Günümüz Çalışma Rejiminde Uykunun İkircikli Konumu: Kavramsal Bir Tartışma

Abstract

Sleep is attracting increasing medical and psychological research interest as well as media interest. This study investigates the socio-economic processes behind this growth in interest. It proposes an analytical framework that examines sleep in the relationships among the body, work, and the rhythms of everyday life within the constraints of today’s capitalist work regime. In this framework, the concept of time pressure is significant for understanding practices and approaches to sleep, as well as the structural processes and contradictions of contemporary capitalism. Having a work life and accelerating one’s social life are the main determinants of time experience. While sleep, which is a very important part of an employee’s life, becomes limited or restricted, it is nevertheless essential for the sake of efficiency and continuing activity in business and daily life. This study investigates the ambivalent position of sleep with reference to Hartmut Rosa’s concept of social acceleration. This ambivalent position is found to be constructed by the trio of acceleration, flexibility, and time pressure, and it is essentially defined by capitalism. ABSTRACT This study proposes a conceptual framework within the discipline of sociology to the problem of sleep, accepted as a natural activity of human beings. Based on Hartmut Rosa’s (2009, 2013) concept of social acceleration, this study focuses on the ambivalent position of sleep, revealed within the tripartite relationship of social acceleration, flexible working regimes, and time pressure. The claim of the study is that this position is determined within the interaction of deceleration and acceleration. Sleep, perhaps the most important deceleration practice in human life, has both preventive and supportive functions in capitalist acceleration. The combination of these two functions, which seem to be in opposition, indi cates the ambivalent position of sleep at the present time. coordination between rhythms and conflicts and contradictions are emphasized. This study proposes a framework that does not ignore the distinctions between the historicity of social time, as conditioned by the mode of production, and the experiences of different social groups in different places (see Col -ley, Henriksson, Niemeyer, & Seddon, 2012). The basic concept used for this purpose is that of social acceleration, as developed by Hartmut Rosa (2009, 2013). Another process related to acceleration, to be discussed over the time theme, is the flexibility of the working regime. This article will primarily ex amine acceleration and flexibility in the context of time pressure. This discussion is undertaken to show that the triad of acceleration, flexibility, and time pressure are the defining elements of today’s capitalism. The article will then seek to make sense of the position of sleep in capitalism for the result of these three processes. Finally, the ambivalent nature of the position of sleep in the interaction of deceleration and acceleration will be analyzed. This study will thus provide a framework that places sleep within processes of acceleration, flexibility, and time pressure, and thus contribute to under standing the ambivalent status of sleep in capitalism in the context of the intertwined relationship be tween deceleration and acceleration.