In Conclusion: The Temporal Fabric of Academic Lives: Of Weaving, Repairing, and Resisting

Time is everywhere and it permeates everything: the cosmos, our solar system, the earth’s past, present and future, our environment. It is also a feature of our social existence: of family life, the education system, politics and law, as well as every aspect of commerce, business and industry. It is something we experience and do. With calendar and clock time we create, order, shape and regulate the world we live in. As such, it is also used as our prime organising tool. Despite its pervasiveness, however, time forms a largely un-reflected aspect of our daily lives in the public and the private sphere because it is not accessible to the senses: we can’t see, touch, taste, hear or smell it. And yet, we are able to experience it. We experience it in the ageing of our own bodies. We know it by the passing of days and months and years. We recognise it when our students are graduating after years of study. We deal with it regularly in teaching plans and educational schedules and we feel it as time pressure when there is too much to do in a given time frame.