L'ère du temps: modernité capitaliste et aliénation temporelle

Historical Materialism #96

by Jonathan Martineau

Depuis 1967, la seconde est l’unité de base du temps social. Dissocié de toute réalité tangible, le temps atomique mondialisé sur lequel reposent les infrastructures militaires, la finance, les structures politiques et les réseaux de communication correspond à un nombre précis de périodes de radiations de l’atome de césium 133. Pourtant, malgré cette course à la précision et au contrôle, l’être humain n’a jamais été aussi aliéné par le régime temporel dans lequel il vit. L’ère du temps étudie l’histoire de notre rapport au temps – temps des relations sociales et des rapports de pouvoir, temps de la valeur, temps producteur et produit des institutions. De l’invention des premières horloges à nos jours, en passant par l’établissement du temps universel standard, Jonathan Martineau retrace l’ascension hégémonique du temps abstrait, qui enchaîne les multiples temporalités sociales aux fins du développement capitaliste.

Genres: Philosophy, History, Nonfiction, Theory, Economics, Politics

304 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2015

Reviews

[Bearkunin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I struggled between rating this a 3 or a 4. The book is well written and interesting, and although it does feel like a thesis edited for book format, it is overall enjoyable.

The general conceit is persuasive: time is a social construct and how we are experiencing time is changing under capitalism. Instead of measuring time through "concrete" processes such as the change of the seasons or the day-night cycle, we have "abstracted" time to that of the clock - minutes, hours etc. This is ultimately in the service of capital, and is used to help quantify labour time and create more "efficiency" and "productivity". This abstraction of time alienates us, so despite having a better hold over the measurement of time than ever before, we also feel less and less in control of it.

Unfortunately for me, the book does have a very large focus on establishing this theoretical Marxist framework of abstract and concrete time. There are numerous passing references to historical events and processes about the emergence of clock time and the resistance against it. For example, medieval revolts against work bells, the attempted assimilation of Aboriginal Australians into clock time etc. These normally amount to a paragraph or at most of a few pages, and again with quite a theoretical rather than historical focus.

I cannot really fault the book on this, it isn't really a problem with the book, but I did come to realise I wasn't reading the book I wanted to read: a history of the emergence and domination of clock time. Fortunately, the reference list leads me to a number of interesting books that might serve that purpose better.

If you want a Marxist theoretical framework around time, this is a good book for you - four stars. If you want a history book, still okay, probably seek that elsewhere - three stars.

[Diana]

Time always seems to be something “out there” independent of human control or structure. But time is not ontological, but socially mediated; produced through social practices and time systems which vary from one society and historical period to another. We now live in the dominant mode of clock-time, but in the past time may be measured in other ways, such as through events, or the natural moving of physical bodies. The prophet Muhammad s.a.w for example, was born during “the year of the elephant” because that was the year a king rode an elephant into the city and the first time the arabs saw that animal. Social time relations is no longer the order of the day though since capitalist social time entails the alienation of time. The current order of time - how it’s perceived, used - has been imposed through imperialism and domination. It is a facet of our alienation in capitalism as it divorces us from our more natural rhythms of time telling. It aids labour exploitation. It’s what fascists have also used for historical revisionism (think of how pol pot wanted to reset the calendar to year 1!)

[Andrew Liu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Althusserian historical materialist approach to understand how the capitalist mode of production has shaped our understanding of the clock-time system and the worldwide social time regime supports and enables it.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martineau presents an excellent interrogation into the distinctions between natural and social time that enables readers to reflect on how the rise of capitalism informs modern conceptualizations of daily life.

[William Dubman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thorough, well-written, theoretically responsible investigation of the abstraction of time through the development of capitalism. The text pivots around Martineau's use of the Marxian triad of alienation, reification, and commodity fetishism, which are the frame for his analysis of our relationship with time. Really, I thought that this was the most interesting kernel of the entire book: that we are alienated from time as a sensuous concrete element of our existence, and this alienated "abstract time" becomes reified into a "thing" beyond us which exerts itself over us and determines us from without, and that finally this "thing" that is time is imbued with the fetishized powers of our own social potentiality. Time contains, outside of us, those capacities which should define our sense of ourselves, our sense of our social and productive potential.

This is one of those books that is full of other books, and I enjoyed that, as it seemed to be the simple nature of this text. Much of the book is dedicated to a kind of critical genealogy of the development of time as a social artifact, a materialist process that overturns what Martineau sometimes refers to as the "chronocentric" transcendentalizing of the present experience of time. Basically, he wants to make very clear that time is the mediated result of social conflicts, struggles, and compromises: time has a class character. It is the synthesis of a multitude of practices to more effeciently perform social tasks. At times (pardon the irony) the text seems to suggest that the very existence of the objective measuring of temporal duration is an imposition from the ruling class -- Martineau saves us from simple anti-scientism by clarifying that scientific time might not be a capitalist invention, but the search for an objective time and the imposition of this time as the ultimate and indisputable governor of our everyday existence is indeed a historical necessity for the victory of the bourgeoisie over the earth. I thought there was a lot of food for thought in these arguments, and enjoyed what he had to say about Newton.

I have quite a bit more to say about all this, and I have a few more pages of notes I haven't consulted while writing this review, but I have an appointment soon so I'll finish up here. Maybe I'll come back to this review later.

My last note: if I had any critique, it would be that I'd have liked Martineau to offer a bit more to address the question of "what's next". What are the possibilities for a post-capitalist time? Can this be thought? I'd have liked him to say more about the resistances of concrete time against the expanding regime of the abstract demands of capital and its fusion with the clocks? How do we create friction between the lived movement of the time of our bodies and our communities and the invading force of alienated time? How do we cure our minds of the fetish of time as holding the power that capital has stolen from us?

[Ravi · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book but like other reviewers I found it read too much like a thesis converted into a book and focused too much on theory rather than examples. I would have liked to see a discussion of the relationship between time and disabled people (styled crip time by some people). The practical application on developing countries was very minimal. But of course not every book can cover every topic. Still, there was too much Brenner Debate and not enough about time itself. Very well written though so I gave it four stars.