Barbara Adam: Time and Social Theory

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#CC0000" alink="#CC0000"><center><hr width="350" size="1" align="center" noshade>Exposing classical frameworks of thought as inadequate to the task of conceptualizing our contemporary world<hr width="350" size="1" align="center" noshade><p><a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/ChicagoBook.aspx?ISBN=9780877227885&&PRESS=temple" target="_top">Buy this book!</a> | <a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/Cart.aspx?PRESS=temple" target="_top">View Cart</a> | <a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/Cart.aspx?PRESS=temple" target="_top">Check Out</a></p><p><img src="830_reg.gif" height=200 border=1 vspace=4></p></center><h1>Time and Social Theory</h1> <h3>Barbara Adam</h3> <P>cloth 0-87722-788-8 $39.95, Jan 91, <FONT COLOR=#990033>Out of Print</FONT> <BR> 250 pp </P><p>Time is at the forefront of contemporary scholarly inquiry throughout the humanities and the natural sciences. During the last twenty years, the study of time has fueled a rapidly growing exchange of ideas between different disciplines. Yet the social sciences have remained substantially isolated from time-related concerns in other fields. Taking on the task of changing that situation, this book is an exciting academic exercise in its own right. But more importantly, it serves to focus concern upon issues that have emerged as central to an adequate understanding of the social world in the late twentieth century. <p>Through her analysis of time, Barbara Adam shows that our contemporary social theories are firmly embedded in Newtonian science and classical dualistic philosophy. She then exposes these classical frameworks of thought as inadequate to the task of conceptualizing our contemporary world of standardized time, computers, nuclear power, and global telecommunications. <p>The author argues that the complex aspects of time should be made a key part of social theory especially if individuals are to take responsibility for their actions: past, present, and particularly the long term future. An explicit understanding of time Adam contends, generates not only a basis for a more adequate social theory, but a chance to be a participating agent in a world where human creations have all too often become the factor controlling human life. To grasp the multiplicity of time is to come to terms wit the complexity of our times. <p>This book will be of great interest to anyone working in social theory, cultural theory, sociology, and philosophy. <BR> <h2>Excerpt</h2><P>Excerpt available at <a href="http://www.temple.edu/tempress">www.temple.edu/tempress</a></p> <BR> <h2>Contents</h2><P> <p>Acknowledgments <br>Introduction: Time is a Fact of Life <p>1. Time in Social Theory: Destiny, Necessity, and Enigma <br><I>The Diversity of Contemporary Approaches &#149 Dualisms and Disciplinary Isolation Rejected &#149 Making Distinctions Philosophy's Way &#149 All Time is Social Time &#149 Reflections</I> <p>2. From the Measure of Motion to Entropy <br><I>The Newtonian Measure &#149 Relative Time and Quantum Temporality &#149 Thermodynamic Change &#149 Reflections</I> <p>3. Rhythmicity: Source of Life and Form <br><I>Biorhythms: The Clock that Time Us and Know Time &#149 Organisms and the Machine Metaphor &#149 Living Change &#149 Reflections</I> <p>4. Human Time Studied <br><I>Aspects of Mind &#149 Time Budgeted &#149 Orientation and Perspectives &#149 The Life Cycle &#149 Social Change and Order &#149 Reflections</I> <p>5. Industrial Time and Power <br><I>Timed Social Life &#149 Social Time Controlled &#149 Waiting &#149 Reflections</I> <p>6. Time Transcended <br><I>Life Unto Death and Beyond &#149 The Extended Present and the Myth of Eternal Return &#149 The Future: Expanded, Colonized, and Lost &#149 The Past: Possessed, Recorded and Constructed &#149 Reflections</I> <p>7. Time for Social Theory: Points of Departure <br><I>Social Time and Natural Time Revisited &#149 Knowing through Metaphors &#149 Resonance and Non-hierarchical Levels &#149 Simultaneity and Extended Time-Spans</I> <p>References <br>Index </P><BR> <H2>About the Author(s)</H2> <P><b>Barbara Adam</b> is a British sociologist.</P> <BR><H2>Subject Categories</H2> <p><A HREF="/tempress/sociology.html" TARGET="_top">Sociology</a> </p> <p align="center"><a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/ChicagoBook.aspx?ISBN=9780877227885&&PRESS=temple" target="_top">Buy this book!</a> | <a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/Cart.aspx?PRESS=temple" target="_top">View Cart</a> | <a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/Cart.aspx?PRESS=temple" target="_top">Check Out</a></p><p><font face="Arial" size="1"><a href="copyright.html" onMouseOver="window.status='Web Copyright Policy';return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''" title="Web Copyright Policy">©</a> 2015 <a href="http://www.temple.edu" target="new" onMouseOver="window.status='Link to Temple University home page';return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''" title="Link to Temple University home page">Temple University</a>. 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