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Time and public policy. Desynchronization of lifecycle and outlines of a contemporary "biopolitics"

Time & Society

Published online on

Abstract

Time is both an ambiguous concept and a pervasive fact of collective and individual existence. Theorized, regulated, lived, time can be understood under the focus of a subjective or objective lenses. Nevertheless it is possible to identify modern patterns in the use of time that helped in the construction of a tacit and objective knowledge of how to conduct life as a member of society, family, and labor communities. In this article, we intend to discuss the thesis that contemporary public policy engages a new form of Foucault’s "biopolitics" in a context of desynchronization of lifecycle and questioning of those patterns. The current state regulation, objectified in public policies in general and social policies in particular, includes characteristics of behavioral standardization, but now not under the mediation of disciplinary structures, but under the focus on the individual, of an action from himself on himself.