Prisons operate according to the clockwork logic of our criminal justice system: we punish people by making them "serve" time. The Cage of Days combines the perspectives of K. C. Carceral, a formerly incarcerated convict criminologist, and Michael G. Flaherty, a sociologist who studies temporal experience. Drawing from Carceral's field notes, his interviews with fellow inmates, and convict memoirs, this book reveals what time does to prisoners and what prisoners do to time. Carceral and Flaherty consider the connection between the subjective dimensions of time and the existential circumstances of imprisonment. Convicts find that their experience of time has become deeply distorted by the rhythm and routines of prison and by how authorities ensure that an inmate's time is under their control. They become obsessed with the passage of time and preoccupied with regaining temporal autonomy, creating elaborate strategies for modifying their perception of time. To escape the feeling that their lives lack forward momentum, prisoners devise distinctive ways to mark the passage of time, but these tactics can backfire by intensifying their awareness of temporality. Providing rich and nuanced analysis grounded in the distinctive voices of diverse prisoners, The Cage of Days examines how prisons regulate time and how prisoners resist the temporal regime.

Prisons operate according to the clockwork logic of our criminal justice system: we punish people by making them "serve" time. The Cage of Days combines the perspectives of K. C. Carceral, a formerly incarcerated convict criminologist, and Michael G. Flaherty, a sociologist who studies temporal experience. Drawing from Carceral's field notes, his interviews with fellow inmates, and convict memoirs, this book reveals what time does to prisoners and what prisoners do to time. Carceral and Flaherty consider the connection between the subjective dimensions of time and the existential circumstances of imprisonment. Convicts find that their experience of time has become deeply distorted by the rhythm and routines of prison and by how authorities ensure that an inmate's time is under their control. They become obsessed with the passage of time and preoccupied with regaining temporal autonomy, creating elaborate strategies for modifying their perception of time. To escape the feeling that their lives lack forward momentum, prisoners devise distinctive ways to mark the passage of time, but these tactics can backfire by intensifying their awareness of temporality. Providing rich and nuanced analysis grounded in the distinctive voices of diverse prisoners, The Cage of Days examines how prisons regulate time and how prisoners resist the temporal regime.

"An engaging and profound analysis of a central aspect of the human condition, for, as Flaherty shows, our experiences of the world around us affect how we experience time."
--"Qualitative Sociology, Vol. 24, No. 3, 2001"

"Masterful. This is arguably the most comprehensive inquiry to date by a sociologist on the perception of time, its passage and duration."
--"Barry Glassner, University of Southern California"

"A highly original and colorful book, filled with compelling, real life and fictional examples."
--"Jack Katz, UCLA"

"Flaherty invites us to the fascinating world of the phenomenology of time. Particularly sensitive to the inherent tension between the standard and the idiosyncratic, he offers a cross-situational, generic analysis of the circumstances when there is a considerable discrepancy between clock time and our subjective experience of duration such that we feel that time is either compressed ("flies") or protracted ("stands still"). His examination of such temporal anomalies draws on equally-compelling fictional and real first-person accounts. Clearlyconceptualized and elegantly written, A Watched Pot is phenomenology at its best."
--"Eviatar Zerubavel, author of Hidden Rhythms and The Seven-Day Circle"

Time, it has been said, is the enemy. In an era of harried lives, time seems increasingly precious as hours and days telescope and our lives often seem to be flitting past. And yet, at other times, the minutes drag on, each tick of the clock excruciatingly drawn out. What explains this seeming paradox?

Based upon a full decade's empirical research, Michael G. Flaherty's new book offers remarkable insights on this most universal humanexperience. Flaherty surveys hundreds of individuals of all ages in an attempt to ascertain how such phenomena as suffering, violence, danger, boredom, exhilaration, concentration, shock, and novelty influence our perception of time. Their stories make for intriguing reading, by turns familiar and exotic, mundane and dramatic, horrific and funny.

A qualitative and quantitative tour de force, A Watched Pot presents what may well be the first fully integrated theory of time and will be of interest to scientists, humanists, social scientists and the educated public alike.

A Choice Outstanding Academic Book.

Examining how people alter or customize various dimensions of their temporal experience, this volume discovers how we resist external sources of temporal constraint or structure. These ethnographic studies are international in scope and look at many different countries and continents. They come to the overall conclusion that people construct their own circumstances with the intention to modify their experience of time.

As we experience and manipulate time-be it as boredom or impatience-it becomes an object: something materialized and social, something that affects perception, or something that may motivate reconsideration and change. The editors and contributors to this important new book, Ethnographies of Youth and Temporality, have provided a diverse collection of ethnographic studies and theoretical explorations of youth experiencing time in a variety of contemporary socio-cultural settings. The essays in this volume focus on time as an external and often troubling factor in young people's lives, and shows how emotional unrest and violence but also creativity and hope are responses to troubling times. The chapters discuss notions of time and its and its "objectification" in diverse locales including the Georgian Republic, Brazil, Denmark and Uganda. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, the essays in Ethnographies of Youth and Temporality use youth as a prism to understand time and its subjective experience. In the series Global Youth, edited by Craig Jeffrey and Jane Dyson

Examining how people alter or customize various dimensions of their temporal experience, this volume discovers how we resist external sources of temporal constraint or structure. These ethnographic studies are international in scope and look at many different countries and continents. They come to the overall conclusion that people construct their own circumstances with the intention to modify their experience of time.

Time, it has been said, is the enemy. In an era of harried lives, time seems increasingly precious as hours and days telescope and our lives often seem to be flitting past. And yet, at other times, the minutes drag on, each tick of the clock excruciatingly drawn out. What explains this seeming paradox? Based upon a full decade's empirical research, Michael G. Flaherty's new book offers remarkable insights on this most universal human experience. Flaherty surveys hundreds of individuals of all ages in an attempt to ascertain how such phenomena as suffering, violence, danger, boredom, exhilaration, concentration, shock, and novelty influence our perception of time. Their stories make for intriguing reading, by turns familiar and exotic, mundane and dramatic, horrific and funny. A qualitative and quantitative tour de force, A Watched Pot presents what may well be the first fully integrated theory of time and will be of interest to scientists, humanists, social scientists and the educated public alike. A Choice Outstanding Academic Book.

Much has been missed by social researchers in their attempt to understand the human experience as a series of rational, cognitive choices. What comes under the rubric of "lived experience" fits no researcher's model other than, in the words of one of the volume's contributors, "one damned thing after another." Human subjectivity in lived experience, both that of the subject and of the researcher, is the topic of Investigating Subjectivity, an important corrective to the cool, disdainful stance of most previous social research. The dozen contributors examine various aspects of subjectivity--the emotions, the gendered nature of experiences, the body-mind relationship, perceptions of time, place and setting, understanding of the self--and how these elements provide a fuller understanding of the human condition. Incorporating subjectivity into research requires a new set of methods--systematic introspection, self-ethnography, staged readings, poetry, stories--many of which are demonstrated in the book. It also requires a focus on mundane (minor ailments, media images, hobbies) and extraordinary elements (exotic trips, earthquakes, abortion experience), which make up the bulk of lived experience and how people react to these life events. Investigating Subjectivity stands out from any others in the field because the emphasis is on research rather than theory or conceptualization. This outstanding volume is quality reading for academicians, undergraduate and graduate students in sociology, cultural studies, qualitative methods, and communication, especially those interested in emotions, narration, textual analysis, and symbolic interaction. "This is an unusual and intriguing book consisting of eleven articles and the authors' excellent, well-written, and probing introduction. The book unflinchingly pursues 'subjectivity' as an important and legitimate object of scientific research. . . . The writers challenge the continuing dominance of eighteenth-century rationalism by challenging the contemporary social science model that 'transforms emotional experience into models of rational action.'" --Perspectives on Political Science "The authors suggest that the volume be judged by whether it provokes feelings in the readers that they have lived, or could live, the experiences described. This reviewer argues that the editors have succeeded in their goal. . . . this reviewer recommends the book to the rehabilitationist who is interested in either conducting research or the application of research to practice. . . . This is an appropriate tool for the rehabilitation professional." --Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling "This volume demonstrates an exciting reinvigoration of interactionism as it collides with phenomenology, existential sociology, and poststructuralism." --Contemporary Sociology

A thoughtful exploration of time and how we make it do our bidding