In sociology and anthropology, time discipline is the general name given to social and economic rules, conventions, customs, and expectations governing the measurement of time, the social currency and awareness of time measurements, and people's expectations concerning the observance of these customs by others. Sociology is the study of the social lives of humans, groups and societies. ... Anthropology (from the Greek word άνθρωπος = human) consists of the study of humankind (see genus Homo). ... A society is a group of people living or working together. ... Economics is the social science studying production and consumption through measurable variables. ... (Clockwise from upper left) Notable Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ...

The concept of "time discipline" as a field of special attention in sociology and anthropology was pioneered by E. P. Thompson in Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism, published in 1967. Coming from a Marxist viewpoint, Thompson argued that observance of clock-time is a consequence of the European industrial revolution, and that neither industrial capitalism nor the creation of the modern state would have been possible without the imposition of synchronic forms of time and work discipline. The new clock time imposed by government and capitalist interests replaced earlier, collective perceptions of time that Thompson believed flowed from the collective wisdom of human societies. While, in fact, it appears likely that earlier views of time were imposed instead by religious and other social authorities prior to the industrial revolution, Thompson's work identified time discipline as an important concept for study within the social sciences. Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century German philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... World map showing location of Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... The Industrial Revolution is the name given to the massive social, economic, and technological change in 18th century and 19th century Great Britain. ...

Time discipline and the natural world

In societies based around agriculture, hunting, and other pursuits that involve human interaction with a natural world, time discipline is a matter governed by astronomical and biological factors. Specific times of day or seasons of the year are defined by reference to these factors, and measured, to the extent that they need measuring, by observation. Different peoples' needs with respect to these things mean sharply differing cultural perceptions of time. For example, it surprises many non-Muslims that the Islamic calendar is entirely lunar and makes no reference at all to the seasons; the desert-dwelling Arabs who devised it were nomads rather than agriculturalists, and a calendar that made no reference to the seasons was no inconvenience for most of them. Farming, ploughing rice paddy, in Indonesia Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and other desired products by cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals ( livestock). ... This article is about the hunting of prey by human society. ... Astronomy, which etymologically means law of the stars, (from Greek: αστρονομία = άστρον + νόμος) is a science involving the observation and explanation of events occurring outside Earth and its atmosphere. ... Biology is the science of life (from the Greek words bios = life and logos = reasoned account). ... This article is about divisions of a year. ... A year is the time between two recurrences of an event related to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. ... The Islamic calendar or Muslim calendar is the calendar used to date events in predominately Muslim countries, and used by Muslims everywhere to determine the proper day on which to celebrate Muslim holy days. ... A lunar calendar is a calendar whose date indicates the moon phase. ... A dune in the Egyptian desert Desert in California In geography, a desert is a landscape form or region that receives little precipitation. ... Arab (disambiguation). ... Communities of nomadic people move from place to place, rather than settling down in one location. ...

Time discipline in Western societies

In more urban societies, some of these natural phenomena were no longer at hand, and most were of much less consequence to the inhabitants. Artificial means of dividing and measuring time were needed. Plautus complained of the social effect of the invention of such divisions in his lines complaining of the sundial: Titus Maccius Plautus was a comic playwright of the Roman Republic. ... Wall sundial Wall sundial in Warsaws Old Town A sundial measures time by the position of the sun. ...

The alarm clock is for many people a reminder of the intrusion of socio-economic time discipline into their sleep cycle.

The gods confound the man who first found out
How to distinguish hours! Confound him, too,
Who in this place set up a sun-dial,
To cut and hack my days so wretchedly
Into small portions. When I was a boy
My belly was my sun-dial; one more sure,
Truer, and more exact than any of them.
This dial told me when 'twas proper time
To go to dinner, when I had aught to eat.
But now-a-days, why, even when I have,
I can't fall-to, unless the sun give leave.
The town's so full of these confounded dials,
The greatest part of its inhabitants,
Shrunk up with hunger, creep along the streets.

Plautus's protagonist here complains about the social discipline and expectations that arose when these measurements of time were introduced. The invention of artificial units of time measurement made the introduction of time management possible, and time management was not universally appreciated by those whose time was managed. A wind up alarm clock An alarm clock is a clock that is designed to make an alarm sound at a specific time. ... The Circadian rhythm is a name given to the internal body clock that regulates the (roughly) 24 hour cycle of biological processes in animals and plants. ... Time Management teaches a number of techniques that aim to increase the effectiveness of a person in getting the things done that need to be done. ...

Religious influences on Western time discipline

In western Europe, the practice of Christian monasticism introduced new factors into the time discipline observed by members of religious communities. The rule of Saint Benedict introduced canonical hours; these were religious observances that were held on a daily basis, and based on factors again mostly unrelated to natural phenomena. It is no surprise, then, that religious communities were likely the inventors, and certainly the major consumers, of early clocks. The invention of the mechanical clock in western Europe, and its subsequent technical developments, enabled a public time discipline even less related to natural phenomena. (Highly sophisticated clepsydras existed in China, where they were used by astrologers connected with the imperial court; these water clocks were quite large, and their use limited to those who were professionally interested in precise timekeeping.) Western Europe is distinguished from Eastern Europe by differences of history and culture rather than by geography. ... Monasticism (from Greek: monachos—a solitary person) is the religious practice of renouncing all worldly pursuits in order to fully devote ones life to spiritual work. ... This article is about Saint Benedict of Nursia, for other uses of the name Benedict see Benedict (disambiguation) Saint Benedict of Nursia (c. ... A clock (from the Latin cloca, bell) is an instrument for measuring time. ... A water clock or clepsydra is a device for measuring time by letting water regularly flow out of a container usually by a tiny aperture. ... The Great Wall of China, stretching over 6,700 km, was erected beginning in the 3rd century BC to guard the north from raids by men on horses. ... An astrological chart (or horoscope) _ Y2K Chart — This particular chart is calculated for January 1, 2000 at 12:01:00 A.M. Eastern Standard Time in New York City, New York, USA. (Longitude: 074W0023 - Latitude: 40N4251) Astrology (from Greek: αστρολογία = άστρον, astron, star + λόγος, logos, word) is...

The invention of the clock

The English word clock comes from an Old French word for "bell"; for the striking feature of early clocks was a greater concern than their dials. Shakespeare's Sonnet XII begins, "When I do count the clock that tells the time." Even after the introduction of the clock face, clocks were costly, and found mostly in the homes of aristocrats. The vast majority of urban dwellers had to rely on clock towers, and outside the sight of their dials or the sound of their bells, clock time held no sway. Clock towers, at least, defined the time of day for those who could hear and see them. As the saying goes, "a person with a clock always knows what time it is; a person with two clocks is never sure." Old French is a term sometimes used to refer to the langue doïl, the continuum of varieties of Romance language spoken in territories corresponding roughly to the northern half of modern France and parts of Belgium and Switzerland during the period roughly from 1000 to 1300 A.D... Bell has a range of meanings: A bell is a simple sound-making device, including Tubular bells and cowbells. ... A dial is a generally a flat disk, often with numbers or similar markings on it, used for displaying the setting or output of a timepiece, radio or measuring instrument In telephony and telecommunications in connection with a telephone, a dial refers, in older telephones, to a rotating disk with... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Shakespeares sonnets comprise a collection of 154 poems in sonnet form published in 1609 and deal with themes such as love, beauty, politics, and mortality. ... A clock face is the part of an analog clock that tells time through the use of a fixed numbered dial or dials and moving hand or hands. ... Aristocracy is a form of government in which rulership is in the hands of an upper class known as aristocrats. ... For clock towers in general, see clock tower. ...

Improvements of the clock

The discipline imposed by these public clocks still remained lax by contemporary standards. A clock that only strikes the hours can only record the nearest hour that has passed; most early clocks had only hour hands in any case. Minute hands did not come into widespread use until the pendulum made a large leap in the accuracy of clocks; for watches, a similar leap in accuracy was not made possible before the invention of the balance spring. Before these improvements, the equation of time, the difference between apparent and mean solar time, was not even noticed. A gravity pendulum is a weight on the end of a rigid rod, which, when given some initial lift from the vertical position, will swing back and forth under the influence of gravity over its central (lowest) point. ... This page is about timekeeping devices. ... During the course of the year, the time as read from a sundial can run ahead of clock time by as much as 16 min 33 s (around October 31–November 1) or fall behind by as much as 14 min 6 s (around February 11–12). ...

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, private ownership of clocks and watches became more common, as their improved manufacture made them available for purchase by at least the bourgeoisie of the cities. Their proliferation had many social and even religious consequences for those who could afford and use them. (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Bourgeois at the end of the thirteenth century. ...

Religious consequences of improved clocks

Religious texts of the period make many more references to the irreversible passage of time, and artistic themes appeared at this time such as Vanitas, a reminder of death in the form of a still life, which always included a watch, clock, or some other timepiece. The relentless ticking of a clock or watch, and the slow but certain movement of its hands, functioned as a visible and audible memento mori. Clocks and sundials would be decorated with mottos such as ultima forsan ("perhaps the last" [hour]) or vulnerant omnes, ultima necat ("they all wound, and the last kills"). Even today, clocks often carry the motto tempus fugit, "time flies." Mary, Queen of Scots was said to have owned a large watch made in the shape of a silver skull. Vanitas by Pieter Claesz Vanitas is a term referring to the arts, learning and time. ... Death is either the cessation of life in a living organism or the state of the organism after that event. ... A still life is a work of art which represents a subject composed of inanimate objects. ... Memento mori is a Latin phrase that means Remember that you must die. ... Mary, Queen of Scots is the name of: Mary I of Scotland, the former queen of France and Scotland executed by her cousin Elizabeth I of England Mary, Queen of Scots (movie), a 1971 film about that queen starring Vanessa Redgrave Mary, Queen of Scots (1969 book), a 1969 book... , by Albrecht Dürer Skull symbolism is instinctive in human nature. ...

Economic consequences of improved clocks

Economically, their impact was even greater; an awareness that time is money, a limited commodity not to be wasted, also appears during this period. Because Protestantism was at this time chiefly a religion of literate city dwellers, the so-called "Protestant work ethic" came to be associated with this newly fashion time discipline; production of clocks and watches during this period shifted from Italy and Bavaria to Protestant areas such as Geneva, the Netherlands, and England; the names of French clockmakers during this time disclose a large number of Huguenot-fashion names from the Old Testament. Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... This article or section should include material from New literacy studies. ... The Protestant work ethic is a biblically based teaching on the necessity of hard work, perfection and the goodness of manual labor. ... The Italian Republic or Italy ( Italian: Repubblica Italiana or Italia) is a country in southern Europe. ... With an area of 70,553 km² and 12. ... Coat of arms of the Canton of Geneva Coat of arms of the City of Geneva Geneva (French: Genève, German: Genf, Italian: Ginevra, Romansh Genevra, Spanish: Ginebra) is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zurich), located where Lake Geneva (French: Lac de Genève or Lac L... Royal motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right) Official language None; English is de facto Capital London Capitals coordinates 51° 30 N, 0° 10 W Largest city London Area  - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 1st UK 49,138,831... In the 16th and 17th centuries, the name of Huguenots came to apply to members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France. ... The Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures constitutes the first major part of the Christian Bible, usually divided into the categories law, history, poetry (or wisdom books) and prophecy. ...

Standard, synchronous, public time

In the nineteenth century, the introduction of standard time and time zones divorced the "time of day" from local mean solar time and any links to astronomy. Time signals, like the bells and dials of public clocks, once were relatively local affairs; the ball that is dropped in Times Square on New Year's Eve in New York City once served as a time signal whose original purpose was for navigators to set their chronometers to. However, when the railroads began running trains on complex schedules, keeping a schedule that could be followed over hundreds of miles away required synchronization on a scale not attempted before. Telegraphy, and later, shortwave radio were used to broadcast time signals from the most accurate clocks available. Radio and television broadcasting schedules created a further impetus to regiment everyone's clock so that they all told the same time within a very small tolerance; the broadcasting of time announcements over radio and television enabled all the households in their audience to get in synch with the clocks at the network. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Universal Time (UT) is a timescale based on the rotation of the Earth. ... -1... Solar time is based on the idea that, when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky, it is noon. ... Astronomy, which etymologically means law of the stars, (from Greek: αστρονομία = άστρον + νόμος) is a science involving the observation and explanation of events occurring outside Earth and its atmosphere. ... A radio clock is a clock that is synchronized by a time code transmitted by a radio transmitter connected to a time standard such as an atomic clock. ... Times Square Times Square, named after the one-time headquarters of The New York Times, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, which centers on 42nd Street and Broadway. ... New Years Eve is a celebration held the day before New Years Day, on December 31, the final day of the year. ... This article concerns navigation in the sense of determination of position and direction on the surface of the Earth. ... A chronometer is a clock designed to have sufficient long-term accuracy that it can be used as a portable time standard on a vehicle, usually in order to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation. ... This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ... Synchronization is coordination with respect to time. ... Telegraphy (from the Greek words tele = far away and grapho = write) is the long distance transmission of written messages without physical transport of letters, originally over wire. ... Shortwave radio operates between the frequencies of 3,000 kHz and 30 MHz (30,000 kHz) and came to be referred to as such in the early days of radio because the wavelengths associated with this frequency range were shorter than those commonly in use at that time. ... Radio transmission diagram and electromagnetic waves Radio is a technology that allows the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of light. ... Note: broadcasting is also the old term for hand sowing. ...

The mass production of clocks and watches further tightened time discipline in the Western world; before these machines were made, and made to be more accurate, it would be idle to complain about someone's being fifteen, or five, minutes late. For many employees, the time clock was the clock that told the time that mattered: it was the clock that recorded their hours of work. By the time that time clocks became commonplace, public, synchronized clock time was considered a fact of life. Uniform, synchronized, public clock time did not exist until the nineteenth century. Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardised products on production lines. ... A time clock is an informal general name for a form of clock that is designed to measure the amount of time an employee of a business is entitled to be paid. ...

See also

• Intellectual history of time

When one speaks about the intellectual history of time, one essentially is stating that changes have occurred in the way humans experience and measure time. ...

References

• Landes, David: Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World: (Belknap/Harvard, 1983) ISBN 0-674-76800-0
• Aveni, Anthony: Empires of Time: Calendars, Clocks, and Cultures: (Basic Books, 1989) ISBN 0-465-01951-X

External link

• Upside Down and Backwards: Time Discipline in a Canadian Inuit Town (http://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/~wwwpress/jrls/anthro/issues/45_1/stern.pdf) by Pamela Stern of the University of Waterloo.