Space/time practices and the production of space and time: an introduction

Abstract

This introduction to the HSR Special Issue Space/Time Practices outlines some main aspects of the discussion of space and time in social and cultural studies. Three main epistemic problems are sketched: 1) Space and time have often acquired a transcendental character, which continues to be especially true of time. 2) To this day, a distinct field of research on temporality in cultural studies is still in nascent form. 3) Space and time are often set in “binary oppositions” to one another, thereby inhibiting their combined analysis. The present volume, which is the result of discussions by the SpaceTime research group at the University of Erfurt (Erfurter RaumZeit-Forschung, ERZ), takes this set of problems as its starting point. The contributions share the presupposition that spatiality and temporality are inseparable in their lived and everyday worlds. Discussing concepts of permanences (Whitehead), of Space/ Time Practices and forms of production of time and space, the introduction proposes a constructivist, actor-and praxis-centered approach to space and time that enables an inter- and multidisciplinary platform for different questions about two central facets of human life.