Periods

It is easy to demonstrate that not even inveterate opponents of periodization can do without it. Thus, what remains to be clarified is merely the question of how period concepts can be adequately defined and used. In order to solve the problem of the alleged heterogeneity of ‘periods’, it is necessary to distinguish between ‘timespan’ and ‘period’ or ‘epoch’, that is, between a given chronological section of time and the period concept(s) applied to it. In this perspective, more than one period concept can characterize one and the same timespan—hence, it is the latter that is (or at least can be) heterogeneous and not the ‘period’, which, as a theoretical construct, must per definitionem be distinguishable from other concepts. In the following, procedures and criteria for an adequate construction of period concepts are discussed in detail. With regard to the transformation process of the socio-cultural system as a whole, it is argued that it must be differentiated into temporal plains, strata, or scales characterized by diachronically and diatopically variable interconnectedness. Finally, it is underlined that the self-interpretation of a specific timespan can have a heuristic function for the scholarly construction of ‘periods’.