'You can't turn back the clock': conceptualizing time after institutionalization.

ABSTRACTTime is a phenomenon that is often taken for granted. In gerontology, time is often equated with chronological or linear time, which thereby causes time to be defined as chronological age. With this paper, my purpose is to illuminate further understandings of time and how the passage of time is experienced in old age, particularly in the context of a move to a long-term care institution. Towards that end, I describe a case study of a gentleman coming to live in a long-term care facility. In this case study, time was perceived as an element outside day-to-day experience that structured daily life. Specific dimensions of temporality are evident, including biographical time, embodied time, and embedded time (including institutional time). These dimensions of time provide further understanding of the experiences of age and institutionalization.