A Geography of Time - Hardcover

Levine, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465028926 ISBN 13: 9780465028924

Publisher: Basic Books, 1997

Synopsis

Although it is hard to remember in our clock-driven age, the concept of time is relative and flexible. Robert Levine points out that a cultures sense of time has profound consequences for an individual's psychological, physical, and emotional well-being. Travelling around the glope, in both past and present times, he describes "clock time" in opposition to both "nature time" - the rhythm of the sun and the seasons - and "event time" - the structuring of time around happenings. He argues that by learning to embrace these three different perceptions of time, by developing a "multi temporal" approach, one can enjoy a more flexible and rewarding life.

About this title

Review

'Packed with interesting observations and information.' - Anthony Storr, Washington Times 'An elegant gem. Levine combines brilliant observations, original field experiments, and wide ranging scholarship to generate an original view.' - Philip Zimbardo, Stanford University

From the Back Cover

In this engaging and humorous book, eminent social psychologist Roberts Levine explores a dimension of our experience that we take for granted – our experience of time. Taking us on an enchanting tour through the ages and around the world, we travel to Brazil, where to be three hours late is perfectly acceptable, and to Japan, were he finds a sense of the long-term that is unheard of in the West, as well as to remote places in the world where long-term that is unheard of in the West, as well as to remote places in the world where ‘nature time’, the rhythms of the sun and the seasons, is the only time to live by.

From the sundials of ancient Greece to the origins of ‘clock time’ in the Industrial Revolution, Levine asks, how do we use our time? Are we ruled by the clock? What does this do to our cities, our bodies? Perhaps, he argues, time as a human construct has come to define and constrain cultures, while instead we ought to function ‘multitemporally’, each of us charting our own geography of time.

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0465028926
• ISBN 13: 9780465028924
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288