Abstract

This essay proposes a reading of the Chilean October by questioning the politicization of time, both as the object of the struggles, protest strategy and conservative counter-offensive. The objective is to understand what is at stake in social conflict, as “chronopolitical battles” between temporalities of order (continuity) and temporalities of transformation (the seeds of a discontinuity that opens up another future). It is argued that it is essential to problematize the current relationship to time, specifically the acceleration of life and the social (de)synchronizations that it implies, as well as the place and sense of the future in the current political conflict. In order to apprehend the chronopolitical battles inherent to these social mobilizations, the contribution of the approach is first proposed, before circumscribing the temporal keys of the demands. Next, the social conflict is analysed as battles of temporalities, based on the concept of momentum. Finally, the question of the social reappropriation of the future is summarized.