ABSTRACT
A MAJOR factor in the relations between nations and peoples involves attitudes toward time. The speed with which issues are discussed, decisions made, and socioeconomic changes encouraged varies greatly from culture to culture. The French sociologist Gurvitch expressed a simple yet profound truth: “Time in France is not identical with time in Norway nor with time in Brazil” (Gurvitch, 1964, p. 14). In noting that human societies have developed vastly different rates for processing environmental stimuli, a Finnish scholar concluded that “the relative experience of time in different cultures is one of the basic difficulties in intercultural communication” (Wiio, 1980, p. 2).
