Dissertation Abstracts
What is the place of time? An analysis of time as an epistemological aspect of sociological theory.
Author: Ana Beatriz N Martins, beatrizmartins0511@gmail.com
Department: Department of Sociology
University: University of State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Supervisor: José Mauricio Domingues
Year of completion: 2018
Language of dissertation: Portuguese
Areas of Research: Theory , Logic and Methodology
Abstract
The general aim of this thesis is to perceive the influence of the idea of time on sociological theory. Our assumption is that time is a social (and individual) construction and, therefore, it is subject to different formulations. We discuss the limit of the influence of these formulations about time over sociological theory production. Our hypothesis is that this influence is so extensive and deep on producing sociological theory that time can be thought as an epistemological aspect of sociology itself, as a constitutive factor – and perhaps determinant – of the social knowledge. To consider this, this thesis is composed of three parts. In the first one, composed of two chapters, we clarify our idea through two narratives about how time was approached in sociological theory. In the first chapter, we look at how time was explicitly worked on this theory; in the second one, we perceive how time was implicitly presupposed in sociological theory, and we present a typology about time. Through these narratives, we got not only clarity about how sociology worked this theme and we locate our problem, but also we built bridges and distinctions between what was produced and what we proposed to do here, thus making our goal clearer, as well as how we got to it. In the second part, we analysed representative authors of such typology over time, as well as the methodological outlines of the thesis. Our goal in the second part is to map and perceive the fine relations between time and theory. In the third and last part, based on what was discussed and in the relevance of our initial idea, the thesis proposes to make notes for a possible new sociological interpretation that might be able to consciously deal with this problem.