Socio-Temporal Rhythms, Social Practices and Everyday Life

Abstract

This chapter begins by observing that much social scientific enquiry into phenomena such as collective timings, synchronization and coordination tend to describe them generically as forms of socio-temporal rhythm. Defined as shared social phenomena related to or of time (socio-temporal), theories of rhythms are reviewed to argue that they take circular (recurrent) and linear (sequential) forms that can be observed in the aggregate patterning of the ‘times when’ (timing) social practices are performed across society. Such rhythms can also be observed at multiple scales, from the micro-level rhythms experienced by individuals and households through to the macro-level rhythms of peak hours in energy demand and rush hours. Observations of rhythms do little, however, to explain how such rhythms are formed and reproduced. Informed by social practice theory, and illustrated through an empirical study of laundry practices, this chapter argues that socio-temporal rhythms form and reproduce through the organization and performance of social practices. While laundry no longer has the distinct collective timing reflected in accounts of diarists in 1930s Britain where ‘Monday was wash day’, it remains a practice with discernible circular (e.g. the daily timings of washing machine use) and linear (e.g. the sequential flow of laundry activities) rhythms. These rhythms are formed through the material, cultural and social elements that organize laundry practices as entities and are reproduced through laundry practice performances. Such performances involve negotiation and coordination with a wide range of interconnected practices that ‘hold in place’ temporal rhythms.