A Geography of Time: The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist, or How Every Culture...

A Geography of Time: The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist, or How Every Culture Keeps Time ... | Robert V. Levine | interesting look into human perception and modern society

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A Geography of Tim...

	A Geography of Time: The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist, or How Every Culture Keeps Time ... Robert V. Levine Basic Books, 1998 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 12 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

In this engaging and spirited book, eminent social psychologist Robert Levine asks us to explore a dimension of our experience that we take for granted?our perception of time. When we travel to a different country, or even a different city in the United States, we assume that a certain amount of cultural adjustment will be required, whether it?s getting used to new food or negotiating a foreign language, adapting to a different standard of living or another currency. In fact, what contributes most to our sense of disorientation is having to adapt to another culture?s sense of time.Levine, who has devoted his career to studying time and the pace of life, takes us on an enchanting tour of time through the ages and around the world. As he recounts his unique experiences with humor and deep insight, we travel with him to Brazil, where to be three hours late is perfectly acceptable, and to Japan, where he finds a sense of the long-term that is unheard of in the West. We visit communities in the United States and find that population size affects the pace of life?and even the pace of walking. We travel back in time to ancient Greece to examine early clocks and sundials, then move forward through the centuries to the beginnings of ?clock time? during the Industrial Revolution. We learn that there are places in the world today where people still live according to ?nature time,? the rhythm of the sun and the seasons, and ?event time,? the structuring of time around happenings(when you want to make a late appointment in Burundi, you say, ?I?ll see you when the cows come in?).Levine raises some fascinating questions. How do we use our time? Are we being ruled by the clock? What is this doing to our cities? To our relationships? To our own bodies and psyches? Are there decisions we have made without conscious choice? Alternative tempos we might prefer? Perhaps, Levine argues, our goal should be to try to live in a ?multitemporal? society, one in which we learn to move back and forth among nature time, event time, and clock time. In other words, each of us must chart our own geography of time. If we can do that, we will have achieved temporal prosperity.

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Time, Place, Pace: New ways to think about our creation.

A Geography of Time, by Robert Levine, discusses time as few may have previously considered it in their daily pursuits. Through personal experience, via a sabbatical, Levine offers keen insights into the rhythms of life as experienced by peoples and places the world over. Offering "tempo" and what he calls "clock time" and "event time," as points of departure in an analysis of his and his colleagues observations, Levine successfully illustrates how not only "personality types" impact a region, but also how the region impacts the personality as well, thus revealing the symbiotic relationship between the person or persons and place or places respectively.

By traversing not only the globe, but the subject of time as well, Levine has allowed readers to come closer to understanding their world and those of others with whom they come in contact. Of his main points, Levine successfully argues that we are oriented to clock-time, event-time, or "multitemporality," i.e., psychological androgyny. [Of this in between time and state of mind, Levine shows that we are better served in such a space than that of being exclusively in one or the other of either clock or event time; especially as it relates to our social, physical and psychological well being.]

Two chapters considered interesting by this reviewer are chapters one and ten. Due to the foundation established in chapter one regarding "tempo," and the last wherein Levine offers practical solutions to balance our activities and potentially lead healthier and happier lives, A Geography of Time, is not only a delightful read, it is also enormously illuminating. By providing an approachable perspective for consideration, as it relates to human activity and interaction, i.e., tempo, coupled with personal and collegial anecdotes, Levine has broached the subject of the relativity of time and pace with considerable depth and admirable precision.

In chapter one, "Tempo: The Speed of Life," Levine shows how humans, despite best efforts of social constructionists, still "march to the beat of different drummers." Borrowing from the field of music, the element of tempo, Levine notices, along with colleagues who have both traveled and lived in other countries, that not only do people have different rhythms in locales the world over, but that there seem to be distinguishable characteristics of and between the places as well. In asking the question, "what characteristics of places and cultures make them faster or slower?" Levine posits two elements for consideration: "economic well-being" and "degree of industrialization." With these elements in mind, Levine, in later chapters, develops some rather interesting and amusing ways to determine not only people's level of helpfulness in a specific locale, but also the pace of locales observed.

In chapter ten, "Minding your time, Timing your Mind," Levine successfully answers the "so what?" question. By illustrating that there are significant and avoidable consequences to certain tempos, he offers practical suggestions for a new way of not only interacting with members from different locales, but also for simply living. In coupling "lessons" learned in chapter nine, with ideas regarding middle-time in chapter ten, readers will come away from Levin's work with a clearer understanding not only themselves as "paced" individuals, but also how pace affects others in their midst. With this newfound knowledge, if put into practice, readers are sure to be in a better mental space for having been so informed.

As with any work, it has both its high and low points. With Levine's A Geography of Time, there are a few that deserve mention. However, for the sake of space and time, I will relegate my comments to chapters with the most "lows." That being said, chapters three and seven: "A Brief History of Clock Time," and "Health, Wealth, happiness, and Charity" respectively deserve my attention in this regard.

In chapter three, Levine discusses the "history of clock time," but omits some important elements for consideration. Having presented good historical information regarding the emergence of both watches and time zones in America, with the latter having ties to the railroad industry, it would have been illuminating to understand more about the socialization process of convincing the mass of people to accept this new way of thinking about the day. Another missed opportunity is found in the lack of in-depth discussion surrounding the carving up of the day into units of time, i.e., the twenty-four hour period and the sixty-minute hour. Perhaps a discussion of this element of the social construction of time would have lent more meat to a good beginning to the question of time and its social meaning.

Additionally, given his discussions of "time zones," it would have been equally revealing to read of the need for the creation of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), as it relates to globalization and economics. Not to mention the politics surrounding the choice of Greenwich as the focal point around which time has been socially constructed. Given that the Giza Plateau in Egypt is the geographical center of the pre-plate tectonic shifting of the earth's land mass; which for logical reasons seems a truer fit for the center of a "time-line," perhaps a discussion of some of the then discussions surrounding this event and its consequences, both pro and con, would have been a more just treatment of not only time in America, but around the globe as well; all of which serve as social tethers to and for time, clocks, watches, and socialization alike.

In chapter seven, while discussing "health, wealth, happiness, and charity," Levine merely makes allusion to that intangible something that gives a place its certain "feeling." In omitting this element of the place, Levine opts not to reveal the evident, but intangible components of a respective locale. Beyond stating, "our data strongly support the notion that cities, too, can be Type A" (as in personality). Perhaps it is in his "silence" on this subject that one may find some substance for consideration. For him with eyes and ears, this element is quite revealing.

Overall, Levine's work is compelling in that it reveals elements of our daily lives that provide clues as to how we have come to be that which we are: either a clock-time or event-time person, or some "androgynous" realization of the best of both worlds. In presenting this work, Levine has allowed for a clearer understanding of not only other locales around the world, their paces and people, but also those closer to home as well. In so doing, he has given the traveler and non-traveler alike, an opportunity to broaden their perspective on different cultures and potentially foster an even greater understanding of new peoples and societies with their time and pace peculiarities. Should the ideas be both understood and employed by readers, a level of respect will not only emerge for different cultures, but a more profound understanding of one's own culture as well; for this and many other reasons Levine's work should be praised.

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interesting look into human perception and modern society

Levine reports beautifully on his studies of cultural perceptions of time in the modern world. He writes well and engagingly, presenting a very interesting and telling look into human perception of time in different cultures and its effect on mental and physical health, reasoning, and society. A must read.

Time well spent

"A Geography of Time" is an almost-excellent study of perception of time, and how this perception is affected by culture and location. A new vocabulary is introduced to the reader, along with a host of new ideas about time, including "event time," "natural time," and the familiar "clock time." The author's research is enlightening and challenging.

The concepts are easy to absorb, and the subject is well-researched and documented. I have no doubt that Levine's work is strong. Some of the work involves providing evidence for well-known concepts, such as bigger cities have a faster pace than smaller cities. Interesting correlations are drawn between the pace of a location and the accuracy of it's timepieces. I found the concept of being able to train oneself to elongate and condense time perception to be particularly interesting, such as in the case of a martial artist who moves fast by forcing an opponent to appear to move slow. Other interesting tidbits include the "contradiction of Japan," which shows that an ultra-fast paced life can be balanced out with cultural rules to prevent aggression, and how a slow-paced city is not necessarily kinder than a fast-paced city.

The reason why "A Geography of Time" is only almost-excellent is due to the author's skills as a writer. Ideas are not presented in a structured manner, information is redundantly repeated and personal opinions are freely mixed with research and evidence. Some difficult concepts, such as Einstein's time dilatation in Special Relativity are introduced as window dressing for what amounts to a sociological subject. A brief history of the introduction of clocks in America is included. The last chapter is almost a "self help" opinion piece by the author, on how to use knowledge of time to greatest advantage.

All in all, while the research is interesting and the concepts are worth reading, the book would have benefited from a tighter focus on the author's part. The book wander's lazily from concept to concept, and hurts the material overall. All in all, worth reading and enjoyable, but falling just short of the mark.

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Whose time are you taking, anyway?

Chances are good that you live a clock-time life, even if your inclination is toward event-time. You may be either mono- or polychronic, Type A or Type B, and within that frame either aggressive or passive. Whichever way you take your time, neat or on the rocks, time and your relationship to it are part of the unspoken language of any culture. Levine's GEOGRAPHY takes you around the world and into yourself exploring the meaning of time in our lives. With annecdotes and statistics, the author helps readers pry the back off of mental clocks to see the surprising works inside. A man arranges to meet his brother in Kabul, Afghanistan, and waits all week before turning to an embassy for help. When contact is finally made, it turns out that the two men had agreed on a week but not a year. To us that seems humorous, because our years seem to move on a timeline from past to future. To an Afghani the calendar is more viscerally cyclical, years repeat the circle and are not meaningfully different. Historically, why did duels, battles and treaty signings so often happen at dawn? Then, (as now in the few remaining clock-free cultures) dawn was one of three "times" in the daily flow that could be clearly specified, along with "nonetime" (noon) and sundown (clearly an inauspicious hour to take aim at one's opponent). I realized through this reading that I am inclined toward event-time polychronism. That is; I prefer to handle things as they occur instead of adhering to a pre-set schedule, and prefer to engage in several things at once instead of one thing at a time. Helpfully, Levine offers suggestions of ways to include your innate time sense in life within a society running in a different mode. Also included are rankings of a few dozen cities world-wide in order of pace: not surprisingly the dominant economic countries, where "time is money" tend to be the faster moving ones. On the other hand, Japan moves very fast but without most of the tension and stress found in the U.S. -- probably because theirs is a cooperative culture and ours competitve and individualistic. Equally illuminating are the differences dividing Japan and the U.S. from Europe. Europeans move quickly like we do, but take a whole lot more time off -- five weeks mandatory vacation in most countries, and a friend told me just yesterday that France is slated to move to a 35 hour work week. Time sense is important. Differences in personal timing rank second to monetary concerns as a cause of friction in relationships (!), and cultural variance can cripple communication for travelers and governments alike. An American keeping an appointment is shown into an office somewhere in Africa. Her host is engaged in conversation with another person and so she stands back, politely waiting her turn. Several minutes later the host turns on her and blasts her with castigation for failing to interrupt and greet him. Has she no manners? What civilized person could possibly enter a room and not immediately greet another? Her explanation/apology that she was following American rules of conduct is rejected. He insists she was intentionally being rude. You see? Timing is everything.

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