A Time for Every Purpose : Law and the Balance of Life
Editorial Reviews
Review
Martha Minow, author of Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History after Genocide and Mass Violence : Though we usually take time schedules, calendars, and even how we measure time as givens, Rakoff explores the variety of social choices involved in regulating time--and the risk that some choices will no longer be available, as 24/7 replaces the rhythms separating work and home, week and weekend, and secular and religious time. Crucially, this illuminating and original book demonstrates that the problem with time is not that there is not enough of it; but rather that there are not enough structures to permit coordination with others. The book thereby reveals the deep truth that collective rules, rather than individual license, construct the conditions of freedom. Make time to read it!
Eviatar Zerubavel, author of The Seven-Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week and Time Maps: The Social Shape of the Past : Examining the intricate relations between the laws of nature and society, A Time for Every Purpose helps shed some light on the legal (and therefore inevitably conventional) underpinnings of the way we structure time. A most welcome contribution of legal scholarship to the sociology of time.
Edward L. Rubin, University of Pennsylvania Law School : Rakoff's argument makes sense. His book is a significant contribution to our understanding of community and solidarity in the modern world.
Book Description
Who organizes our time? Who decides when we must be at work and at school, when we set back our clocks, and when retail stores will close? Todd Rakoff traces the law's effect on our use of time and discovers that the structure of our time is gradually changing. As Rakoff demonstrates, the law's influence is subtle, and so ubiquitous that we barely notice it. But its structure establishes the terms by which society allocates its efforts, coordinates its many players, establishes the rhythms of life, and indeed gives meaning to the time in which we live. Compulsory education law, overtime law, daylight-saving law, and Blue Laws are among the many rules government uses to shape our use of time.
More and more, however, society, and especially the workplace, has come to see time simply as a quantity whose value must be maximized. As lawmakers struggle to deal with accelerating market demands, the average citizen's ability to organize his or her time to accommodate all of life's activities is diminishing. Meanwhile, it is increasingly hard to differentiate weekdays from weekends, and ordinary days from holidays. The law of time, Rakoff argues, may need refashioning to meet modern circumstances, but we continue to need a stable legal structure of time if we are to attain the ancient goal of a balanced life: "A Time for Every Purpose."
A Time for Every Purpose : Law and the Balance of Life
A Time for Every Purpose : Law and the Balance of Life,Todd D. Rakoff,Harvard University Press,067400910X,Civil Law,General,Law,Legal Reference / Law Profession,Time (Law),United States,United States - General,Law / General
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