Geography of Time: The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist, or How Every Culture Keeps Time Just a Little Bit Differently

CONTENTS......Page 3
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 5
PREFACE: TIME TALKS, WITH AN ACCENT......Page 7
PART I SOCIAL TIME: The Heartbeat of Culture......Page 17
1 TEMPO: The Speed of Life......Page 18
Time Signatures Around the World......Page 20
Elements of Tempo......Page 23
The Beat of Your Own Drum......Page 34
Beyond Tempo......Page 39
2 DURATION: The Psychological Clock......Page 41
The Distorted Psychological Clock......Page 43
Stretching Time......Page 48
Boredom: The Dark Side of Time-Stretching......Page 51
Five Influences on the Psychological Clock......Page 52
Bumps in Time......Page 63
3 A BRIEF HISTORY OF CLOCK TIME......Page 66
4 LIVING ON EVENT TIME......Page 96
A Brief History of Timepieces......Page 68
The Early Indifference to Clock Time......Page 75
The Standardization Movement......Page 78
Marketing the Virtues of Clock Time......Page 82
Frederick Taylor’s Efficiency Engineering......Page 85
Fighting the New Time......Page 87
Time Wars......Page 91
The Demise of the Ticktockman......Page 94
Drowning in Event Time......Page 100
Where Are the Cows?: Measuring Time in Burundi......Page 102
Is Time Money?......Page 105
Other Event Time Cultures......Page 107
Keeping Everything From Happening at Once......Page 110
The Advantage of Temporal Flexibility......Page 111
More Time Wars......Page 113
5 TIME AND POWER: The Rules of the Waiting Game......Page 116
The International Waiting Game......Page 140
PART II FAST, SLOW, AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE......Page 142
6 WHERE IS LIFE FASTEST?......Page 144
The Pace of Life in 31 Countries......Page 146
Thirty-One Countries Compared......Page 147
Where Life Is Slow......Page 150
Whither La Dolce Vita?: Western Europe, Japan, and The U.S.A. Compared......Page 154
The Pace of Life in 36 U.S. Cities......Page 161
Fast and Slow Cities in the U.S.A.......Page 163
The Speedy Northeast......Page 164
The Honkosecond......Page 166
7 HEALTH, WEALTH, HAPPINESS, AND CHARITY......Page 168
Physical Well-Being: The Type-A City......Page 169
Psychological Well-Being: Where are People Happier?......Page 172
Social Well-Being: Where Do People Help?......Page 174
Workaholism Japanese Style......Page 184
Buffering Against Coronary Heart Disease......Page 188
Knowing Your Giri......Page 193
Karoshi, or Death by Overwork......Page 196
Learning from Japan......Page 197
PART III CHANGING PACE......Page 200
9 TIME LITERACY: Learning the Silent Language......Page 202
Eight Lessons......Page 207
The Temporal Estuary......Page 218
10 MINDING YOUR TIME, TIMING YOUR MIND......Page 222
Attend to Time......Page 223
Living in Middle Time......Page 226
The Person-Environment Fit......Page 230
Multitemporality......Page 232
Seize the Controls......Page 235
NOTES......Page 240
INDEX......Page 262