Do Technologies have Time?

Hörning, Karl H.; Ahrens, Daniela; Gerhard, Anette

doi:10.1177/0961463x99008002005

Cited by 53 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Numerous perspectives have attempted to describe the current temporal conditions and how these conditions endure through practices or technologies. A few in-depth reviews do exist on approaches to time and society by Adams (1990Adams ( , 2006, Abbott (2001), May and Thrift (2001), Brose (2004) and Hörn ing, Ahrens and Gerhard (1999). These approaches include questions about democracy and time (Connolly, 2002;Rosa, 2003;Scheuerman, 2004;Wolin, 1997), geography (May & Thrift, 2001, sociology (Adam, 1990;Castells, 1996), media studies (Hassan & Purser, 2007), queer theory (Dinshaw et al, 2007;Freeman, 2010) and science and technology studies (Edwards, 2003;Wajcman, 2008).…”

Section: Times Of Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internet Routing Algorithms, Transmission and Time: Toward a Concept of Transmisive Control

McKelvey¹

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This dissertation develops the concept of transmissive control to explore the consequences of changes in Internet routing for communication online. Where transmission often denotes an act of exchanging information between sender and receiver, transmissive control theorizes transmission as the production and assignment of common times or temporalities between components of a communication system. Transmissive control functions both operationally according to how computational algorithms route Internet data (known as packets) and systematically according to how patterns in these operations express temporalities of coordination and control. Transmissive control questions how algorithms transmit packets and how transmission expresses valuable temporalities within the Internet. The concept of transmissive control developed as a response to advanced Internet routing algorithms that have greater awareness of packets and more capacity to intervene during transmission. The temporality of the Internet is changing due to these algorithms. Where transmissive control has been made possible by the Internet’s core asynchronous design that allows for many diferent temporalities to be simultaneous (such as real-time networks or time-sharing networks), this diversity has taxed the resources of the Internet infrastructure as well as the business models of most Internet Service Providers (ISPs). To bring the temporality of the Internet back under control, ISPs and other network administrators have turned to transmissive control to better manage their resources. Their activities shift the Internet from an asynchronous temporality to a poly-chronous temporality where network administrators set and manage the times of the Internet. Where this turn to traffic management has often been framed as a debate over the neutrality of the Internet, the dissertation re-orientates the debate around transmissive control. Tactics by the anti-copyright Pirate Bay and Internet transparency projects illustrate potential political and policy responses to transmissive control. The former seeks to elude its control where the latter seeks to expose its operation. These components as well as the operation of transmissive control will be developed through a series of metaphors from the film Inception, the demons of Pandemonium, the novel Moby-Dick and the film Stalker. Each metaphor cooperate to provide a comprehensive discussion of transmissive control.

show abstract

Section: Times Of Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internet Routing Algorithms, Transmission and Time: Toward a Concept of Transmisive Control

McKelvey¹

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The aspiration to create periods of quality time points to a reflexive consciousness of scarce time budgets and an ambition to exploit the share of available time, guided by social or personal preferences. In the interviews and posts, we encountered an intention to “utilize the time which they have gained as a result of the flexibilization of their working time for the purpose of initiating a process of time management, and thus of self-management,” as Hörning et al (1999: viii) put it. This reflexivity engenders, Adam (2003) postulates, the idea of a mastery of time and a control of temporal rhythms according to predefined values.…”

Section: Aspirations Of Reflexive Time Usementioning

confidence: 99%

#qualitytime: Aspiring to temporal autonomy in harried leisure

Pentzold

Konieczko²,

Osterloh³

et al. 2020

New Media & Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article examines the representation and use of quality time. It brings together an analysis of images tagged and shared under the hashtag #qualitytime on Instagram with an investigation into the trope’s resonance in everyday life. In the interviews and profiles studied in this article, people used the term to indicate and display instances of self-determined solitude or of fulfilling conviviality in which mobile phones and social media were conspicuously absent. At the same time, the notion required them to carve out and valorize moments of purpose, a goal that was often unattainable. Use of the hashtag was thus accompanied by both the opportunity and the obligation to aspire to temporary retreats in which free time was employed for meaningful activity. This means that the somewhat pretentious keyword signifies the ideal of temporal autonomy while also pointing to the slim chance of finding uncompromised spells of time within harried leisure.

show abstract

“…The idea is that, in highly technological contexts, individuals' movements are triggered, delayed and paced, not by notions of geographic distances nor by difficulties in localising routes, but by the perception that a schedule can be negotiated, meeting times can be squeezed, or that a place can be reached within a certain period of time. Technologies provoke multidimensional practices of time and new meanings of temporality [8], which consequently influence movement.…”

Section: Research Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%