THE CONSTRUCTIONS OF TIME - ON THE PRECAR IOUS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACADEMIC THEORY AND LOCAL PRACTICES

In recent years, the constitutive character of concepts of time for so cial theory has often been invoked. Theories of action, such as those proposed by Pierre Bourdieu and Anthony Giddens, in particular, have d emanded the inclusion of the temporal dimension in theoretical reflect ions on society. Even such theories, however, have subordinated the mu ltifarious and contradictory social orders of time and their practical logics to the academic construction of linear-irreversible world time . This article tries to identify the procedures of the academic constr uction of time by analyzing anthropological and historiographical prac tices of representing temporality. In a second step, local practices o f the construction of history in a Sicilian town are portrayed with a view to elaborating possibilities for representing the plurality of so cial times in theories of society.