Introduction: Ahead of time

摘要

There is little doubt that time constitutes a significant, if often neglected, aspect of contemporary economies, with much emphasis placed upon national, organizational and individual gain, success and advancement as putting a premium upon and revolving around particular concepts of time (see Bluedorn and Denhardt 1988; Burrell 1992; Godfrey, Jack, and Jones 2004). We are constantly informed that time not spent profitably is time lost (Landes 1983). Time's fleetingness (Hassard 1989), its irrevocable compression (Jacobsson 2008), and its strategic (re-)allocation (Das 1991) have also become part and parcel of shrill clarion calls found to be trumpeted in and to underpin late capitalism (e.g. Jameson 1994; Thrift 2005; Whipp, Adam, and Sabelis 2002).