Punctuality and the Everyday Ethics of Time

Some Evidence from the Mass Observation Archive

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4850237
AutoresJenny Shaw (0000-0003-2569-7687, autor de correspondencia)
Año1994
Volumen3
Número1
Páginas79-97
Fecha de publicación1994-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaTime & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0961-463X • E-ISSN: 1461-7463
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0961463x94003001004
OpenAlexW1966301611
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas17

A taken-for-granted aspect of everyday life is that people are usually punctual. This norm is so well established that a common sense understanding of unpunctuality as a personality defect prevails in the social science literature. Drawing on qualitative and experiential data from the Mass Observation Archive, this paper argues that punctuality is less a matter of individual virtue and more one of age, gender and work situation. It proposes that a close study of these differentiating `surface' conditions leads back to more fundamental questions of social structure and solidarity. The sentiments underlying the norm demanding unconditional punctuality correspond to, and may be a legacy of, the `mechanical solidarity' that Durkheim stressed underpinned even the most complex and advanced societies

Aesthetics · Epistemology · Everyday life · Experiential learning · Norm (philosophy · Political science · Punctuality · Sociology · Solidarity · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Emile Durkheim and Sociology · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Psychology