Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity

Hartmut Rosa

Published by Columbia University Press 2013

Social Acceleration

A New Theory of Modernity

Hartmut Rosa
Translated by: Jonathan Trejo-Mathys

Volume 32 in the series New Directions in Critical Theory

https://doi.org/10.7312/rosa14834

Overview
Contents

About this book

Hartmut Rosa advances an account of the temporal structure of society from the perspective of critical theory. He identifies in particular three categories of change in the tempo of modern social life: technological acceleration, evident in transportation, communication, and production; the acceleration of social change, reflected in cultural knowledge, social institutions, and personal relationships; and acceleration in the pace of life, which happens despite the expectation that technological change should increase an individual's free time.

According to Rosa, both the structural and cultural aspects of our institutions and practices are marked by the "shrinking of the present," a decreasing time period during which expectations based on past experience reliably match future results and events. When this phenomenon combines with technological acceleration and the increasing pace of life, time seems to flow ever faster, making our relationships to each other and the world fluid and problematic. It is as if we are standing on "slipping slopes," a steep social terrain that is itself in motion and in turn demands faster lives and technology. As Rosa deftly shows, this self-reinforcing feedback loop fundamentally determines the character of modern life.

Hartmut Rosa advances an account of the temporal structure of society from the perspective of critical theory. He identifies three categories of change in the tempo of modern social life: technological acceleration, evident in transportation, communication, and production; the acceleration of social change, reflected in cultural knowledge, social institutions, and personal relationships; and acceleration in the pace of life, which happens despite the expectation that technological change should increase an individual's free time.

According to Rosa, both the structural and cultural aspects of our institutions and practices are marked by the "shrinking of the present," a decreasing time period during which expectations based on past experience reliably match the future. When this phenomenon combines with technological acceleration and the increasing pace of life, time seems to flow ever faster, making our relationships to each other and the world fluid and problematic. It is as if we are standing on "slipping slopes," a steep social terrain that is itself in motion and in turn demands faster lives and technology. As Rosa deftly shows, this self-reinforcing feedback loop fundamentally determines the character of modern life.

Author / Editor information

Hartmut Rosa is professor of sociology and political science at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. He is the author of Alienation and Acceleration: Towards a Critical Theory of Late-Modern Temporality and coeditor, with William E. Scheuerman, High-Speed Society: Social Acceleration, Power, and Modernity.

Jonathan Trejo-Mathys (1979–2014) was assistant professor of philosophy at Boston College.

Reviews

When I first picked up this book, I was looking forward to a leisurely reading on obscurantist Heideggerian bullshit. I was wrong. But once I got over my deep disappointment that the book was, in fact, intelligible and not littered with ramblings about Dasein, I began to appreciate the book for what it was.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Illustrations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Translator’s Introduction: Modernity and Time Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
In Place of a Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xxxiii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part 1. The Categorial Framework of a Systematic Theory of Social Acceleration
1. From the Love of Movement to the Law of Acceleration: Observations of Modernity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
2. What Is Social Acceleration? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
Part 2. Mechanisms and Manifestations: A Phenomenology of Social Acceleration
3. Technical Acceleration And The Revolutionizing Of The Space-Time Regime Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
4. Slipping Slopes: The Acceleration Of Social Change And The Increase Of Contingency Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
5. The Acceleration Of The “Pace Of Life” And Paradoxes In The Experience Of Time Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	120
Part 3. Causes
6. The Speeding Up of Society as a Self-Propelling Process: The Circle of Acceleration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
7. Acceleration and Growth: External Drivers of Social Acceleration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	160
8. Power, War, and Speed: State and Military as Key Institutional Accelerators Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Part 4. Consequences
9. Acceleration, Globalization, Postmodernity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
10. Situational Identity: Of Drifters and Players Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	224
11. Situational Politics: Paradoxical Time Horizons Between Desynchronization and Disintegration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
12. Acceleration and Rigidity: An Attempt at a Redefinition of Modernity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277
Conclusion: Frenetic Standstill? The End of History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	323
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	419
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	449

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 512
Illustrations
- Other: 13 illus.; 3 Tables

eBook

Published: June 11, 2013
ISBN: 9780231519885