240046 VS Chronotopes, Power and Social Relations: An Introduction to The Politics of Time and Space (3.3.1) (2014S)

Space and time are two fundamental dimensions of human life. They remain usually unquestioned: Everybody (and everything) exists in time and has a position in space. However, both notions often become highly politicised. Indeed, spatial and temporal references worldwide are intimately tied up with concerns about power and governance. In contrast to that, they can also quickly open up possibilities of critique, subversion and resistance. This course will look at such instances; it invites participants to think anew about the role time and space play in contemporary life and political negotiations. In times of 'no hope' and 'no future', and of an ever more exclusively mobile and interconnected world, we as anthropologists are invited to reconsider how we theoretically, analytically and methodologically approach these two fundamental notions. By looking at politically charged discourses about the past and the future, as well as claims to territory and political belonging, and by comparing multiple temporal and spatial practices, this course tries to advance both: our understanding of time and space, and of 'the political' in the contemporary world.