How is the temporality of health dynamics assembled and configured?
‘Matters of Time’ is the title of the FONDECYT Regular research project No. 1241495, funded by the National Research and Development Agency (ANID).
Its fundamental aim is to understand the ways in which time is constituted and shaped in processes relating to health, taking into account its political, clinical and experiential dimensions. Drawing on ideas from Science and Technology Studies and semiotic-materialist approaches, we propose an analysis of the agencies, conditions, processes and relationships that produce Matters of Time in healthcare, considering two layers: an analytical-descriptive layer, guided by the notion of the ‘device’; and an analytical-interpretative layer, associated with the idea of a temporal regime.
Thus, rather than conceiving of time as a given and homogeneous dimension, and analytically positing dichotomies that ascribe normativity to certain temporal structures, we propose a comprehensive empirical investigation into patterns of temporality in practice, opening up the possibility of new ways of understanding their configurations.
Our research team comprises researchers who have trained in various fields of the social sciences, including sociology, social psychology, anthropology and psychoanalysis.
We hope that this initiative will enable us to establish elements that inform health policies regarding the temporal implications of their design.
Project objectives and focus
Our aim is to analyse the composition of time in public and private healthcare settings in the Metropolitan Region, interpreting temporal regimes and identifying their implications for the biopolitical management of time.
Time allocation in healthcare devices
To describe the normative-political, epistemological, technological and practical relationships that constitute the temporal dimension within public and private healthcare systems.
Processes of the subjectivisation of time
To describe and analyse the link between temporalisation mechanisms and the subjectification of patients, taking into account their disease trajectories, as well as strategies for managing and exchanging knowledge regarding time developed by biosocial groups.
Semiotic-material dynamics
To identify socio-material dynamics linked to the configuration of temporal regimes in healthcare.
Temporal regimes
To interpret the configuration of temporal regimes in healthcare based on the circulation of temporal processes within the contexts of policy-making, clinical practice and disease trajectories.
Relevant epistemic aspects
To identify socio-material and epistemic processes relevant to time management in healthcare.
Implications for the biopolitical management of time
To describe the practical implications of devices and temporal regimes for a biopolitics of time in healthcare.
Visit Matters of Time.
ReelHow is time in healthcare studied from the inside?
ReelDoes time organise things, or do things organise time?
ReelWhen we’re in pain, we book an appointment, take a number or join a waiting list.
ReelWe tend to think of healthcare time in terms of figures: timeframes, waiting times, and the duration of consultations.
ReelAI doesn’t just speed up healthcare: it reshapes the concept of time.
ReelWhen it comes to health, time is not something to be taken for granted: we must look after it.
ReelAI in healthcare promises ‘real-time’ capabilities.
ReelIn an 8-storey public hospital in Santiago, there are only 4 GES call buttons.
CarouselIn healthcare, time is not merely a backdrop but a crucial process and entity.
Artificial intelligence and ‘real time’ in healthcare: how does AI affect our experience of time?
Activities and Progress
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Artificial intelligence and ‘real time’ in healthcare: how does AI affect our experience of time?
What does it mean for a healthcare system to operate ‘in real time’? A new article by the ‘Matters of Time’ project team, published in the Revista Española de Sociología (RES), shows that this oft-repeated promise of artificial intelligence (AI) actually conceals several different conceptions of time, and that each one reconfigures…
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The political life of time: a discussion session
On 23 April at 3.00 pm, we will be hosting a discussion with experts who have extensive experience in the field of social health studies, as part of the ‘Matters of Time’ project. Marsha Rosengarten, Mike Michael, Nele Jensen and Lucía Ariza will be taking part as guests. The aim is to frame the discussion on temporality as…
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Research agreement with the Chilean Ministry of Health
In September 2025, a research agreement was signed between the Matters of Time project and the Chilean Ministry of Health. The purpose of this agreement is to set out the conditions for carrying out joint research into the practical dynamics that shape temporal processes in the field of policy-making. Such as…
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We must be mindful of the timing
In this chapter, published in the book Timescapes of Health, Illness and Care, edited by Katherine Kenny, Mia Harrison and Anthony K. J. Smith, we put forward the argument that, in the context of health, time is neither a neutral backdrop nor an objective fact that simply ‘is there’, but rather a fragile, situated and…
Research team
Our research team is organised around the field of Science and Technology Studies, and comprises researchers trained in various social science disciplines, including sociology, social psychology, anthropology and psychoanalysis.
Jorge Castillo Sepúlveda
Principal Investigator, University of Santiago de Chile
José Antonio Román
Co-researcher, Metropolitan Technological University
Maya Zilveti
Co-researcher (United Nations Development Programme)
Felipe Torres
Co-researcher, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
Pedro Güell
Co-researcher, Universidad Austral de Chile
Marsha Rosengarten
Research Associate, Goldsmiths, University of London
Fernanda Bywaters Collado
Thesis student
Mariana Gálvez Ramírez
Technical Staff
Ámbar Ángel Toledo
Technical Staff
Diego Gilabert
Technical Staff
Daniel Hernández
Assistant
Podcast
En Honor al Tiempo en Salud.
A podcast about time, health and society. Conversations about the concept of time in clinical practice, health technologies and everyday life.
The video plays in the Spotify player, which only loads when you click it.
Time, design and medicine
With José Peña
In this episode, we are joined by José Peña, a medical oncologist, who explores the important and necessary link between design and the medical timeline. The episode highlights how design does not necessarily stem from large-scale processes or projects, but rather, at times, from subtle aspects that make a significant difference.
This chapter is slightly longer than the previous ones. We have chosen to leave it unabridged in order to maintain the flow of the dialogue.
We would like to thank Librería Ulises Lastarria for providing the venue for the event.
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Technologies of Time: Data, Health and the Future
With Rodrigo de La Fabián
In this second episode of En Honor al Tiempo en Salud, we discuss how technological devices that mediate our relationship with bodily processes establish a particular kind of connection with time and the future, based on digital datafication and the probabilistic estimation of dynamics. In particular, we examine two types of digitisation processes: those linked to fitness devices and insulin pumps that incorporate elements of artificial intelligence.
Rodrigo de La Fabián holds a degree in Psychology from Diego Portales University, and a Master’s and PhD in Fundamental Psychopathology and Psychoanalysis from the University of Paris 7, France. He is currently Director of the Master’s programme in Psychology, specialising in Psychoanalytic Theory and Clinical Practice. Since 2024, he has been the Principal Investigator for Fondecyt Project No. 1240327, entitled “Analysis of Subjectivation Processes in Digital Self-Monitoring Practices in Chile: the cases of insulin pump use and fitness apps”.
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The concept of time
With Cristina Moyano Barahona
In this first episode of En Honor al Tiempo en Salud, our guest, Cristina Moyano Barahona, enables us to explore various perspectives relating to the conception and problematisation of temporality, with an emphasis on its political nature and its sensitivity to institutional and generational variations.
Cristina Moyano Barahona holds a PhD in History, specialising in Chilean History, from the University of Chile. She is a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Santiago de Chile and, since 2021, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. She is currently also the Principal Investigator for Fondecyt Regular Project No. 1230241, entitled “Activism and political generations: Towards a collective biography of the Communist Youth of Chile (1990–2010)”.
Introduction
“En Honor al Tiempo en Salud” brings together a series of conversations that address the problematic nature of temporality in everyday dynamics and, in particular, in those relating to medical and healthcare activities.
From time to time, figures from the academic and political spheres will be invited to discuss the concept of time as both a problem and a process that is influenced by regulatory, technological and practical factors.
Further information at tiempoensalud.cl
Episodes