Call for Papers

 Our contemporary world is paradoxical insofar as, citing Hartmut Rosa, “the more time we save, the less we have”. No matter how fast we rush from one activity to the next, regardless of the refined logistics and the myriad technological innovations that now make our work more productive, we still find ourselves in temporal scarcity. The problem of time-scarcity is one of overload, of combined pressures, and incompatible demands that group we under the notion of ‘unlivability’, a term used by Butler to describe contemporary forms of induced precarity.

         Our social orders are increasingly driven by the current model of 24/7 operation, where machines dictate the pace of work and production, where the time and labour of some is considered more valuable than those of others, and where people’s (mental, physical and emotional) health is increasingly being compromised by a system that instrumentalises rest and recuperation.

Burnout, anxiety, depression, suicide and all manner of somatic disorders are common effects of work-related stress, one of the unlivable conditions that is most widespread across the world. Furthermore, neoliberal capitalism subjects the planet to a similarly unsustainable pace of resource extraction, with irreversible consequences for all living beings. 

This conference explores the control of time as a key element of neoliberal capitalism that appears linked to the production of precarity and ‘unlivability’. The event is conceived as an opportunity to critically re-examine and contest the concepts, rationalities and power mechanisms that underpin contemporary temporalities. 

               CAPPE thus invites scholars to submit 20-minute presentations on these and other relevant questions:

• How do precarity and unlivability relate to control over time?
• In what ways has neoliberalism remade time?
• Are there natural limits that frame the temporality of living beings?
• What are neoliberal temporalities?
• How is the experience of an ‘unlivable time-regime’ structured by gender, race, class, age and cultural environment?
• The social and political implications of living in an accelerated world
• Political critiques of 24/7 neoliberal-capitalist temporalities
• Exploring the notions of ‘territorialisation’, ‘expropriation’ and ‘dispossession’ in relation to time, to think about exploitation and overwork
• Measuring labour time: blurring of ‘on/off’ work distinction
• The role of technology in generating time-pressure and mental health issues
• The subordinate status of rest and recreation in relation to productivity
• Time and social reproduction: the care economy
• The race- and gender-based devaluation of people’s time
• Neoliberal discourses on productivity and time-management
• Alternative social models of time, e.g. the 4-day week
• Urban and rural time structures today
• The rhythms and times of the planet
• The potential of notions like ‘inoperativity’ as forms of resistance

Submission details:

Abstract: 250-300 words maximum

Paper: 4,000 words maximum

Conference participation fees:

£ 100 per full-time academic delegate

£ 50 per postgraduate delegate

£ 20 per unemployed delegate

The Conference will be held in-person at the University of Brighton City campus and online.

Please send abstracts (250 words) to rethinktime@brighton.ac.uk

Proposed papers should be 4,000 words maximum and suitable for 20–minute presentations. Proposals should contain the paper’s title and keywords and should be formatted for blind review. Please list the author’s details (name, institution, e-mail and qualification) in the body of the email.

Early submissions are encouraged as we will have limited spaces.

 Deadline for submissions: 30 January 2023

Accepted papers will be notified by 15^th February 2023.

Conference organiser: Lorena Ramirez Hincapie