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Teaching time as a social imaginary. Using speculative fabulation to deconstruct the hegemonic temporalities of modernity

Bibliographic Data

ID4356290
AuthorsMarian Preda (University of Bucharest), Ștefania Matei (0000-0001-8086-7293, University of Bucharest, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume32
Issue3
Pages318-335
Publication date2023-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTime & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0961-463X • E-ISSN: 1461-7463
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0961463x231190693
OpenAlexW4385346681
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited19

In this paper, we discuss our experience in teaching time to university students. Our analysis suggests that students' sociological imagination and fictional creativity might be used as means to deconstruct the hegemonic temporalities of modernity. Specifically, we exemplify our claims by considering a set of classroom activities that use speculative fabulation in order to make students question key assumptions about the objective nature of time. The activities we discuss are based on an original combination of exposure to cultural products, reflective writing exercises, and moderated group discussion, thus opening up new horizons of temporal experimentation, exploration, and interpretation. Our activities invite students to imagine alternative temporalities that are decoupled from prevalent mindsets and challenge the taken-for-granted assumptions about the temporal worlds. The assignments are designed as imaginative scenarios, in which students are asked to question the universal, commodified, and absolute notion of time while becoming familiar with the work of relevant thinkers in sociology and anthropology. Based on our results, we conclude that speculative fabulation holds a strong emancipatory potential and is able to bring about significant changes in how students think about time, because it promotes more empowering and meaningful ways of engagement with the world

Aesthetics · Commodification · Epistemology · Hegemony · Interpretation (philosophy · Late modernity · Linguistics · Modernity · Set (abstract data type · Social science · Sociology · Temporalities · Temporality · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Computer Science · Humor Studies and Applications · Philosophy · Social and Cultural Dynamics

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  • Timescapes of Modernity

    Bárbara Adam•Timescapes of Modernity•2005

  • Utopia as Method

    Open Access•Ruth Levitas•Utopia As Method•2013

  • Power and Possibility

    J Tummons•Studies in the Education of Adults•2020

  • Toward a Speculative Pedagogy

    Open Access•Delphi Carstens•Critical Studies in Teaching and…•2020

  • Touring the carbon ruins

    Open Access•Paul Graham Raven, Johannes Stripple•Global Discourse•2020

  • How Speculative Fiction Can Teach about Gender and Power in International Politics

    Open Access•Cynthia Boaz•International Studies Perspectives•2019

  • SF! Haraway's Situated Feminisms and Speculative Fabulations in English Class

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  • Time Matters

    Open Access•Cynthia Selin•Time & Society•2006

Unique citing works2
Citations per year2
Citation span2026 - 2026 (1)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 1

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