A Weberian Theory of Time

Abstract

This article formulates a Weberian general theory of time. The theory is Weberian, in the sense that it is drawn from Weber's epistemological and sociological work. After a short presentation of Weber's epistemological writings, concerning how social scientists may investigate present and past events, and a brief digression on Husserl's possible influence on Weber, it focuses on Weber's sociological analysis of time in interactional and social contexts, and especially - on the interactions between formal and informal contexts. A unitary theoretical framework is then developed and analyzed in the light of classical and contemporary sociological work, concerning time as a social construction and a social constraint.