Everyday life : social time and functioning of the social norms in old workers quarters of Upper Silesia

Abstract

Social time is a determiner of the rhythm of social life and usually is reflected in the organization of life of human communities. Without defining here thus the notion of social time, one can assume that the organization of social life reflects certain ways of seeing and functioning of social time. This general assumption must be completed by several reservations coming from the works of G. Gurvitch. Firstly, one should assume that social time always refers to the specific human communities and that for these communities it has the meaning of a general phenomenon (le fait social total). Secondly, one must admit that social time which is a total characteristics of the definite human communities (and thus is of the ontological importance for their existence) influences a number of other features of these communities, such as the setting of social roles, symbols, values, etc. It results from these statements that also social norms have specific frames of existence measured in social time. If one, however, says that social time is of a general character for the specific human community then also its meaning for the existence of social norms has the meaning only in reference to the specific human communities. (fragment tekstu)