Workshop: Social Time in Written Artefacts

Social Time in Written Artefacts

Developing Understandings of ‘Time’ in Urban Communities Across Cultures

The study of written artefacts is deeply intertwined with questions of time, as they produce and manifest experiences and imaginations of time. Individuals, groups and institutions organise and regulate time through written artefacts, shaping and structuring the rhythms of a community. Time is also a way to show aspirations, creating socio-political, religious and cultural realities. A prime example is the Urania-Weltzeituhr (Alexanderplatz, Berlin, former GDR), which displays the time in 146 countries, exhibiting the hope of cosmopolitanism within a secluded country. At the same time, concepts and practices of ‘social time’ are culturally and epochally specific. As a result, multi- and interdisciplinary approaches to 'social time' are scarce; juxtaposing and integrating cross-disciplinary, cross-temporal, and cross-cultural perspectives can contribute significantly to our understanding of social experiences and time structuring. The workshop aims to study and discuss which aspects of ‘social time’ are influential in shaping written artefacts, and how written artefacts shape ‘social time’. The workshop brings together young researchers from fields of research within the Humanities and Social Sciences and research from Antiquity to the modern world focusing on case studies in Europe, Asia and the Americas, thus creating an interdisciplinary platform for cross-disciplinary discussion on time and materiality in urban societies.