Timing Space and Spacing Time

Abstract

A plea is made for a chronosophical approach to the selection of dimensions of time which might be relevant to the description and explanation of urban processes. Following the definition of some basic terms and concepts which might be used in the future development of a notational schema, the paper considers some possibilities which are inherent in the idea of timing space. This is followed by similar consideration of the idea of spacing time. These themes are compounded in a simple example which suggests that fundamental ongoing processes in daily urban behaviour are usefully summarised by what we call the accordion effect. The final section proposes that new insights into the problem of evaluating the quality of life of urban residents are obtained when such an approach is taken.