Introduction

the sociological study of time

John Hassard

pp. 1-18

in: John Hassard (ed), The sociology of time, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1990

Abstract

Time is the missing variable in modern sociological analysis. Despite the lead given by Durkheim in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, relatively few researchers have followed him in investigating temporal issues in society. As most sociologists treat time as a contingent feature of their research, rather than as a topic in its own right, the result is that we have relatively few detailed accounts of how modern conceptions of time are related to the forms of industrial society we create.