A Generative Relational Theory of Temporal Injustice in Large-Scale Heterogeneous Systems: A Preliminary Discussion

Abstract

This paper proposes a generative relational theory of temporal injustice for large-scale heterogeneous systems. Its premise, drawn from a companion theory of temporal emergence, is that in such systems the local temporal structures of the parts may be compatible wherever they overlap and assemble into no temporal structure of the whole, so that coordination proceeds under a structural obstruction and some party's temporal datum is overridden; the question of re-synchronization then gives way to the question of allocation. Applying the companion theory's notion of registration to institutions, the paper defines institutional registration, governing status, and divergence, and distinguishes three forms of temporal injustice: non-registration, in which a party's lived temporality is absent from every process of the institution governing them; subordination, in which it is registered and never governs; and unallocated obstruction, in which the override that coordination requires falls by default on the party whose mode no process resists. The three are argued to be independent and are tested on four sites. The paper states a working thesis that unrecoverable divergence concentrates on parties of least registration authority, with its dependencies and its falsifier, and proposes, under an explicit prohibition on the passage from structural necessity to justification, a criterion in constraint form: an institution may not require conformity to a governing temporality while leaving unregistered the temporality it thereby overrides. The criterion ranks no arrangement, aggregates no party's divergence against another's, and generates an asymmetric standing to contest. The paper is a preliminary discussion and its register is a conceding one.