Hva skjer med religion i Schatzkis ‘tidrom’-aktivitet?

Abstract

Social space has received increased interest in the social sciences and in study of religion. Studies of religion frequently use theorists like Lefebvre, Harvey, Foucault, de Certeau and Massey. Schatzki’s theory of ‘timespace activity’ has received attention in the social sciences, less so in research on religion. This article gives an interpretation of timespace activity and discusses possible implications for the understanding of religion. Schatzki understands time and space as interwoven with social practices or activities. This means that social practices are not only the ‘doing-mode’ of society and religion, but a social ontology that understands the social as nexuses of social and material practices. Social practices are stretched out in time and space, and simultaneously, social practices do or produce time and space. Schatzki understands time and space not as separate and relating, but as intertwined. This interwoven character is expressed in the concept ‘timespace activity’. Furthermore, timespace activity has a teleoaffective structure. Practices and actors have drives towards something that is emotionally valuable. The paper argues that timespace activity can contribute to the understanding of religion, in the sense that religion is fundamentally everyday, impure practices, often in nexuses with numerous other practices. On this account religion is not practiced, religion is practice. Religion as practice produce timespaces and realities and affective drives which constitute the active positioning and negotiation of the participating actors.