Description: 'Unapologetically top-down and confidently concise.' The Guardian. A fascinating study of the universal dilemma of the scarcity of time.
Brief description: Thomas Hylland Eriksen is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo and currently President of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA). He is the author of numerous books, including Ethnicity and Nationalism, A History of Anthropology, Small Places, Large Issues, Tyranny of the Moment, What is Anthropology? and Fredrik Barth, all available from Pluto Press.
Review Quotes: "Norwegian anthropologist compares fast and slow time in the digital age, finding that ever more information has led to confusion and overload, with the result that both past and future as categories are threatened" -- Future Survey"E-mail, cellular telephones, voicemail, the Internet, and other information technologies do not increase our efficiency, give us more flexibility, or liberate us from drudgery. Instead, argues Eriksen, they eat away at our increasingly precious time, leaving us to wade through useless and marginally useful information... this book is written in an engaging and humorous manner, and is therefore suitable for public libraries." -- Library Journal"While reading "Tyranny of the Moment," I found myself both charmed and challenged. The subject is an important one, and Thomas Hylland Eriksen handles it with style, a light touch, and many amiable provocations." -- Todd Gitlin, Professor of Culture, Journalism and Sociology, New York University" Eriksen's argument that technology far from saving us time, has made time increasingly scarce, is not an original one; but it is the elaboration of his observations and his diagnosis of social and cultural effects that this book shines.. It is also the antitheses of lazy cultural-studies writing: unapologetically top-down and confidently concise." -- The Guardian, UK