Logics of Productivity and Waiting

Now that quals are done, I have to write a prospectus. Annenberg, unlike other departments at USC (and indeed, in other schools), do not require one to have a prospectus before taking quals, although the culture seems to be moving toward making sure students have an idea about what they would like to research for their dissertation before starting the quals process.

For those of you who aren't in a PhD program, a prospectus is a proposal detailing what you want to research for the next couple years. Although many prospecti (plural of prospectus?) are different, most include a research question (what exactly is it you want to find out?), some background on the topic (has there been any work done on this before that you can build on? Does this research address a lack or a gap in knowledge, or tackles some sort of problem?), methods (how you're going to get data), possible limitations, and anticipated findings.

In recent weeks, I've found myself being drawn to the idea of being "busy," and what sort of cultural or social norms create this impetus to always be doing something. Tim Kreider, of the New York Times, wrote an interesting article about being busy - how our sense of busy-ness is oftentimes self-imposed, and that the people who truly do not have any time for themselves aren't "busy" - they are, as Kreider says, "tired. Exhausted. Dead on their feet." He makes the assumption that these people are often individuals of a lower social stratum. He takes a bit of an extreme in thinking about the "busy posers," who are painted in his article, as privileged, wearing their busy-ness as a badge of honor, running back and forth between self-imposed obligations, and those who necessarily have to do work in order to earn a living to ensure their survival. The former, it is implied, seem more susceptible to being subjugated to a logic of productivity, in which every minute of every day must be scheduled and planned, in which they have to be doing something, but that something is often something in addition to their basic survival needs, and they have a modicum of choice whether or not they want to do it (from a strictly resource-oriented perspective). I think of these people as having a (relatively) high temporal capital. The latter group, the group that relies on the ungodly commutes to minimum wage jobs in order to make enough economic capital to ensure their basic survival, then, has relatively lower temporal capital.

This is obviously a very reductive way of thinking about temporal capital. While we can certainly attempt an argument that temporal capital is a strong indicator of class, a determination of temporal capital itself is based on a multitude of different factors. Temporal capital does not only apply to the individual as a whole, but is, in fact, variable given the context and circumstance in which an individual, or a group of individuals find themselves. In other words, temporal capital is also based on who "owns" the time within a given circumstance. In most circumstances, temporal capital aligns with one's position on the relevant hierarchy. A factory worker has less control over his time than his supervisor. In this way, similar to Kreider's implications, temporal capital works as a way to communicate power between individuals. Additionally, time, if you have it, can be invested to increase one's economic capital (by working), social capital (through leisure activities or time spent with friends and family), cultural capital (going to museums, watching movies and TV shows, reading books),

However, there are also circumstances where institutional processes co-opt everyone's time in the same way, regardless of one's position in the social hierarchy. For example, everyone has to serve on jury duty as long as they are a resident of a certain county in the United States. One cannot decide that he or she does not want to go sit in a room and wait to see if any cases require a jury of peers. Similarly, Emergency Room waiting areas are equally blind (except in extreme cases) to one's class status, basing patient priority on the severity of the patient's condition. Doctor's offices, on the other hand, make the assumption that the doctor's time is more valuable than the patient's, and is therefore common as an area of great wait times. In this way, temporal capital communicates who has the power in a given context. You wait for the doctor because you want to get that strange, pus-filled lump in your armpit checked out, and hopefully get prescribed some antibiotics for it.

My very simple question that I wish to pose is whether mobile communication technologies have expanded temporal capital for those who can afford it, especially in times of waiting. I think the simple question is yes, but I also think it's going to be a bit more nuanced than that...

(ok, I had meant to take a shower, and come back and work on this some more, but between celebrating, quietly, New Year with my folks, and being sick, and lack of sleep, I'm going to post this now. G'nite, y'all.)