How to Deal with Time without Temporal Agency

Instead of punishing the flesh, the time of one's life is seized and destroyed.As Michel Foucault has already impressively described, the ideas about appropriate punishment and the historical changes can tell us a lot about modern society, about power, control and discipline.But what exactly happens during this period of incarceration?Seen from the outside, it may be a time in which crime is closed and criminals can be made invisible.From the inside, however, it is by no means a non-time or off-time in which people simply wait.Something happens during this time, with the prisoners as well as with time itself.These are also the questions guiding the research conducted by the authors of The Cage of Days: Time and Temporal Experience in Prison: "It is the aim of our project to understand how prison inmates experience and modify time.We want to know what time does to them and what they do to time" (p.5).The we is a special feature.K. C. Carceral (a pseudonym) spent 31 years in prison for murder, Michael G. Flaherty is Professor of Sociology at Eckerd College in Florida.Both have also previously dealt with temporality in their respective lifeworlds and after a letter from Carceral to Flaherty in 2010, a peculiar collaboration developed.The two focus on the same object from two very different perspectives (p.5), and I feel it is important to emphasize the uniqueness of their collaboration.Differences in perspectives are usually very productive, but it is also difficult to establish a common understanding time and again.We know this from heterogeneous research teams, especially in empirical research.This is also the case when people form the academic field and those from the social field exchange ideas, as the same subject matter can appear very different from different perspectives.In the case of prison, it would have been impossible to create a long-term prison sentence experienced firsthand, with all the existential conditions.Even conducting interviews or observing on

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Human Studies
Published
2024-09-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-024-09757-y
Primary Topic
Social Representations and Identity
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

How to Deal with Time without Temporal Agency

Alexander Schmidl
Human Studies
Social Representations and Identity
article

How to Deal with Time without Temporal Agency

Alexander Schmidl
article en

Abstract

Instead of punishing the flesh, the time of one's life is seized and destroyed.As Michel Foucault has already impressively described, the ideas about appropriate punishment and the historical changes can tell us a lot about modern society, about power, control and discipline.But what exactly happens during this period of incarceration?Seen from the outside, it may be a time in which crime is closed and criminals can be made invisible.From the inside, however, it is by no means a non-time or off-time in which people simply wait.Something happens during this time, with the prisoners as well as with time itself.These are also the questions guiding the research conducted by the authors of The Cage of Days: Time and Temporal Experience in Prison: "It is the aim of our project to understand how prison inmates experience and modify time.We want to know what time does to them and what they do to time" (p.5).The we is a special feature.K. C. Carceral (a pseudonym) spent 31 years in prison for murder, Michael G. Flaherty is Professor of Sociology at Eckerd College in Florida.Both have also previously dealt with temporality in their respective lifeworlds and after a letter from Carceral to Flaherty in 2010, a peculiar collaboration developed.The two focus on the same object from two very different perspectives (p.5), and I feel it is important to emphasize the uniqueness of their collaboration.Differences in perspectives are usually very productive, but it is also difficult to establish a common understanding time and again.We know this from heterogeneous research teams, especially in empirical research.This is also the case when people form the academic field and those from the social field exchange ideas, as the same subject matter can appear very different from different perspectives.In the case of prison, it would have been impossible to create a long-term prison sentence experienced firsthand, with all the existential conditions.Even conducting interviews or observing on

Human StudiesVol. 48(2)
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (DE)
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 79%
Social Representations and Identity
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.