, Marx/Engels selected works, volume 1. (W. Lough, Trans.) (pp. 13-15).
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McAdam, D. (1988). Freedom summer. New York: Oxford University Press.
McAdam, D., & Sewell, W. H. Jr. (2001). It's about time: Temporality in the study of social movements and revolutions. In R. R. Aminzade, J. A. Goldstone, D. McAdam, E. J. Perry, W. H. Sewell, S. Tarrow & C. Tilly (Eds.), Silence and voice in the study of contentious politics (pp. 89-125). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mendick, H. (2014). Social class, gender and the pace of academic life: What kind of solution is slow? Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 15(3). Retrieved from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/issue/view/50.
Menzies, H. & Newson, J. (2007). No time to think: Academics’ life in the globally wired university. Time & Society, 16(1), 83-98.
Menzies, H., & Newson, J. (2008). Time, stress and intellectual engagement in academic work: Exploring gender difference. Gender, Work and Organization, 15(5), 504-522.
Müller, R. (2014). Racing for what? Anticipation and acceleration in the work and career practices of academic life science postdocs. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 15(3). Retrieved from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/issue/view/50.
Nowotny, H. (1994). Time: The modern and postmodern experience. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Odih, P. (2003). Gender, work and organization in the time/space economy of ‘just-in-time’ labour. Time & Society, 12(2-3), 293-314.
Pietrzyk, K. (2013). Time, technology, and troublemakers: ‘Fast activism’ and the alter-globalization movement in Canada (Unpublished PhD dissertation). York University, Toronto, Canada.
Porter, T., & Stockdale, L. (in press). The strategic manipulation of transnational temporalities. Globalizations, 12(5).
Postone, M. (1993). Time, labor, and social domination. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Readings, B. (1996). The university in ruins. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Reith, G. (2004). Uncertain times: The notion of 'risk' and the development of modernity. Time & Society, 13(2/3), 383-402.
Reynolds, D. (1997). Democracy unbound: progressive challenges to the two party system. Boston, MA: South End Press
Rifkin, J. (1987). Time wars: The primary conflict in human history. New York: H. Holt.
Rosa, H. (2003). Social acceleration: Ethical and political consequences of a desynchronized high-speed society. Constellations, 10(1), 3-33.
Rosa, H. (2005). The speed of global flows and the pace of democratic politics. New Political Science, 27(4), 445-459.
Rosa, H. (2013). Social acceleration: A new theory of modernity. (J. Trejo-Mathys, Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press.
Scheuerman, W. E. (2005). Busyness and citizenship. Social Research, 72(2), 447-470.
Schor, J. B. (1991). The overworked American: The unexpected decline of leisure. New York: Basic Books.
Schuurman, N. (2009). Work, life, and creativity among academic geographers. Progress in Human Geography, 33(3), 307-312.
Shantz, J., & Vance, C. (2000). Fighting the neoliberal agenda in post-secondary education. Workplace, 6, 94-97.
Slaughter, S, & Leslie, L. L. (1997). Academic capitalism. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.
Slaughter, S., & Rhoades, G. (2004). Academic capitalism and the new economy: Markets, state and education. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Tarrow, S. (1998). Power in movement: Social movements and contentious politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
The Economist. (2014, December 20). Why is everyone so busy? The Economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/news/christmas-specials/21636612-time-poverty-problem-partly-perception-and-partly-distribution-why?fsrc=scn%2Ftw%2Fte%2Fpe%2Fed%2Fwhyiseveryonesobusy
Thompson, E. P. (1967). Time, work-discipline, and industrial capitalism. Past & Present, 38, 56-97.
Tilly, C. (2004). Social movements, 1768-2004. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.
Tomlinson, J. (2007). The culture of speed: The coming of immediacy. Los Angeles & London: Sage.
Vostal, F. (2015). Academic life in the fast lane: The experience of time and speed in British academia. Time & Society, 24(1), 71-95.
Wajcman, J. (2015). Pressed for time: The acceleration of life in digital capitalism. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Watson, A. J. (2006). Marginal man: The dark vision of Harold Innis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Wolfinger, Nicholas H. (2013, July 29). For female scientists, there's no good time to have children. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/07/for-female-scientists-theres-no-good-time-to-have-children/278165/
Ylijoki, O. (2013). Boundary-work between work and life in the high-speed university. Studies in Higher Education 38(2), 242-255.
Ylijoki, O. & Mantyla, H. (2003). Conflicting time perspectives in academic work. Time & Society 12(1), 55-78.
Agger, B. (2004). Speeding up fast capitalism: Cultures, jobs, families, schools, bodies. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishing.
Comor, E. (2006). Neo-imperialism and the crisis of time. TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, 10, 1-21.
Corrigall-Brown, C. (2012). Patterns of protest: Trajectories of participation in social movements. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Downton, J. Jr., & Wehr, P. (1997). The persistent activist: How peace commitment develops and survives. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Eriksen, T. (2001). Tyranny of the moment: Fast and slow times in the information age. London: Pluto Press.
Gutiérrez y Muhs, G., & Niemann, Y. F. (2012). Presumed incompetent: The intersections of race and class for women in the academy. Boulder: University of Colorado Press.
Hall, E. T. (1983). Dance of life: The other dimension of time. Garden City, NY: Anchor/Doubleday.
Harvey, D. (1989). The condition of postmodernity: An enquiry into the origins of cultural change. Oxford: Blackwell.
Hassan, R. (2003). The chronoscopic society: Globalization, time and knowledge in the network economy. New York: Peter Lang.
Hassan, R. (2009). Empires of speed: Time and the acceleration of politics and society. Lieden: Brill.
Hearn, A., & Hanke, B. (2012). Introduction: Out of the ruins, the university to come. TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, 28, 11-20.
Hunnicut, B. K. (2013). Free time: The forgotten American dream. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Innis, H. (1951). The bias of communication. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Jacobs, J. A., & Winslow, S. E. (2004). Overworked faculty: Job stress and family demands. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 596, 104-129.
Leccardi, C. (1996). Rethinking social time: Feminist perspectives. Time & Society, 5(2), 169-186.
Levine, R. (1997). A geography of time: The temporal misadventures of a social psychologist; Or how every culture keeps time just a little bit differently. New York: Basic Books.
Levy, D. M. (2007). No time to think: Reflections on information technology and contemplative scholarship. Ethics and Information Technology, 9(4), 237-49.
Linder, S. B. (1970). The harried leisure class. New York: Columbia University Press.
Manzerolle, V., and Kjøsen, A. M. (2012). The communication of capital: Digital media and the logic of acceleration. Triple C: Communication, Capitalism & Critique, 19(2), 214-229.
Martineau, J. (2015). Time, capitalism and alienation: A socio-historical inquiry into the making of modern time. London: Brill.
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1969). Theses on Feuerbach. In, Marx/Engels selected works, volume 1. (W. Lough, Trans.) (pp. 13-15).
Moscow: Progress Publishers. Retrieved from https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/engels.htm
McAdam, D. (1988). Freedom summer. New York: Oxford University Press.
McAdam, D., & Sewell, W. H. Jr. (2001). It's about time: Temporality in the study of social movements and revolutions. In R. R. Aminzade, J. A. Goldstone, D. McAdam, E. J. Perry, W. H. Sewell, S. Tarrow & C. Tilly (Eds.), Silence and voice in the study of contentious politics (pp. 89-125). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mendick, H. (2014). Social class, gender and the pace of academic life: What kind of solution is slow? Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 15(3). Retrieved from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/issue/view/50.
Menzies, H. & Newson, J. (2007). No time to think: Academics’ life in the globally wired university. Time & Society, 16(1), 83-98.
Menzies, H., & Newson, J. (2008). Time, stress and intellectual engagement in academic work: Exploring gender difference. Gender, Work and Organization, 15(5), 504-522.
Müller, R. (2014). Racing for what? Anticipation and acceleration in the work and career practices of academic life science postdocs. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 15(3). Retrieved from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/issue/view/50.
Nowotny, H. (1994). Time: The modern and postmodern experience. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Odih, P. (2003). Gender, work and organization in the time/space economy of ‘just-in-time’ labour. Time & Society, 12(2-3), 293-314.
Pietrzyk, K. (2013). Time, technology, and troublemakers: ‘Fast activism’ and the alter-globalization movement in Canada (Unpublished PhD dissertation). York University, Toronto, Canada.
Porter, T., & Stockdale, L. (in press). The strategic manipulation of transnational temporalities. Globalizations, 12(5).
Postone, M. (1993). Time, labor, and social domination. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Readings, B. (1996). The university in ruins. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Reith, G. (2004). Uncertain times: The notion of 'risk' and the development of modernity. Time & Society, 13(2/3), 383-402.
Reynolds, D. (1997). Democracy unbound: progressive challenges to the two party system. Boston, MA: South End Press
Rifkin, J. (1987). Time wars: The primary conflict in human history. New York: H. Holt.
Rosa, H. (2003). Social acceleration: Ethical and political consequences of a desynchronized high-speed society. Constellations, 10(1), 3-33.
Rosa, H. (2005). The speed of global flows and the pace of democratic politics. New Political Science, 27(4), 445-459.
Rosa, H. (2013). Social acceleration: A new theory of modernity. (J. Trejo-Mathys, Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press.
Scheuerman, W. E. (2005). Busyness and citizenship. Social Research, 72(2), 447-470.
Schor, J. B. (1991). The overworked American: The unexpected decline of leisure. New York: Basic Books.
Schuurman, N. (2009). Work, life, and creativity among academic geographers. Progress in Human Geography, 33(3), 307-312.
Shantz, J., & Vance, C. (2000). Fighting the neoliberal agenda in post-secondary education. Workplace, 6, 94-97.
Slaughter, S, & Leslie, L. L. (1997). Academic capitalism. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.
Slaughter, S., & Rhoades, G. (2004). Academic capitalism and the new economy: Markets, state and education. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Tarrow, S. (1998). Power in movement: Social movements and contentious politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
The Economist. (2014, December 20). Why is everyone so busy? The Economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/news/christmas-specials/21636612-time-poverty-problem-partly-perception-and-partly-distribution-why?fsrc=scn%2Ftw%2Fte%2Fpe%2Fed%2Fwhyiseveryonesobusy
Thompson, E. P. (1967). Time, work-discipline, and industrial capitalism. Past & Present, 38, 56-97.
Tilly, C. (2004). Social movements, 1768-2004. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.
Tomlinson, J. (2007). The culture of speed: The coming of immediacy. Los Angeles & London: Sage.
Vostal, F. (2015). Academic life in the fast lane: The experience of time and speed in British academia. Time & Society, 24(1), 71-95.
Wajcman, J. (2015). Pressed for time: The acceleration of life in digital capitalism. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Watson, A. J. (2006). Marginal man: The dark vision of Harold Innis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Wolfinger, Nicholas H. (2013, July 29). For female scientists, there's no good time to have children. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/07/for-female-scientists-theres-no-good-time-to-have-children/278165/
Ylijoki, O. (2013). Boundary-work between work and life in the high-speed university. Studies in Higher Education 38(2), 242-255.
Ylijoki, O. & Mantyla, H. (2003). Conflicting time perspectives in academic work. Time & Society 12(1), 55-78.
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