Alienation and Acceleration

Towards a Critical Theory of Late-Modern Temporality
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-5095-7207-6
Verlag: Polity Press

Buch, Englisch, 120 Seiten

Modern life is speeding-up, constantly. While the art of saving time reaches unprecedented heights through the introduction of ever-new technologies of communication and production, it nevertheless feels like we are running out of time. In all western societies, time scarcity is increasing and individuals report the impression of having to run faster and faster every year – not in order to get somewhere, but just to stay where they are.

In this short book Hartmut Rosa outlines his theory of social acceleration and uses it to analyse the causes and consequences of the temporal processes that characterize modern societies. He shows that modern temporal structures are governed by the logic of an acceleration process that defines the essence of modernity. He also develops a critical theory of social acceleration, arguing that acceleration leads to severe forms of alienation from time and space, from things and actions and from self and others, thus constituting a key obstacle to the realization of a 'good life' in late-modern society.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Rosa, Hartmut

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Gesellschaftstheorie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

PART ONE
A Theory of Social Acceleration

PART TWO
Social Acceleration and the Contemporary Versions of Critical Theory

PART THREE
Outlines of a Critical Theory of Social Acceleration
Conclusion

Endnotes
Literature

Über Autor(innen)

Hartmut Rosa is Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Sociology at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, and Director of the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies at the University of Erfurt, Germany.