In Bolton's pubs at the end of the 1930s, the research organization Mass Observation pursued answers to big abstract questions about time by studying small concrete actions. Drawing on field notes, draft manuscripts, and published works, this article sets out the different understandings and experiences of time documented by the team of investigators. Outside the ‘time-clock factory-whistle dimension of living’ and inside ‘pub-time’, individuals bought drinks for their companions, drank at the same pace, and engaged with everyone around them on an equal footing. Mass Observation presented such behaviours as proof that the pub fostered a socially harmonious, egalitarian community from a pre-industrial age. However, this article shows that the pub study's archive contains material that goes against the published findings. Observers turned in reports about authoritarian conduct, hierarchical power structures, and the intrusion of contemporary politics. Blurring the research subject and object, it was sometimes the investigators themselves who broke the spell of the pub. These moments of tension, confusion, and contradiction offer insights into the observers’ own perspectives on modern temporalities and subjective experiences of time. All the people in the pubs were caught up in a state of flux.

1930 年代末，在博尔顿的酒吧里，研究组织 Mass Observation 通过研究具体的小动作来寻求关于时间的抽象大问题的答案。本文以田野笔记、手稿草稿和已发表的作品为基础，阐述了研究人员团队记录的对时间的不同理解和体验。在“时钟工厂-生活的哨子维度”之外和“酒吧时间”之内，个人为他们的同伴购买饮料，以相同的速度喝酒，并以平等的方式与周围的每个人互动。Mass Observation 将此类行为作为证明，证明酒吧从前工业时代就培养了社会和谐、平等的社区。然而，这篇文章表明，酒吧研究的档案包含与已发表的研究结果相悖的材料。观察家们提交了关于威权行为、等级权力结构和当代政治入侵的报道。混淆了研究的主题和对象，有时是调查人员自己打破了酒吧的魔咒。这些紧张、混乱和矛盾的时刻提供了对观察者自己对现代时间性和主观时间体验的看法的见解。酒馆里的所有人都陷入了一种不断变化的状态。和矛盾提供了对观察者自己对现代时间性和主观时间体验的看法的见解。酒馆里的所有人都陷入了一种不断变化的状态。和矛盾提供了对观察者自己对现代时间性和主观时间体验的看法的见解。酒馆里的所有人都陷入了一种不断变化的状态。