Living in a society means doing and experiencing things together. Collectives are formed by people performing similar or related actions at the same time, in sync, so to speak. Synchronised collective actions and experiences include political elections, sports events, demonstrations, parades, as well as other public rituals or performances; however, they are by no means limited to these kinds of spectacular happenings. On the contrary, all forms of social action are in some way or another based on collective and synchronised times. But these synchronised collective times do not exist in and by themselves. They are always the result of work, and this work crucially involves and employs a wide range of communicative genres carried by different media.

This discovery of the link between synchronisation and mediation represents the starting point of the project In Sync, as well as its research goal: During its stay at CAS, the project aims to explore and explain how social collectives are constituted through mediated synchronisation, by which different and often conflicting time frames and temporal regimes are adjusted and adapted in order to form a collective and shared time. This work of synchronisation takes place within or across social and cultural contexts by means of a set of media, both printed and electronic, both analogue and digital. The close connection between synchronisation and mediation will be studied both across time, from the 18th century until today, and across space, in different cultural and geographic contexts. Broadly situated within the interpretive humanities and social sciences, the project is interdisciplinary, with an emphasis on cultural/conceptual history, media studies, and ethnography.

An international group of researchers from Scandinavia, the US, and Germany will be hosted by CAS during the 2018/19 academic year, complemented by associated junior researchers. A wider range of researchers will also be drawn on during a kickoff seminar and final conference, as well as an ongoing research seminar. Research outcomes will be published via publications that include a themed section of the journal Theory and Society, and a volume in Berghahn's interdisciplinary book series Time and the World. The project leaders also aim to host seminars with non-profit Norwegian actors and write op-eds in national newspapers.