This article addresses the postmodern temporal condition, examining in particular some aspects of the use of time in the spheres of production and work, where models of time use are very different from those characterizing the beginnings and early development of modern industry. Knowledge is becoming the principal force of production and time is ceasing to be the only measure of work. The use of information technologies in production processes tends to separate the periods and rhythms of time in which machinery is in operation, thereby diversifying and fragmenting work schedules and giving them the flexibility imposed by the changing demands of the production and circulation of goods.

In postmodern societies, the power over time is exercised not only through norms and laws-the traditional devices of a modern state-but also through the production of systems of desire and need. In some cases, the role of pleasure as an instrument of command is far stronger than that of pain and coercion. Consumption is a very important area in which this kind of power over time is active. The reduction in the length of the production cycle in driving sectors of capitalist economies induces the acceleration of exchange and consumption. Thus, striking transformations in the ways goods are circulated occur, resulting in increasingly rapid movements of consumers. The city is a concrete manifestation of the centrality of consumption in contemporary society, a great container and distributor of commodities, services and images that is increasingly becoming a focal point for a range of "nonplaces" functional to mass consumption.

Drawing its inspiration from the writings that Sartre dedicated to the Cuban revolution after his 1960 visit to the island, this article discusses his understanding of the relationship between socialism and freedom. The importance of these texts, which were never published in book form in France, goes beyond their specific analysis of the Cuban revolutionary process. They offer a good opportunity to deepen the study of themes central to Sartre's thought and help us understand the complex connection that Sartre made between his criticism of colonialism and imperialism, and his vision of a socialist society that, by being centered on man and freedom, would not make the critical errors of so-called "real socialism."

The aim of this paper is to examine the temporal dimension of city life in postindustrial society. Typical aspects of the experience of women in cities will be discussed and an attempt made to understand why it is that `city time' has recently begun to form part of the political discourse of women. Using the metaphor of the city as a time machine, it is suggested that city time is constitutionally linked to the onset of the modern concept of time as a resource belonging to an economic system based on the production and exchange of goods. Women, situated as they are at the centre of the complex network of the city's temporal interdependencies, are viewed as the privileged protagonists of the new postmodern temporal condition. However, the increasing demands made on their time, both quantitatively and qualitatively, at the workplace and in the home, marks the friction which results from the objectivization of time based on economic calculations and the temporal experiences linked to each individual's situational context.

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