Time is a bad proxy for things, but a better proxy than some other proxies. Naturalization laws are basically a temporal formula in which time and residence,. your character, your proficiency in english, you know, yourno, civic knowledge, like all these things actually are requirements. And that's a formula, and time's only part of it. We adjust the formula. If you marry a us Citizen, the time the probationary period time and residence is reduced. if you serve in the military, it's reduced. If you serve on active duty, it goes down to basically zero. When everything rests on one particular moment in time, you will always have an arbitrary outcome.
Time is everywhere, pervading each aspect of intellectual inquiry — from physics to philosophy to biology to psychology, and all the way up to politics. Considerations of time help govern a nation’s self-conception, decide who gets to vote and enjoy other privileges, and put limits on the time spent in office. Not to mention the role of time as a precious commodity, one that is used up every time we stand in line or fill out a collection of forms. Elizabeth Cohen shines a light on the role of time in politics and citizenship, a topic that has been neglected by much political theorizing.
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Elizabeth Cohen received her Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. She is currently a professor of political science at Syracuse, and in March 2023 will move to Boston University to become the Maxwell Professor of United States Citizenship in the Department of Political Science. Among her awards are the Moynihan Award for Outstanding Research and Teaching at Syracuse and the Best Book award from the American Political Science section on Migration and Citizenship, for The Political Value of Time.
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