Events, Time, and Events-Based Time

This chapter focuses on events, time, and their mutual relationship. I will discuss four conceptually different ways the connection between time and events is addressed in organization studies. The first approach analyses events as occurring in reversible structure while connecting through an irreversible process—this approach is based on the ontology of temporality. The second approach views events as signifiers of time. Therefore, time is seen as residing in events, and events are seen as making time visible. This is important for reckoning time in events. While less explicit, I classify it as rooted in the ontology of temporality due to its focus on the trajectories of events. The third approach sees events residing in time. More precisely, it sees discrete and closed events ordered sequentially in linear time bracketed from their pasts and futures. The third approach is based on the ontology of time. Finally, the fourth approach is the events-based view of time, which sees events as time and is grounded in the ontology of temporality. This approach sees the internal connecting of events as a source of temporality and views time as a field of possibilities.