The multiple nature of time has by now been well established across a wide range of scholarly traditions in the humanities and social sciences. The article takes that insight as a starting point, in order to discuss the tools, work, sites and contestations involved in common temporal frameworks and structures that cross and join together time’s multiplicities. We thus articulate and discuss key components of synchronisation, a concept with significant potential for understanding common temporalities and social orders. Our emphasis is particularly on media, their technological and representational affordances for synchronisation. The article’s approach to social and mediated times presents an alternative to Hartmut Rosa and François Hartog’s influential theories about the temporal configuration of the present historical moment. Their understanding of the present tends more towards unity and uniformity, particularly by means of chronology. We follow Luhmann in arguing that ‘there is no supersynchronization’ producing such privileged, unitary temporal orders. We propose pursuing an understanding of both present and past through investigations of synchronisation itself, which always exists in plural, always involves different synchronisations in competition with each other, is subject to social and historical contingencies. The article combines theoretical and conceptual arguments with historical and contemporary cases. We investigate the synchronisation of national collectives by means of broadcast media, of individuals in everyday life by means of social media, and the recalibration of various contemporary media to a global scale in order to tackle the issue of climate change. These cases move from past and relatively comprehensive forms of synchronisation, via more localised forms today, to highly uncertain and heterogeneous ones in the future.

到目前为止，时间的多重性已经在人文和社会科学的广泛学术传统中得到了很好的确立。本文以这种见识为起点，以讨论跨越时间的多重性并将其结合在一起的常见时间框架和结构中涉及的工具，工作，站点和竞赛。因此，我们阐明并讨论了同步的关键组成部分，该概念对于理解常见的时间和社会秩序具有巨大的潜力。我们的重点尤其是媒体，它们在同步方面的技术和代表性。这篇文章介绍的社会时间和中介时间是对哈特穆特·罗莎（Hartmut Rosa）和弗朗索瓦·哈托格（FrançoisHartog）关于当前历史时刻的时间结构的有影响力的理论的替代。他们对当下的理解更倾向于统一和统一，特别是通过时间顺序。我们遵循卢曼的观点，认为“没有超同步”会产生这样的特权，单一的时间顺序。我们建议通过对同步本身的研究来寻求对现在和过去的理解，同步本身总是以复数形式存在，总是在彼此之间的竞争中涉及不同的同步，并受社会和历史偶然性的影响。本文将理论和概念论证与历史和当代案例相结合。我们通过广播媒体调查国家集体的同步，通过社交媒体调查个人在日常生活中的同步，以及将各种当代媒体重新调整到全球范围，以解决气候变化问题。这些案例从过去的，相对全面的同步形式，通过今天的本地化形式，转变为未来的高度不确定和异构的形式。