Time and the Biological Consequences of Globalization.

Globalization; Chronology; International relations; Capitalism; Commerce; Pharmacology; Biotechnology; Time; Day; Night

Discussions of globalization and time-space compression have not acknowledged the implications of the relationship of time and place on a rotating globe where each locale has its own cycles of day and night. When these cycles are recognized, several contradictions in contemporary capitalism emerge, most notably temporal conflicts between locations on the globe, desynchronization of biological cycles, and lack of correspondence between those cycles and social life. These contradictions are increasingly being addressed but not resolved through the power of the media to determine the timing of social activity and pharmacological interventions to ameliorate the bodily suffering caused by desynchronization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]