Anthony Giddens argued that although we may consider a trivial commonsense the fact that social activity is developed in space and time, paradoxically, ‘neither time nor space have been incorporated into the centre of social theory; rather, they are ordinarily treated more as ‘environments’ in which social conduct is enacted’. In this paper, I will try to develop this apparently ‘trivial’ statement, discussing also some implications of this spacetime embeddedness of social activity. In particular, in the first and second paragraphs I discuss the critical analysis of Barbara Adam about the classical contrapposition between circular and linear time, from the point of view of physical anthropology. In the third paragraph, I critically analyse the ontological space-time constraints to which the human body is subjected. Finally, in the fourth paragraph, using an ecological and phenomenological approach about technique as a skilled practise, I discuss the relevant implications that time analysis involves for technology studies.

Body, (space)time and technology

NICOLOSI, GUIDO
2011-01-01

Abstract

Anthony Giddens argued that although we may consider a trivial commonsense the fact that social activity is developed in space and time, paradoxically, ‘neither time nor space have been incorporated into the centre of social theory; rather, they are ordinarily treated more as ‘environments’ in which social conduct is enacted’. In this paper, I will try to develop this apparently ‘trivial’ statement, discussing also some implications of this spacetime embeddedness of social activity. In particular, in the first and second paragraphs I discuss the critical analysis of Barbara Adam about the classical contrapposition between circular and linear time, from the point of view of physical anthropology. In the third paragraph, I critically analyse the ontological space-time constraints to which the human body is subjected. Finally, in the fourth paragraph, using an ecological and phenomenological approach about technique as a skilled practise, I discuss the relevant implications that time analysis involves for technology studies.
2011
body; technology; skills
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11769/15748
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