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Temporality and normativity are interwoven with one another: Timings
convey norms and normative shifts. Rhythms enforce forms of life,
conveying rules and principles. Flows of time fit experience and
expectation to one another producing specific versions of past, present
and future. The end of time conjures up both utopian and dystopian
visions.

Yet, while the plurality of normative orders has emerged as a crucial
issue of social theory (Boltanski & Thévenot, 1999), its temporal
dynamics have received little attention so far. And while the
accelerating dynamics of time (Rosa, 2015; Simmel, 1903; Benjamin, 1999;
Virilio, 1997; Wajcman & Dodd, 2017) as well as the plurality of
temporal orders have been recognized  (Lefebvre, 2004), implications for
theorizing normative orders remain unclear. In social theory, time has
been addressed as a social ordering principle  (Zerubavel, 1982)
emphasizing the symbolic dimension and the normative aspects of social
regularities. Especially with industrialization processes (Adam, 2004)
clock time has been naturalized as commodified, compressed, colonized
and controlled resource which regulates social relations. Normativity,
on the other hand, is typically understood through spatial and static
imagery, in terms of already given normative "spheres," "reach" and
"binding force." The normativity of time, in turn, is commonly
backgrounded and kept "still" as a rather unproblematic, uncontested
convention guarded by technology. By temporalizing phenomena---e.g.
systems of gift exchange (Bourdieu, 1977)---a praxeological perspective
questions such static views on normative orders and shows how issues of
timing are integral to social practices.

To discuss the nexus of temporal and normative orders in empirical
detail and with ethnographic sensibility, we propose to focus on various
forms of (traffic and transport) mobility. With real-timing, punctuality
and synchronization as its crucial requirements, mobility brings the
plurality of temporal orders to the fore. Traffic and transport
mobilities rely on and create rhythms as "active producers of realities"
(Revill, 2013). Furthermore, mobile practices perform hybrid public
spaces where the plurality of temporal and normative orders becomes
especially palpable. In these spaces temporal and normative orders are
automated, technically embedded and mobilized---increasingly through
software and code (Kitchin and Dodge, 2011; Kitchin, in press).
Consequently, being mobile and/or mobilizing others makes the plurality
of normative and temporal orders an issue: distant spheres have to be
linked, gaps to be bridged, connections forged, groups coordinated,
timelines met, processes aligned etc.

Through the study of traffic and transport mobilities we direct
attention to the intricate relations that multiple temporal and
normative orders unfold in practice. Temporal and normative orders
overlap and interfere; they support and challenge one another.  We seek
to develop both a normative notion of time as well as a dynamic notion
of normativity: temporality as a fundamental normative issue,
normativity as a temporal phenomenon through and through. In so doing,
we aim to reconcile a praxeological account (social order as practical
accomplishment) with normative notions of sociality (social order as
moral order)---a notion present in proto-praxeological social theory
(most prominently, ethnomethodology and interactionism) but absent in
most theorizing thereafter, only gaining weight again in current
theorizing. With this theoretical interest in traffic and transport
mobilities, we propose to expand on recent mobility studies (e.g.
Büscher, Urry, & Witchger, 2010; Cresswell, 2006; Krämer & Schindler,
2016; Jensen, 2015; Urry, 2007), for which theoretical and empirical
issues are always intertwined.

To explore the nexus of temporal and normative orders, we invite papers
that deal empirically and/or conceptually with the relation of normative
and temporal orders in the field of mobilities. Possible questions
include:

- *Punctuality*: Why is punctuality a norm frequently encountered when
  dealing with organized traffic and transport? Why is it still upheld
  despite trains, flights, ferries, cars, and busses often being late?
  How are different forms of mobilities linked to punctuality? What does
  it mean to be punctual when driving by car or travelling by plane?
- *Real-timeness, synchronization, anticipation,
  prediction/prioritization*: How do different forms of temporality
  occur? How are they arranged and organized?
- *Rhythm and flow*: When is rhythm enforced (rhythm as enforced
  discipline), when does it become a flow (rhythm as a skillful way of
  handling time)? Which forms of eurhythmia, arrhythmia and polyrhythmia
  take place? Through what kind of infrastructures?
- *Experience*: How do experiences of time develop a normative force
  when we are mobile?
- *Control*: How is the plurality of normative and temporal orders in
  transport and traffic monitored and regulated? How are temporal gaps
  and normative splits managed in practice?
- *Conflict and competing demands of time*: When can issues of timing in
  traffic and transport help settle conflicts, when do they generate and
  amplify conflict? How do they interfere?
- *Breakdown of orders*: How to keep on track when rhythms fall apart
  and time estimates become obsolete? What are temporal and normative
  orders of breakdown and catastrophe?
- *Scaling*: How are norms of traffic uphold over longer periods of
  time? How do actors scale their actions so that norms become
  relatively durable? What are the different scales that can be
  identified when talking about the temporality and normativity of
  traffic?

If you are interested in presenting a paper, please send an abstract
(max. 300 words) to
[on_time@uni-siegen.de](mailto:on_time@uni-siegen.de){target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer"} until **15^th^ of February 2018**.

To facilitate discussions during the workshop participants will be asked
to hand in short papers (approx. 3,000--4,000 words) no later than
**15^th^ of July 2018**.

Non-tenured researchers attending the workshop may apply for a refund of
their travel and accomodation costs!
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###### **References**

Adam, B. (2004). *Time*, Cambridge, Polity Press.

Benjamin, W. (1999). *The Arcades Project*, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap
Press of Harvard University Press.

Boltanski, L., & Thévenot, L. (1999). The Sociology of Critical
Capacity. *European Journal of Social Theory*, *2*(3), 359--377.

Bourdieu, P. (1977). *Outline of a Theory of Practice*, Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press.

Büscher, M., Urry, J., & Witchger, K. (Eds.) (2010). *Mobile Methods*.
London/New York: Routledge.

Cresswell, T. (2006). *On the Move: Mobility in the Modern Western
World*. London/New York: Routledge.

Kitchin, R. (in press) The Realtimeness of Smart Cities. *Tecnoscienza,
8(2).*

Kitchin, R. and Dodge, M. (2011). *Code/Space: Software and Everyday
Life*, Cambridge, MIT Press.

Jensen, O. B. (2015). *Mobilities*. London/New York: Routledge.

Krämer, H., & Schindler, L. (Eds.) (2016). *Mobiltät* (Special Issue of
the Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie 41(1)) Wiesbaden:
Springer VS.

Lefebvre, H. (2004). *Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life*.
London/New York: Continnuum.

Revill, G. (2013). Points of Departure: Listening to Rhythm in the
Sonoric Spaces of the Railway Station. *The Sociological Review*, 61
(S1), 51--68.

Rosa, H. (2015). *Social Acceleration*. New York: New York University
Press.

Simmel, G. (1971). The Metropolis and Mental life. In Donald Levine
(Ed.), *Simmel: On Individuality and Social Forms* (p. 324). Chicago:
Chicago University Press.

Urry, J. (2007). *Mobilities*. Cambridge: Polity.

Virilio, P. (1997). *Open Sky*, London, Verso.

Wajcman, Judy, & Dodd, Nigel (Eds.) (2017). *The Sociology of Speed:
Digital, Organizational, and Social Temporalities*. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

Zerubavel, E. (1982). The Standardization of Time: A Sociohistorical
Perspective. *American Journal of Sociology*, *88*(1), 1--23.
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Temporality and normativity are interwoven with one another: Timings convey norms and normative shifts. Rhythms enforce forms of life, conveying rules and principles. Flows of time fit experience and expectation to one another producing specific versions of past, present and future. The end of time conjures up both utopian and dystopian visions.

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

CfP: Workshop: On time. Temporal and normative ordering of mobilities. Sept 13-14, 2018 @ University of Siegen (GER). Deadline: Feb 15, 2018