This book shows that a concept of activity
timespace drawn from the work of Martin Heidegger
provides new insights into the nature of activity,
society, and history. Although the book is a work of
theory, it has significant implications for the
determination and course, not just of activity, but of
sociohistorical change as well. Drawing on empirical
examples, the book argues (1) that timespace is a key
component of the overall space and time of social life,
(2) that interwoven timespaces form an essential
infrastructure of important social phenomena such as
power, coordinated actions, social organizations, and
social systems, and (3) that history encompasses
constellations of indeterminate temporalspatial events.
The latter conception of history in turn yields a
propitious account of how the past exists in the
present. In addition, because the concept of activity
timespace highlights the teleological character of human
action, the book contains an extensive defense of the
teleological character of such allegedly ateleological
forms of activity as emotional and ceremonial actions.
Since, finally, the book's ideas about timespace and
activity as an indeterminate event derive from an
interpretation of Heidegger, the work furthers
understanding of the relevance of his thought for social
and historical theory. The book combines textual
interpretation, theoretical argumentation, and empirical
substantiation. Many of its empirical examples are taken
from the Blue Grass Horse Country around Lexington,
Kentucky, where the author resides.
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