The Enactment of Time Regimes

Enacting time regimes by endowing places with specific paces, rhythms, and temporalities is a powerful means to provide immersive experiences. In this chapter, I discuss the enactment of time regimes in affective urbanism by contrasting two differing approaches to urban pacemaking. First, I discuss how urban rhythmsUrban rhythms are driven by pacemakers such as retail and services that play with the balance between fastness and slowness in the context of social acceleration. As I show how time is framed as a source of value in the context of the experience economy, I also tackle the way how affective urbanism has contributed towards social acceleration by discussing the emergence and consequences of the eventful party city that stems from the eventification of urban regenerationUrban regeneration and development projects. In contrast, I discuss how family and communityCommunity-oriented urban time policies that have been developed throughout Europe have instead sought to work with communities to promote better work-life balance in the city, focusing on the example of the methodologies and policies of the Milan Urban Timetable Plan. Taking this into account, I reflect on how affective urbanism can contribute towards greater social cohesion if it seeks to curate urban time alongside local communities.