Michael G. Flaherty

Present, Past, and Future Conjugating George Herbert Mead's perspective on time

Time is of utmost importance in the writings of George Herbert Mead, the American pragmatist philosopher and social psychologist. Yet, despite Meads prominence as the primary source of the symbolic interactionist approach to sociology, most social scientists are unfamiliar with his perspective on temporality. We describe his analysis of the present, the past, and the future - emphasizing that, for Mead, people live in the present, and that their interpretations of the past and the future are shaped by the present. In addition, we consider the implications of his perspective for our understanding of the self, interaction, and society.

The Perception of Time and Situated Engrossment

This paper concerns the relationship between objective and subjective time. Ordinarily ones perception of time is synchronized roughly with the time of clocks and calendars (synchronicity), but under certain conditions it seems that time is passing very slowly (protracted duration). We used two different methods to obtain personal narratives concerning the experience of protracted duration

Variation in the Perceived Passage of Time: A Cross-National Study.

Flahertys cross-cultural theory purports to account for variation in the perceived passage of time. Recent events in Argentina provide an opportunity to assess the applicability of this theory to a Latin American nation. We conducted interviews with 198 persons who participated in various kinds of political activism. The respondents who felt that time had passed “quickly” emphasized an increase in governmental and personal activity. For those who said “slowly,” the focus was on suffering, unpleasant emotions, and waiting. Those who were unable to specify reported a mixture of factors associated with “quickly” or “slowly,” while those who said “synchronically” were unaffected by the turmoil in their country. These findings offer strong support for the theory in question, and they suggest that variation in the experience of time occurs not because there are different kinds of people but because people find themselves in different kinds of circumstances.

Sociotemporal Rhythms in E-mail A case study

This study examines sociotemporal rhythms in the volume of e-mail. E-mail is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but we hypothesize that there are non-random patterns in the temporal flow of e-mail. We counted the total number of e-mail messages received per hour by any address at our college for more than eight months. Non-random patterns emerged in our data. The volume of e-mail per hour is above average during traditional working hours and below average during the early morning and evening hours. Also, there are significant differences in the mean number of messages per hour/per day.

Age and agency: Time work across the life course:

Scholars have observed growing variability in life course transitions, such as entry into a full-time job. Life course theorists use the concept of agency to account for increasing diversity and unpredictability in developmental trajectories. In so doing, they presume that agency can only be a source of heterogeneity. Drawing from in-depth interviews with 406 people from all walks of life, I examine a form of temporal agency or ‘time work’ – that is, efforts to modify one’s own experience of time or that of others. The findings suggest that agency does not operate in the way life course theorists envision.

Time and the Horizon of Poignancy: Notes on Temporally Induced Sorrow

Abstract The origin of poignancy is our awareness of eventual loss due to the ephemerality of existence. Socialization produces a self that is simultaneously subject and object, knower and known. Self-consciousness is an awareness that one exists, one matters, and strong feelings are attached to one’s continued existence. To be self-conscious, however, is to be aware of one’s eventual demise. Moreover, each passing moment is immediately and irretrievably lost, which can make it precious in our sight, its loss poignant when we remember that our days are numbered. I examine poignancy in everyday life and literature. The essential formula for poignancy appears to be a collision between our capacity to imagine an infinite future and the finitude of all human experience. Susan Sontag’s study of photography provides further evidence for this argument.

Crystal balls and calendars: A structural analysis of projected futures

This study examines the temporal structure of projected futures. The sociology of time is an established line of inquiry, but the existing literature lacks empirically grounded description of the cultural and cognitive dimensions of projected futures. When individuals imagine their futures, what is the qualitative nature and temporal structure of their projected futures? In order to address these questions, we used a mixed-methods strategy of interviews and surveys with 126 persons from a small college in North Carolina. We asked the participants to tell us about their futures. The resulting descriptions form a strongly chronological pattern. When asked about the immediate future (i.e., tomorrow or next week), they tersely describe the tasks that must be completed. In their descriptions of the near future (i.e., next month or next year), they begin to anticipate enjoyable experiences. When they describe the intermediate future (i.e., five to ten years from now), their responses are characterized by detailed and optimistic enthusiasm for the possibilities they envision. They pay little or no attention to the distant future.