The Sociology of Time

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Labyrinth of Questions and Answers: Introduction

   • Jiří Šubrt

   Pages 1-5

3. Time and the Civilizing Process

   • Jiří Šubrt

   Pages 7-39

4. Time as a Social Category

   • Jiří Šubrt

   Pages 41-93

5. Time and Human Action

   • Jiří Šubrt

   Pages 95-114

6. Time: The Key to the Analysis of Social Reality

   • Jiří Šubrt

   Pages 115-147

7. The Role of Time in Theoretical Systems of Sociology at the End of the Twentieth Century

   • Jiří Šubrt

   Pages 149-181

8. The Time of Physics and Thermodynamics: (an Excursion into the Field of Natural Sciences)

   • Jiří Šubrt

   Pages 183-195

9. The Sociology of Time or Temporalized Sociology

   • Jiří Šubrt

   Pages 197-223

10. Balance and Prospects

    • Jiří Šubrt

    Pages 225-243

11. Epilogue

    • Jiří Šubrt

    Pages 245-251

12. Back Matter

    Pages 253-282

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In a critical, comparative study of the sociological literature, this book explores the term “time,” and the various interconnections between time and a broad cluster of topics that create a conceptual labyrinth. Various understandings of time manifest themselves in the context of many individual social problems—there is no single vision in sociology of how to grasp time and address within social theory. This book, therefore, attempts to define an approach to the concept of time and its associated terms (duration, temporality, acceleration, compression, temporal structures, change, historical consciousness, and others). The volume is guided by a critical engagement with three main questions: a) the formation of human understanding of time; b) the functioning of temporal structures at different levels of social reality; c) the role and place of time in general sociological theory.

• temporality
• temporal structures
• human understanding
• Weber
• Durkheim
• Luhmann
• open future
• historical studies
• modernization

• Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Praha, Czech Republic

  Jiří Šubrt

Jiří Šubrt is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Charles University in Czechia. He is the author and editor of several books which mainly deal with the theme of contemporary sociological theory, particularly with regard to issues of action, structure, social systems and social change. His latest books in English are: The Perspective of Historical Sociology (2017), Individualism, Holism and Central Idea of Sociological Theory (2019), The Systemic Approach in Sociology and Niklas Luhmann (2020), Explaining Social Processes (2020).​

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