Time and the state in digital society

Abstract

In this commentary, I argue that while the digitalizing state mobilizes the anticipatory imaginary of network time, its own temporal ontology remains anchored in the modern construction of “homogeneous and empty time.” Acknowledging the generative insights Datta and Hoefsloot's analysis of temporal statecraft offers, I consider how their analytic use of timing might inform a wider reading of the spatial history of the digitalizing state but raise questions about the limits of framing the state as an auteur.