Time‐Space Distanciation: An Interdisciplinary Account of How Culture Shapes the Implicit and Explicit Psychology of Time and Space

Abstract

The growing body of research on temporal and spatial experience lacks a comprehensive theoretical approach. Drawing on Giddens’ framework, we present time‐space distanciation (TSD) as a construct for theorizing the relations between culture, time, and space. TSD in a culture may be understood as the extent to which (1) time and space are abstracted as separate dimensions and (2) activities are extended and organized across time and space. After providing a historical account of its development, we outline a multi‐level conceptualization of TSD supported by research on cultural differences in the experience of time and space. We impact this conceptualization by examining two ethnographic case studies. We conclude by highlighting future research directions. TSD is an integrative, interdisciplinary, multi level construct with the potential to guide the burgeoning social science of time and space.

Time-Space Distanciation as a Decolonizing Framework for Psychology

“…The second level involves the psychological colonization of spatial and temporal orientations (Adjaye, 1994; Nanni, 2011). This psychological colonization stems from material spatiotemporal production, which facilitates and requires the universalization of hegemonic standards for future-oriented, individualistic, and capitalistic ways of being via the abstraction of objects and people from their proximal spatiotemporal context (Nguyen, 1992; Sullivan et al, 2016). Space and time have become the de facto means of social control in a global neoliberal culture that declares individual freedom to be a value.…”

Time–space distanciation: An empirically supported integrative framework for the cultural psychology of time and space

“…Even within the United States, many factors—career, socioeconomic status, religious affiliation, access to technology, and institutions—generate very different experiences of time and space. Synthesizing the disparate research in this domain in order to clarify the importance of structural factors for the social psychology of temporal and spatial experience, the authors (Palitsky et al., 2016; Sullivan et al., 2016) have proposed a theoretical analysis centered on time–space distanciation (TSD). 1 This construct refers to broad variation in how differing groups shape people’s experience and conceptualization of time, space, and their relationship.…”

“…Derived from the theorizing of Giddens (1990) and Harvey (1990), TSD refers to the extent to which (1) time and space are abstracted from one another within a social environment through their precise measurement and control as separate, quantifiable dimensions, and (2) activities tend to be abstracted and organized across large distances and long spans of time (Sullivan et al., 2016). For individuals belonging to lower-TSD groups, or socialized in lower-TSD environments, time and space are only slightly differentiated: spaces are defined and shaped by the activities that occur within their boundaries, and time is not very sharply conceptualized beyond present activities.…”

“…The fact that TSD at the aggregate level arises from both group-based and environmental factors broaches the interesting possibility that individuals may be subject to conflicting TSD-related influences as a function of the intersectionality of social identity and location in a globalizing world. Depending on the point of comparison, these different types of factors will be largely correlated and reinforcing; for example, when comparing the pastoral Duna of Papua New Guinea to urban Chicagoans, environmental and group-based TSD differences are largely conflated (Sullivan et al., 2016). Naturally, however, given individuals may find themselves subject to contradictory forces; consider the case of lower-class workers who commute to spend much of their lives working in elite hotels, or a person socialized into a high-TSD psychology who adopts the role of primary caregiver and suddenly feels increased temporal–spatial boundedness and constraint.…”

Life in the Digital Slow Lane: How Deprived Young People Are Set Up to Fail

“…Almost overnight, large numbers of schools were forced to convert to an online remote learning model at minimal notice and with minimal additional investment for training or equipment. This conversion provides us with an ongoing example of what has been termed a temporalspatial shift (Sullivan et al, 2016) or time-space distanciation (Giddens, 1990). When such a phenomenon occurs in education, cohorts suddenly become fragmented, with learners being physically separate and learning at different times as well as using different methods.…”