Dietrich HENCKEL, TU Berlin Institut für Stadt- und Regionalplanung, Germany
Caroline KRAMER, Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie (KIT), Germany
Even if the rhythm perspective is rather topical in urban studies, the notion by Michael Young (1988) still holds: “…but the main work still has to be done of deciphering (…) the time-prints of different cities and comparing them with one another”.
Every city could be interpreted as an assemblage of different rhythm machines, some in line with each other, others rather out of sync. Some are out sync on purpose, some more as a side effect, unwillingly, due to a lack of knowledge or to conflicting goals or power relations.
The rhythm machines are of different character, they function on different “levels”. There are “taktgeber” of different type and power, which are, moreover, often closely connected and interdependent.
A simple classification could differentiate between
Natural (e.g., seasons, day and night), social rhythms (e.g., the weekly cycle, working time schedules), technically induced rhythms
Locally specific and locally unspecific rhythms
Short, medium and long rhythmsThe hierarchy, interdependence, isolation of the different taktgeber or rhythm machines must be analysed on different scales. There are quite a few examples for specific sectors (e.g., mobility), specific locations (e.g., squares), specific cities, where rhythm analyses have taken place. Cities are often seen as a decoupling from natural rhythms; linearisation (and acceleration) as inherent trends in capitalism follow suit. Since all the actual crises can be read as temporal crises the need to understand the temporal and rhythmic issues at stake become ever more vital.
For thinking about sustainable rhythms, the concepts of time policy, timespace and spacetime, the right to time, the temporally just city and the realignment with natural rhythms must be considered. A prime yet rather simple example is DST – as a misalignment of solar and social rhythms in many parts of (especially Western) Europe with rather hard impacts on health, sleep, the economy.
Mots clés : urban rhythms|time policy|right to time|synchronisation/desynchronisation
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