Elizabeth Cohen Quoted in WIRED Article on Rethinking Time

April 29, 2022

WIRED

Political Science Department

Campbell Public Affairs Institute

Climate Change

Government

United States

WIRED

Conceptions of time have changed dramatically across human history, but “scientific” time, based on a traditional Newtonian conception of time’s arrow moving forward at a consistent pace, is the timepiece of modernity, of capitalism and of liberal democracy. While more recent physics research has challenged this premise, “clock time” is still used to structure our electoral cycles, prison sentences, immigration policies, and more, says Elizabeth Cohen, professor of political science and author of "The Political Value of Time" (Cambridge University Press, 2018). In this context, time is not an inert substance, but the very soil from which democracy springs. Read more in the WIRED article, "With the Clock Running Out, Humans Need to Rethink Time Itself."