Time, Space and Value: Recovering the Public Sphere

In: Time & society, Band 8, Heft 1, S. 161-181

Abstract

The author argues that capitalism's preference for exchange values over use values is reflected in the dominance of temporal concerns over spatial concerns in all western countries. This is partly a function of equating time with paid labour and space with unpaid work. Conceptually, this preference is evident in the empirical credibility given to dichotomies that proceed from the seminal distinction between human beings and nature. These include the mind/body, subject/object, ends/means, values/facts, policy/administration and formulation/implementation dichotomies. While this list moves from the general to the more specific, it is only by effecting a practical critique based on public participation that a greater parity between space and time, and use and exchange values, will be realized. This will require citizens to begin by challenging the dichotomies between formulation and implementation, and policy and administration, in the interests of dynamizing citizenship in and through policy implementation processes.