ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out from current academic priorities in connection to measuring time (chronos) and negotiating the future to explore alternative temporalities. The critique of narrow conceptions of time and the exposition of the need for temporal nuance prepare the ground for introducing ‘an ethic of time’. It is argued that, while being cautious not to succumb to prescriptivism, we should consider the significance for academic space of the cultivation of a critical awareness regarding temporal complexity and a phronetic attitude to time stakes. Thus, the ethic of time proposed here comprises various temporal modalities, and indicates that the future of higher education cannot be thought of without the awe of time that a concurrent investigation of the complex interplay of time and the un-timely allow us to feel.
Just like Saint Augustine and Alice's white rabbit, we do not know what time is, but nowadays we are always aware of what time it is.
(Rämö, 1999: 323)