Episode 1: Rethinking the Times and Rhythms of a Just Transition

In this episode, Michel and Keri introduce The Temporal Imagination podcast and explore how ‘temporal imagination’ and ‘rhythmic intelligence’ offer new ways of making sense of the world.

Hosts and Guests

• Keri Facer (Professor of Educational and Social Futures, University of Bristol, UK)
• Michel Alhadeff-Jones (Executive Director, Sunkhronos Institute, Switzerland)

Summary

In this episode, Michel and Keri introduce The Temporal Imagination podcast and explore how ‘temporal imagination’ and ‘rhythmic intelligence’ offer new ways of making sense of the world. They talk about how societies and individuals understand and live in time in very diverse ways and how these differences create both conflicts and the potential for new possibilities to emerge. They discuss how rhythm shapes our experience of life, and structures the organisation of the world. And how the metaphors we use for talking about time and change, can both constrain and enable new ways of thinking. They begin to dive into how understanding, and working creatively with time and rhythm, are essential to making the changes in society needed for more sustainable and regenerative ways of living. 

References & Resources Mentioned

• Achille Mbembe (on critiques of colonial time)
• Barbara Adam (on temporal imagination, time and society)
• C. Wright Mills (on sociological imagination)
• Danielle Allen (on political friendship)
• David Harvey (geographical imagination)
• Deborah Bird-Rose (on multispecies knots of time)
• Edgar Morin (on paradigm of complexity)
• Gaston Pineau (on temporalities, rhythms and lifelong learning)
• Giordano Nanni (on colonial time)
• Harriet Hand (on visualising time) 
• Hartmut Rosa (on acceleration)
• Henri Lefebvre (on rhythmanalysis)
• Jacques Attali (on time measurement and political power)
• Krzysztof Pomian (on epistemology of time and history)
• Keri Facer (on temporal imagination)
• Kyle White (on Indigenous time, the apocalypse has already happened) 
• Lisa Baraitser (on temporalities of care)
• Michel Alhadeff-Jones (on time and emancipatory education: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315727899 ; on rhythmic intelligence: https://revistas.rcaap.pt/sisyphus/article/view/26894/21490)
• Michelle Bastian (on critical time studies)
• Miriam Jensen (time and water)
• Roland Barthes (on rhythm and collective ways of living)
• Ruth Ozeki (A Tale for the Time Being) 
• Saint Augustine (on philosophy of time)
• Sarah Sharma (on everyday time)

External Links

• The Times of a Just Transition - Global Convening Programme: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/projects/the-times-of-a-just-transition/
• Sunkhronos Institute: https://www.sunkhronos.org/
• The Temporal Imagination: https://www.temporalimagination.org 

The Temporal Imagination Podcast is supported by

• British Academy “The Times of a Just Transition” Global Convening Programme
• Sunkhronos Institute
• The School of Education, University of Bristol
• The Sarchi Chair in Global Change and Social Learning, Rhodes University

Credits

• Hosts: Michel Alhadeff-Jones & Keri Facer
• Audio/video editing: Sarah Van Borek, Michel Alhadeff-Jones, Keri Facer
• Artwork: Harriet Hand
• Music: Briony Greenhill, “Die Every Day” 
• Recorded and edited with Riverside.fm and Adobe Premiere

To watch the video recording of this podcast (which includes closed captions), go to: https://www.youtube.com/@institutsunkhronos/podcasts