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8. Time, space, and technology infinancial networksCaitlin ZaloomFinancial markets are central to arguments about the extent of global networksand the speed of transactions they support. They are noted for being the “mostglobal” of forms working in “real time on a planetary scale” (Castells, 1996;see also Held et al., 1999; Sassen, 2001). These observations describe thesignificance of network forms in redefining time and space on a global scale.However, the era-defining observations of “time–space compression” or thebreaking of life narratives that leads to “timeless time” leave a key level unexplored(Harvey, 1989; Castells 1996; see also Sennett 1998). 1 In technologicalnetworks, the constitution of time and space takes place, perhaps most significantly,at the scale of practice. 2 Analysts of networks need to take account ofhow technologies define the spatial and temporal environments of everydaylabor. Network managers and designers plan and construct the global geographyof financial markets. 3 However, at the same time, the traders who workwith network technologies create competing notions of time and space thatchallenge technological design. Traders’ daily work consists of gatheringinformation and taking action in the marketplace. Market technologies shapeand are shaped by these quotidian activities and their temporal and spatialdimensions.Financial markets represent a critical research site for these technologicaland social network transformations. This chapter takes up an historic shiftoccurring in financial futures markets. It is a transition from the architecturaltechnology of the trading pit – the nexus of financial futures – to electronicnetworks of dealers stretched over the globe. The reshaping of space and timeshows that tensions between social and technological arrangements are key tothe problems of centralization and decentralization of global networks. 4 Thesocial forces that fragment the market along spatial and temporal lines driveforward the creation of new market forms.This chapter examines the trading pit and an electronic trading network toanalyze how material technologies and everyday practices shape financialtime and space. 5 The chapter is based on fieldwork I conducted on the financialtrading floor of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and in the digital198