2018/2019

In Sync

How Synchronisation and Mediation Produce Collective Times, Then and Now

Social Sciences

Principal investigators

Helge Jordheim

Professor
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Espen Ytreberg

Professor
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Abstract

Living in a society means doing and experiencing things together. Collectives are formed by people performing similar or related actions at the same time, in sync, so to speak. Synchronised collective actions and experiences include political elections, sports events, demonstrations, parades, as well as other public rituals or performances; however, they are by no means limited to these kinds of spectacular happenings. On the contrary, all forms of social action are in some way or another based on collective and synchronised times. But these synchronised collective times do not exist in and by themselves. They are always the result of work, and this work crucially involves and employs a wide range of communicative genres carried by different media.

This discovery of the link between synchronisation and mediation represents the starting point of the project In Sync, as well as its research goal: During its stay at CAS, the project aims to explore and explain how social collectives are constituted through mediated synchronisation, by which different and often conflicting time frames and temporal regimes are adjusted and adapted in order to form a collective and shared time. This work of synchronisation takes place within or across social and cultural contexts by means of a set of media, both printed and electronic, both analogue and digital. The close connection between synchronisation and mediation will be studied both across time, from the 18th century until today, and across space, in different cultural and geographic contexts. Broadly situated within the interpretive humanities and social sciences, the project is interdisciplinary, with an emphasis on cultural/conceptual history, media studies, and ethnography.

An international group of researchers from Scandinavia, the US, and Germany will be hosted by CAS during the 2018/19 academic year, complemented by associated junior researchers. A wider range of researchers will also be drawn on during a kickoff seminar and final conference, as well as an ongoing research seminar. Research outcomes will be published via publications that include a themed section of the journal Theory and Society, and a volume in Berghahn's interdisciplinary book series Time and the World. The project leaders also aim to host seminars with non-profit Norwegian actors and write op-eds in national newspapers.

Fellows

Sine Halkjelsvik Bjordal

PhD Candidate
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Leonoor Zuiderveen Borgesius

PhD Candidate
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Geoffrey Bowker

Professor
University of California, Irvine
Year at CAS

Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay

Researcher
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Staffan Ericson

Associate Professor
Södertörn University
Year at CAS

Thomas Hylland Eriksen

Professor
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Jon Inge Faldalen

Lecturer
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Lucian Hölscher

Professor Em.
Ruhr-University Bochum
Year at CAS

Rana Issa

Assistant Professor
American University of Beirut
Year at CAS
profile image illustration

Stine Alling Jacobsen

PhD Candidate
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Anne Jerslev

Professor
University of Copenhagen
Year at CAS

Rich Ling

Professor
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Year at CAS

John Durham Peters

Professor
Yale University
Year at CAS

Stefan Tanaka

Professor
University of California, San Diego
Year at CAS

Einar Wigen

Associate Professor
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

News

On January 23rd, The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters hosted a 'lunch seminar' for its members, featuring a lecture by Sine Halkjelsvik Bjordal, a former fellow of the CAS project 'In Sync: How Synchronisation and Mediation Produce Collective Times, Then and Now', led by Helge Jordheim and Espen Ytreberg (both professors at the University of Oslo) in 2018/2019. In this seminar, Sine shared her insights on Norwegian stave churches.

Former project leader at CAS, Helge Jordheim, was recently awarded the ‘Gad Rausings pris för framstående humanistisk forskargärning´ for his innovative and influential research in the field of cultural history. Jordheim's research connects the past, present, and future by exploring how past concepts of nature, time, and politics can contribute to understanding current crises and dilemmas. We talked to project leader Helge about his time at CAS!

Helge Jordheim, a former project leader at CAS, has been awarded the ‘Gad Rausings pris för framstående humanistisk forskargärning´ for his innovative and influential research in the field of cultural history. Jordheim led the research project 'In Sync: How Synchronization and Mediation Produce Collective Times, Then and Now' together with professor Espen Ytreberg in 2018/2019.