Futuro incerto e felicità a momenti. Tempo, vita, politica nell’università precaria

An image of time based on progressive linearity shapes political modernity: from the past, through the present and toward the future. This image secures the possibility of rational anticipation and social stability as well as any possibility of social change and transformation. Quite differently, contemporary societies seems to leave the subject to govern him/herself into a hostile present, against an uncertain and unpredictable future that secure no rational foresight, while leaving little space for individual and collective socio-political advancements. In my contribution, I will thus focus on the changes in the experience and perception of time by precarious researchers and teachers in Italian Universities. I will refer to a series of surveys and reports in order to discuss the implication of this precarious experience of time on their vision of life, research and political agency.