Suchergebnisse

Time as defined in the context of individual lives cannot be measured or compared; it therefore needs to be particularized through processes of synchronization and desynchronization. Subjectivity is a notion that supports temporal objectivity only if the mode of production is not based on a concept of exchange but on simple appropriation. Time as identified with the life of the individual remains incommensurable. But the history of growth in the spatial dimensions of trade and the reduction in the amount of time needed to effect commercial exchanges is integral to and consequent on the development of science as a method of forecasting and planning. As trade grows, so does the role of science, to the point where it can be seen as pivotal to a society in which the practice of trade is becoming both universal and frequent. The growth of trade was the cause and the effect of both a need to consolidate and develop an increasingly complex system of forecasting, and the requirement for a science with the capacity to make the future less unpredictable.

This article examines aspects of Hugh Stretton's thought, challenging an exclusively historical reading of his work and defending his importance as a theoretically engaged thinker on a wide range of issues in the social, political, and economic sciences. While Stretton distanced himself from strong theoretical claims in his work, this paper argues that he did articulate and defend a general framework for social, political, and economic thought and analysis, which needs to be better understood. This is examined through engagement with some of Stretton's contributions on cities, social democratic reform, economic rationalist and neoliberal thought, and public policy. Some concluding arguments are made linking Stretton's thought to that of other thinkers and theorists in the social, political, and economic sciences. In making these connections it is argued that his work is best viewed as an exercise in intellectual trespassing and interpretive social science, and as a normative defence of social democracy.