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.)

J&C Food (and other) Adventures: Confessions

Oops, this was supposed to have been posted yesterday.

A lot of people were telling us that doing this vegetarian thing for a few days wouldn't be hard at all. Well. After the first day, we already had some meat, and will do it again today. We're going to have to re-adjust our goals to just eating healthy, which I think is more doable than going completely vegetarian.

Yesterday, we did a salad lunch (but at a bar that Jenny's brother really wanted to go to, which included, uh, fried mushrooms and pepperoni bites. I can see your looks of disappointment already). But for dinner, we went to Green Temple which has delicious food that is all vegetarian.

Of course, yesterday was a very odd day. There was a death in the family. Jenny's family lost their parrot, Jimmy, who seemed to have gotten himself tangled in his bedding and asphyxiated himself. :( Jenny found him when we went over to her parents' house, and, well, I'll spare y'all the details...

So we went to the mall, to Buffalo Wild Wings, where we attempted to keep up the no-meat rule by looking at their salad section, where we were greeted with the utter lack of any entree that was meatless, forcing us to get their honey BBQ chicken salad, making us feel slightly less guilty about eating chicken. Later, I purchased 3 books for $2 at Bookoff. Amazing.

On our way home, we encountered a Shiba Inu named Sasha following our car in Jenny's parents' neighborhood and called his owner, whose response was, "oh, they hate him on that street." Hah! Sat outside with him for 20 minutes while his owner showed up. He was very standoffish. Clearly too good for the likes of us humans.

Today, again, we cheated. I guess at this point, we're giving up the meatless deal. We went to a Filipino restaurant called LA Rose Cafe with Kenneth and Grace, where we got things that were distinctly NOT vegetarian. Sausages and tocino and beef with eggs and rice. But tonight, we're trying to be a bit better. We're cooking up a feast. Yay.

J&C Veggie Adventures: T-2, with fried chicken and beef hash

I realized that stocking up on meats before trying to do a veggie thing is not the best idea at all, but we went to this place today called Mama Dip's, which had a random sculpture garden filled with sculptures of farm animals made of scrap metal in the back.

Brunch was fried chicken tenders with gravy and eggs and grits. Southern comfort food, which is not at all healthy. And we got a side of hush puppies. Jenny got beef hash. Yea...we need some leafy greens.

J&C's Veggie Adventures: The first road bump

Jenny just wailed in despair as she realized that she's on vacation until Sunday, and that she won't be able to eat meat for part of her vacation. Oy...this might be harder than we thought...

Jenny: Chicken's not a meat...

Cris: That's the gateway meat.

Our 5-day vegetarian stint

In the last year, Jenny and I have both gained weight. We would like to rectify this (not necessarily the weight thing - but definitely want to be healthier---and save money). And we keep making these pacts to eat less meat and more veggies, and cook at home more. This lasted about a week and a half last time... and now, we're eating our way through Tennessee and North Carolina.

We are currently in North Carolina, visiting Cris, who (as I'm sure most of you who read this blog know) has been a vegetarian for 2 decades, and after a conversation with her and Jenny's friend Cindy, we made a pact (a pinky swear), that between the time we get back (Dec 6th) till I leave for Hong Kong (11th), we will not eat meat. Only 5 days, because this is a close-ended and goal-oriented. Hopefully easier to accomplish rather than saying "we're going to stop eating so much meat NOW until FOREVER."

I (with Jenny's blessing) am keeping this blog to keep us accountable. I will try to blog every day as to our successes, failures, and cravings. Yes, we actually need this. Clearly, no self-control.