Why do we buy houses as opposed to renting one? This question, in its simplistic formulation captures, inter alia, some of the most fundamental emotions of temporal values that we impose on ourselves. Yet, the question has attracted little scholarly scrutiny. The article, using this question as a case, attempts to excavate the silences of our imagination of time in the cacophony of modernity. Time has had varying versions of existence in the modern world. When time is singular, it has the same meaning attributed to by everyone in the same community. A pluralistic conception of time is the exact opposite. I use discount rates as a unique entry point to understand how people view their future (time), and thereby a conceptual aperture to see if time is losing its singularity or not. More importantly, how so. I collected data on house prices in India in five major metropolitan cities in India and compared those prices with rental values. The crude estimation is a useful proxy to observe discount rates, and consequently, varying conceptions of time. I show that time has become a homogenized entity for people falling in similar economic class while it has lost its singularity for those within the same social class (community). This gets folded into questions of ethical implications of modernity’s impact on one’s aspirations.
Re-Imagining Social Mobility: The Role of Relationality, Social Class and Place in Qualitative Constructions of Mobility
