The Idea of Social Time in Norbert Elias

Abstract

This article reviews the relevance of Norbert Elias's contribution to the study of social time, concentrating on how the theme of time is currently at the core of social theory. Elias's definition of time enables us to understand that dominant time, which varies historically according to different kinds of society, expresses the need for an organization of work and reflects above all each society's privileged values. Social time always results from a choice; it is therefore qualitative even when, for instance, it has been formulated in strictly quantitative and mathematical terms. But time is also a norm, perhaps the most pervasive among social norms. If one adopts a temporal viewpoint, it becomes easier to rid oneself of the conceptual dichotomies - nature and culture, individual and society - which constitute the main dilemma that contemporary sociological thought has inherited from its `founding fathers'. Furthermore, the time discipline to which people willingly submit indicates the level of self-restraint, the taming of impulse, and therefore the level of `civilization' they have reached.