Time, Capitalism and Alienation: A Socio-Historical Inquiry Into the Making of Modern Time (Historical Materialism Book)

In Time, Capitalism and Alienation. A Socio-Historical Inquiry into the Making of Modern Time, Jonathan Martineau offers an account of the histories of social time in Europe, from the innovation of the clock around 1300 to the making of World Standard Time around the turn of the twentieth century. Approaching 'time' as a social phenomenon traversed by various power and property relations, this work provides a socio-theoretical and historical analysis of the relationship between clock-time and capitalist social relations, problematizing the rise to hegemony of a clock-time regime harnessing various social temporalities to the purpose of capitalist development. This book sheds light on the alienating tendencies of the modern temporal regime and the relationship between time and modern economic development. Biographical note Jonathan Martineau, Ph.D. (2012), York University, currently teaches at Concordia University and at Université du Québec à Montréal. He has published Marxisme anglo-saxon. Figures contemporaines (Montréal, Lux, 2013), as well as many articles and translations. Readership All interested in Time studies, social theory, Marx and Marxism, history of Europe, heterodox economics, social science journals, academic librairies, humanities journals, history of technology. Contents 7 Introduction 11 Chapter 1 Theory, Method, Time 21 1 Alienation, Reification, Method and Time 21 2 Time in the Social Sciences: ‘Social Time’ 32 3 Norbert Elias, Barbara Adam and Time Studies: Towards a Concept of Social Time 35 Chapter 2 The Origin of Clock-time, and the Origin of Capitalism 57 1 The Innovation of the Clock: Clock-time, Wage-labour and Commerce in Context 57 2 The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism 96 3 The Clock-time Infrastructure 102 4 Newton’s Time 106 5 Remarks on Pre-capitalist Social Time Relations 113 Chapter 3 Capitalist Social Time Relations 117 1 Clock-time in the Capitalist Context 117 2 Value Formation, Appropriation, and Abstract-time 123 3 Labour Market, Capitalist Industrialisation, and Clock-time 132 4 World Standard Time 135 5 Alienated Time and Reified Time 142 6 The Temporal Forms of Domination and Resistance 157 Conclusion 173 Bibliography 179 Index of Terms 187 Index of Names 189 Acknowledgements Introduction CHAPTER 1: THEORY, METHOD, TIME A) Alienation, reification, method and time B) Time in the social sciences: ‘Social time’ C) Norbert Elias, Barbara Adam and time studies: Towards a concept of social time CHAPTER 2: THE ORIGIN OF CLOCK-TIME, AND THE ORIGIN OF CAPITALISM A) The innovation of the clock: clock-time, wage-labour and commerce in context B) The transition from feudalism to capitalism C) The clock-time infrastructure D) Newton’s time E) Remarks on pre-capitalist social time relations CHAPTER 3: CAPITALIST SOCIAL TIME RELATIONS A) Clock-time in the capitalist context B) Value formation, appropriation, and abstract time C) Labour-market, capitalist industrialisation and clock-time D) World Standard Time E) Alienated time and reified time F) The temporal forms of domination and resistance Conclusion Bibliography Index In Time, Capitalism and Alienation. A Socio-Historical Inquiry into the Making of Modern Time, Jonathan Martineau offers an account of the histories of social time in Europe, from the innovation of the clock around 1300 to the making of World Standard Time around the turn of the twentieth century. Approaching 'time' as a social phenomenon traversed by various power and property relations, this work provides a socio-theoretical and historical analysis of the relationship between clock-time and capitalist social relations, problematizing the rise to hegemony of a clock-time regime harnessing various social temporalities to the purpose of capitalist development. This book sheds light on the alienating tendencies of the modern temporal regime and the relationship between time and modern economic development. Book jacket