Temporal Autonomy Research Articles

Raging Ennui: On Boredom, History, and the Collapse of Liberal Time

Abstract This article aims to outline a theory of political boredom based on the concept of the liberal temporal dispositive. According to this concept, modern politics is characterized by the reduction of political time consumption to enable the growing temporal autonomy of the individual. However, individuals may experience considerable stress in their pursuit to utilize this free time effectively. Boredom arises when individuals fail to “fill” their available time with meaningful actions. Political crises of boredom occur as attempts by individuals to relieve the pressures accompanying temporal autonomy, sometimes restarting political temporality on a new, massive scale. Furthermore, the article examines modern political philosophy as inherently rooted in the liberal temporal dispositive. Through several historical examples, it is discussed how political philosophy may either contribute to imbuing politics with a desire for meaning or abstain from it in an attitude of serene resignation. It is proposed that liberal democracy requires a temporal ethics based on the latter.

Simulated resections and responsive neurostimulator placement can optimize postoperative seizure outcomes when guided by fast ripple networks.

In medication-resistant epilepsy, the goal of epilepsy surgery is to make a patient seizure free with a resection/ablation that is as small as possible to minimize morbidity. The standard of care in planning the margins of epilepsy surgery involves electroclinical delineation of the seizure-onset zone and incorporation of neuroimaging findings from MRI, PET, single-photon emission CT and magnetoencephalography modalities. Resecting cortical tissue generating high-frequency oscillations has been investigated as a more efficacious alternative to targeting the seizure-onset zone. In this study, we used a support vector machine (SVM), with four distinct fast ripple (FR: 350-600 Hz on oscillations, 200-600 Hz on spikes) metrics as factors. These metrics included the FR resection ratio, a spatial FR network measure and two temporal FR network measures. The SVM was trained by the value of these four factors with respect to the actual resection boundaries and actual seizure-free labels of 18 patients with medically refractory focal epilepsy. Leave-one-out cross-validation of the trained SVM in this training set had an accuracy of 0.78. We next used a simulated iterative virtual resection targeting the FR sites that were of highest rate and showed most temporal autonomy. The trained SVM utilized the four virtual FR metrics to predict virtual seizure freedom. In all but one of the nine patients who were seizure free after surgery, we found that the virtual resections sufficient for virtual seizure freedom were larger in volume (P < 0.05). In nine patients who were not seizure free, a larger virtual resection made five virtually seizure free. We also examined 10 medically refractory focal epilepsy patients implanted with the responsive neurostimulator system and virtually targeted the responsive neurostimulator system stimulation contacts proximal to sites generating FR at highest rates to determine if the simulated value of the stimulated seizure-onset zone and stimulated FR metrics would trend towards those patients with a better seizure outcome. Our results suggest the following: (i) FR measures can accurately predict whether a resection, defined by the standard of care, will result in seizure freedom; (ii) utilizing FR alone for planning an efficacious surgery can be associated with larger resections; (iii) when FR metrics predict the standard-of-care resection will fail, amending the boundaries of the planned resection with certain FR-generating sites may improve outcome and (iv) more work is required to determine whether targeting responsive neurostimulator system stimulation contact proximal to FR generating sites will improve seizure outcome.

135 It’s about time for exercise: the Exercise Participation Explained in Relation to Time (EXPERT) Model

Abstract Background ‘Lack of time’ is consistently the most commonly reported barrier to regular exercise participation. However, this term insufficiently captures the complex and multidimensional nature of time. Recognizing the need for a more comprehensive analysis of ‘lack of time’ as a barrier to exercise, in this presentation the authors introduce the Exercise Participation Explained in Relation to Time (EXPERT) model. Purpose To present the temporal (time-related) factors relevant to exercise via the Exercise Participation Explained in Relation to Time (EXPERT) model. Methods To develop the EXPERT model, the authors used a rigorous sequential process that comprised the following steps. First, an umbrella literature review of time as barrier, determinant, and correlate of exercise was conducted. Second, a targeted review of existing temporal models was completed. Third, the lead author developed a first draft of the EXPERT model, led a series of focused discussions with members of the authorship team to refine the model, and then conducted a Delphi process to solicit pointed feedback and produce the penultimate model. Finally, this penultimate model was shared with a convenience sample of end-users and experts who informed revisions to make the final EXPERT model. Results The final EXPERT model factors includes four categories of factors: (1) Temporal needs and preferences for exercise (an individual’s preferences in relation to when they exercise); (2) Temporal autonomy for exercise (an individual’s autonomy in scheduling their free time); (3) Temporal conditions for exercise (an individual’s actual available time for exercise); and, (4) Temporal dimensions of exercise (an individual’s actual use of time for exercise). These four categories include multiple factors which collectively represent an individual’s preferences for, autonomy over, conditions for, and actual use of time for exercise. Conclusions The EXPERT model provides a framework that comprehensively explains the temporal factors that relate to exercise participation. This framework can help guide more nuanced assessments of time as a barrier to exercise and help inform novel approaches to mitigate this pervasive and potent barrier to regular exercise engagement.

Between the Camp and the Makerspace: Commoning Practices, Temporal Autonomy and Care

ABSTRACT The paper explores the chronopolitics of place-making in the refugee makerspace Habibi-Works and the neighbouring Katsikas refugee camp in Ioannina, in Northern Greece. Camps are created to be ephemeral and this ephemerality is reflected in their materiality and conditions the possibilities available to those that inhabit them. Camp temporalities work by way of destabilising the residents' sense of self in the present, severing their connections with the past and limiting their future aspirations. In sheer antithesis to the camp, the makerspace disrupts these (temporal) dynamics: it enables the camp residents to manage time as a common resource (commoning), creating autonomous communities of collective care. Through mundane encounters and practices, the makerspace plays an instrumental role in enacting the residents' autonomy by facilitating access to digital technologies, low-tech manufacturing tools, and skills to reproduce a sense of lost normality. We adopt an ethnographic approach to engage with the makerspace and the camp as well as the various people involved (migrants, volunteers, makers) and understand how migrants narrate their past, negotiate their present and imagine their futures in the context of everyday life. Building on the concepts of peer production, temporal autonomy and radical care, we argue that Habibi-Works opens up a new socio-political space between the camp, the makerspace and the world.

The Ethics of Time: Towards Temporal Bioethics.

In this paper I discuss the important yet overlooked role played by time in public health ethics, clinical ethics, and personal ethics, and present an exploratory analysis of temporal inequalities and temporal autonomy.

The gig economy, platform work, and social policy: food delivery workers’ occupational welfare dilemma in Hong Kong

Abstract Previous literature suggests that the gig economy and platform work pose challenges to social policy, including the welfare entitlement issues caused by workers’ ambiguous occupational status. Focusing on the government’s regulatory role, this study investigates platform workers’ occupational welfare (OW) by conducting in-depth interviews with forty-six food delivery workers in Hong Kong. The evidence reveals workers’ occupational risks resulting from platforms’ algorithmic devices and the misclassification of independent contractors. The denied access to private occupational pensions was considered acceptable by workers because of the perceived irrelevance of OW. While interviewees emphasised time-based flexibility as a key intangible benefit, the shifting business costs to self-employed workers was highlighted as a disadvantage. A policy dilemma appears between strengthening state regulation/protection and maintaining workers’ temporal autonomy. Arguably, the platformisation of work is translated into the gigification of OW, disentitling platform workers’ employer-provided welfare and labour protection. Platforms possess monopolising power over workers, the state displays weak regulatory power to monitor platforms, and workers’ occupational citizenship is undermined by the government’s minimal intervention. This study contributes to the literature by linking OW to platform work and revealing how the gig economy reshapes social policy, empirically offering a worker-centred analysis of OW in Hong Kong.

The Impact of Childcare Subsidies and Earnings Gaps on Gender Differences in Temporal Autonomy in Türkiye

This paper examines gender differences in discretionary time in Türkiye. Discretionary time, which is defined as the time remaining after one has done what is necessary in paid work, unpaid household work and personal care, is an indicator of freedom or, more broadly, of well-being. Using the 2014–2015 time use survey of the Turkish Statistical Institute, this study has found that in general, women have less discretionary time than men. There is also a remarkable difference between how men and women use their discretionary time: women spend less of it on leisure, volunteer work and personal care and more on unpaid work than men. This study also conducted simulations to examine the effects of childcare subsidies and increases in earnings of women. The simulations showed that childcare subsidies partially narrow the discretionary time gap between men and women. Surprisingly, increases in women's earnings reduce their discretionary time, increasing time disparity in dual-earner couples. This is because increase in women's earnings increase their shares in total household paid work time, but their share of unpaid labor time remains stable. As a result, these measures should be supplemented with family-support programs that promote equality within households.

Tailoring Upper-Limb Robot-Aided Orthopedic Rehabilitation on Patients' Psychophysiological State.

Physical therapy keeps exploiting more and more the capabilities of the robot of adapting the treatments to patients' needs. This paper aims at presenting a psychophysiological-aware control strategy for upper limb robot-aided orthopedic rehabilitation. The main features are the capability of i) generating point-to-point trajectories inside an adaptable workspace, ii) providing assistance in guiding the patients' limbs in accomplishing the assigned task allowing them to freely move with a certain degree of spatial and temporal autonomy and iii) tuning the control parameters according to the patients' kinematics performance and psychophysiological state. The implemented control strategy is validated in a real clinical setting on eight orthopedic patients undergoing twenty daily robot-aided rehabilitation sessions. The psychophysiological-aware control strategy evidenced a positive impact on the enrolled participants since they are effectively conducted in a calmer condition with respect to the patients who did not receive the psychophysiological adaptation. Moreover, clinical performance indicators suggest that the proposed tailored control strategy improves motor functions.

New Ways of Working: Institutions, Identity, and Power

The Corona pandemic has accelerated the growing trend for organizations to adopt so-called new ways of working, including practices such as conducting meetings and teachings through video conferencing, working from home, when commuting or in co-working spaces as well as hot desk arrangements, agile methods and holocratic structures. What seems to unite these empirical phenomena is the fact that they grant organizational members intentionally increasing discretion in terms of what to work on (autonomy to set priorities), when to work (temporal autonomy) and where to work (spatial autonomy). However, most of our received wisdom of organizational theories and concepts relies on the implicit premise of a 9-5-fixed-desk-clear-hierarchy work environment. As organizational scholars, we thus seem to be witnessing a substantive shift in our 'object of inquiry' that we have yet to fully understand empirically and to theorize conceptually much better. To increase our knowledge on new ways of working and its implications and effects on theory, we want to elaborate these aspects in three paper presentations on the following three conceptual foci: institutions, organizational identity, as well as power and politics. First of all, we see that new ways of working challenge existing institutions. The flexibilization and digitalization of work led to taken-for-granted assumptions being questioned, e.g. with regard to place, time, interactions and boundaries of work. Secondly, we realize that all of these new ways of working affect the mode and modalities of social interactions. Organizational identity as a social construct, though, rely substantively on social processes of meaning negotiations. Thirdly, we recognize that most of these new ways of working are technology enabled. New practices and technology are never innocent. Rather, they affect how power and politics are distributed and enacted in organizations. At the end of the symposium, similarities and differences of these three perspectives shall be further elaborated together with a discussant and the audience. How Office Space Enables and Restricts New Ways of Working Presenter: Andrea Simone Barth; Alanus U. of Arts and Social Sciences & WU Vienna Presenter: Renate Elisabeth Meyer; WU Vienna & Copenhagen Business School Presenter: Markus A. Höllerer; UNSW Sydney & WU Vienna How ‘New Ways of Working’ Shape Organizational Identity Beliefs Presenter: Emamdeen Fohim; U. of Bern Presenter: Claus Jacobs; U. of Bern From Micro- to Macro-Politics of NWOW Presenter: Michel Ajzen; UCLouvain Presenter: Taskin Laurent; Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations -LouRIM

The coronavirus and the temporal order of capitalism: Sociological observations and the wisdom of a children’s book

The coronavirus is not only a medical threat but also collides with the temporal logic inherent to capitalism. While capitalism demands constant growth, acceleration and efficiency, the outbreak urges societies to reduce, slow down and be patient. This article provides a sociological comment on the pandemic that focuses on the role of time and temporality. It explores the multiple ways in which the required responses to Covid-19 are at odds with the temporal order of capitalism. In the midst of crisis, the specific features, contradictions and weaknesses of the time regime governing modern societies become even more apparent – and make sociological scrutiny more necessary than ever. While this comment relates to the insights provided by the sociology of time, it uses a children’s book to illustrate its argument. Drawing on Michael Ende’s story of the orphan girl Momo and the grey gentlemen who steal people’s time, I recapture the main features of capitalism as a time regime: measurement and commodification of time, temporal expansion, acceleration, appropriation of the future, and unequal temporal autonomy. The current pandemic challenges both individual and collective temporalities that are governed by these temporal imperatives of capitalism. I conclude with reflections on the feasibility of a more sustainable temporal order that Michael Ende’s novel hints at and suggest how sociological research could support such an endeavour in the current crisis.

The Social Construction of Internet Addiction in China: Youth between Reality and Temporal Autonomy in the Documentary Web Junkie

This article addresses issues surrounding the social construction of internet addiction, focusing on conceptualisations of reality, escape, hope, and time. Drawing on a critical realist account of semiosis, the framing of internet addiction in China is analysed using the documentary film Web Junkie as an empirical pivot and point of departure. A contextual overview of relations, interests, and tensions surrounding youth and the internet in China is provided, and the film Web Junkie is briefly presented. The main body of the article consists of a critical analysis of conceptualisations of “reality” and “escape.” The core tension focused on in the analysis is the struggle over time, necessitating engagement with critical thought on hope and utopia. The analysis concludes that struggles over temporal autonomy underlie conflicting claims about “reality” and “escape” that are central to “internet addiction” and its treatment in China today.

#qualitytime: Aspiring to temporal autonomy in harried leisure

This article examines the representation and use of quality time. It brings together an analysis of images tagged and shared under the hashtag #qualitytime on Instagram with an investigation into the trope’s resonance in everyday life. In the interviews and profiles studied in this article, people used the term to indicate and display instances of self-determined solitude or of fulfilling conviviality in which mobile phones and social media were conspicuously absent. At the same time, the notion required them to carve out and valorize moments of purpose, a goal that was often unattainable. Use of the hashtag was thus accompanied by both the opportunity and the obligation to aspire to temporary retreats in which free time was employed for meaningful activity. This means that the somewhat pretentious keyword signifies the ideal of temporal autonomy while also pointing to the slim chance of finding uncompromised spells of time within harried leisure.

Getting Ahead of Time—Performing Temporal Boundaries to Coordinate Routines under Temporal Uncertainty

In this ethnographic study of firefighters we explore how routines are coordinated under high levels of temporal uncertainty—when the timing of critical events cannot be known in advance and temporal misalignment creates substantial risks. Such conditions render time-consuming incremental and situated forms of temporal structuring—the focus of previous research on temporal coordination—unfeasible. Our findings show that firefighters focused their efforts on enacting temporal autonomy or, as they called it, “getting ahead of time.” They gained temporal autonomy—the capacity to temporally uncouple from the unfolding situation to preserve the ability to adapt to autonomously selected events—by relying on rhythms they developed during training in performing individual routines and by opening up to the evolving situation only when transitioning between routines. Our study contributes to literature on temporal structuring by introducing temporal autonomy as a novel strategy for dealing with temporal contingencies. We also contribute to research on routine dynamics by introducing the performance of temporal boundaries as a previously unrecognized form of coordination within and among routines. Finally, we contribute to process research a method that allows analyzing complex temporal patterns and thus provides a novel way of visualizing processes.

Shaping Professional Identity and Practice: The Role of Personal and Contextual Factors

This symposium assembles new scholarship on professional identity and practice in order to deepen our understanding of the interplay between professional work and non-work factors across a variety of contexts. Four presentations will examine how professionals work and form identities in a range of professional settings, including technology, journalism, architecture, and social work. The presentations will consider professional identity and practice in both non-traditional and traditional work environments, ranging from freelance gig work to traditional corporate employment, thereby enabling comparisons of new and old ways of working. Presenters will also explore a variety of non-work contexts, exploring how family life, societal contexts, and other social institutions intersect with professional identities and work practices. The symposium will contribute to the scholarly community’s understanding of work and work identity in the current climate of changing work and work boundaries, helping to expand our understanding of identity and professional work to reflect the growing diversity of work contexts and personal considerations at play in today’s society. Reconciling Temporal Autonomy and Client Satisfaction in Professional Work Presenter: Vanessa Conzon; Massachusetts Institute of Technology Presenter: James Mellody; MIT Sloan School of Management The Expansion of Family Supports for Ideal Workers in Precarious Occupations Presenter: Erin Marie Reid; McMaster U. Presenter: Farnaz Ghaedipour; McMaster U. Recoupling Professional Expertise and Social Good Presenter: Lakshmi Ramarajan; Harvard U. Presenter: Julie Yen; Harvard Business School Reentry Workers’ Role in Returning Citizens’ Transition from Prison to Employment Presenter: Audrey Holm; Boston U.

Psychosocial risks at work for paediatric health professionals

IntroductionPsychosocial risks have arisen, associated with new types of employment contracts, significant emotional demands, difficulties to balance work and personal life and job instability among other factors, leading to significant job dissatisfaction and negatively affecting the workers’ health, as well as their quality of life. ObjectiveTo determine the presence of psychosocial risks among different health professional profiles in different paediatric services. Method and participantsA cross-sectional descriptive study with the participation of 138 paediatric health professionals. In order to evaluate psychosocial risk factors, the Fpsico 3.1 evaluation method was applied. ResultsPaediatric health professionals are in a relatively good position on a psychosocial level, although significant differences were found in relation to length of service in paediatrics and cognitive demands according to sex; furthermore, paediatric residents showed the highest levels of psychosocial risk. In the intensive care unit the psychological demands were higher, followed by pediatric hospitalization, being in these two units where they score higher in emotional demands. However, temporal autonomy risk was higher in the emergency and pediatric observation units. ConclusionsThe working conditions of health professionals make them vulnerable to these psychosocial factors, which vary according to professional category and area of work.

La distribución del tiempo discrecional en España

El presente artículo aplica la metodología del tiempo discrecional al caso de la sociedad española. Mientras que la noción de tiempo libre en los estudios sobre usos del tiempo es generalmente construida como el remanente tras sustraer el tiempo efectivamente empleado en el empleo, el trabajo doméstico y los cuidados personales, el tiempo discrecional usa en su lugar el mínimo tiempo que es necesario emplear en las rúbricas indicadas. Al emplear estándares de necesidad en lugar de elecciones concretas, se configura como una aproximación más adecuada a la autonomía temporal de la que disfrutan los individuos y, por extensión, a su respectivo bienestar individual. Con el objetivo de desvelar las diversas segmentaciones existentes en la sociedad española en lo tocante al tiempo, el énfasis recaerá primordialmente en las intersecciones existentes entre las relaciones de género y la clase socioeconómica de origen.

Autonomy and the cura monialium in female monastic art: the fifteenth-century illuminated manuscripts from the Dominican monastery of Jesus of Aveiro

ABSTRACTScholars have been studying images produced by nuns in the late Middle Ages, paying special attention to the illumination of devotional texts where the absence of models gave rise to non-canonical images, closely related to a visually centred piety. Among the manuscripts from the scriptorium of Aveiro, some liturgical books stand noticeably outside canonical models because of their illuminations, although they otherwise are in accord with normative precepts. Considering the rigour and standardisation to which liturgical manuscripts were subject, to analyse these images solely as a product of the nature of female piety seems simplistic. The role of the cura monialium in the community’s spiritual and temporal autonomy, especially where art is concerned, needs further analysis in order to understand the background to these images. Aveiro’s illuminations were informed by a complex visual culture where the nuns’ voice was intertwined with the cura monialium.

The Production of Colonial Temporal Patterns in East Jerusalem

This article analyses the on-going colonial situation in Jerusalem in real time in contrast to similar research that focuses on past cases. Using the time variable, the author illustrates how different settler-colonial urban strategies create two spatial systems, thereby producing two different temporal patterns for two different groups in the same space: the coloniser whose time is conserved and the colonised whose time is depleted. The article shows the spatial and temporal impact of colonial urban planning on the colonised through examples, including the ‘Separation Wall’ and checkpoints. The author advocates for temporal autonomy for the colonised in Jerusalem.

Twitter data analysis for studying communities of practice in the media industry

Today, more and more physical communities of practice, a concept that describes a group of people that share a passion and interact regularly at events to exchange knowledge, utilize social media, such as Twitter. Brotaru, for instance, is such a physical community of practice for media professionals in Brussels. It is a monthly meet-up of videogame developers in various locations in Brussels. Furthermore, Twitter becomes widely acknowledged as important instrument for learning and community formation in the virtual world. But, do these communities of practice use Twitter only to promote their physical activities of learning? Or, are the activities of the physical communities further extended into the virtual world meaning that virtual communities of practice emerge from them? This article suggests a novel mixed-methods approach based on qualitative and quantitative data to measure the role of Twitter for physical communities of practice. The method applies different statistical measures and analysis on harvested Twitter data and additionally brings two of the most used methods in Twitter analysis together, social network analysis and text data analysis (a.k.a., content analysis). Four different communities of practice in Brussels’ media industry and their activities and followers on Twitter have been analysed. The findings showed that the activities of the communities of practice extend into the Twitter sphere as the online communities are characterised by a shared domain, a lively community and shared practices. The analysis further revealed that Twitter offers three main opportunities for the activities of communities of practice: it offers geographical extension; it gives temporal autonomy; and, it can be used to diversify the practices.

Corrupting Capitalism: Michael Ende’s Momo and “Cathedral Station”

Michael Ende, the well-known author of The Neverending Story, foresaw dramatic changes in the fabric of society resulting from a turn toward neoliberal policies. One such far-reaching and dangerous change has to do with a diminishing of temporal autonomy, the ability to freely determine the use and meaning of our time. This article explores how neoliberalism is shaping our concept of time and our experience of it. In an effort to demonstrate the process and the line of reasoning behind the monetization of time, and to connect time to more qualitative considerations of the human condition, I shall demonstrate how Ende conceptualizes time as an integral part of the accumulation process of capitalism. I also discuss a fairly cryptic short story, “Cathedral Station,” that envisions “the mystery of money.” Utilizing Walter Benjamin’s critique issued in his 1921 fragment “Capitalism as Religion,” I outline Ende’s dystopian vision of the uncontested, unquestioned reign of capitalism as a religious cult. Read together, the novel and the short story offer a way of contrasting two extreme byproducts of capitalism’s colonization of time, namely what I would call an “ideology of work” and an “ideology of growth.” The first of these is a result of capitalism’s commodification of time according to liberal ideals such as choice, freedom, and self-interest. The second is a decidedly neoliberal phenomenon in that the “financialization of everything,” to use David Harvey’s phrase, results in the ever-present expectation of unlimited, exponential growth. By drawing out these two interconnected ideologies through close readings, the subtle processes of capitalism’s colonization of time are revealed.