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Beschleunigung. Die Veränderung der Zeitstrukturen in der Moderne
Das Buch unternimmt erstmals den Versuch, die sich potenzierende Dynamisierung gesellschaftlicher Verhältnisse, wie sie in der jüngsten politischen und digitalen Beschleunigungswelle etwa unter dem Stichwort ›Globalisierung‹ firmiert, systematisch zu erfassen und sie in ihren kulturellen und strukturellen Ursachen ebenso wie in ihren Auswirkungen auf die individuelle und kollektive Lebensführung zu analysieren. Entwickelt wird dabei die These, daß die zunächst befreiende und befähigende Wirkung der modernen sozialen Beschleunigung, die mit den technischen Geschwindigkeitssteigerungen des Transports, der Kommunikation oder der Produktion zusammenhängt, in der Spätmoderne in ihr Gegenteil umzuschlagen droht. Individuell wie kollektiv verändert sich die Erfahrung von Zeit und Geschichte: An die Stelle einer gerichteten Vorwärtsbewegung tritt die Wahrnehmung einer gleichsam bewegungslosen und in sich erstarrten Steigerungsspirale.
537 pages, Paperback
First published November 28, 2005
131 people are currently reading
4345 people want to read
About the author
Hartmut Rosa
59 books296 followersHartmut Rosa has been a Full Professor for Sociology and Sociological Theory at the Institute of Sociology at the Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, since October 2005. His areas of study include theories of modernity, sociology of time, communitarianism, and social theory. He is the author of Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
November 3, 2017
Fuck. It's rare that a book utterly transforms your perspective on things; not just in your explicit positions but also in your tacit assumptions about society and history.
This is a staggering work of social theory, one that convincingly argues for the treatment of time as an essential (perhaps the essential) analytical dimension. I wish I could capture all the repercussions of this perspective in a short post, but I can't, so can only urge everyone to read the book (or at least key sections of it).
'Social Acceleration' argues that acceleration is the key distinguishing factor of modernity, but that in late modernity acceleration has sped on beyond certain bounds. This means nothing less than that the project of modernity (individual and political autonomy) has been superseded by the process of modernity (acceleration). Whereas going faster used to be a means of pushing forward modernisation, it now impedes it.
The impacts upon so many areas that concern us when thinking about contemporary society, it's impossible to sum them up. So just to give a brief enumeration: the subjective sense of not having enough time; the fragmentation of identity; the inability to commit to things; bureaucracy appearing as a hurdle to acceleration when previously it was a carrier of it; the growing impotence of the political steering mechanism; the sense that everything is changing fast while at the same time nothing changes - 'frenetic standstill'; the epidemic of depression; the loss of intergenerational trust and the lack of respect accorded to wisdom; the loss of meaning; the 'end of history'...
This has made me fully grasp the nihilism of speed; that the external compulsion to infinitely accelerate into the future is not a way of realising the promise of modernity. The autonomous, external compulsion to accelerate is deleterious to precisely the things for which we started to accelerate in the first place: the ability to seize control of History and construct a world fit for humans.
This is a staggering work of social theory, one that convincingly argues for the treatment of time as an essential (perhaps the essential) analytical dimension. I wish I could capture all the repercussions of this perspective in a short post, but I can't, so can only urge everyone to read the book (or at least key sections of it).
'Social Acceleration' argues that acceleration is the key distinguishing factor of modernity, but that in late modernity acceleration has sped on beyond certain bounds. This means nothing less than that the project of modernity (individual and political autonomy) has been superseded by the process of modernity (acceleration). Whereas going faster used to be a means of pushing forward modernisation, it now impedes it.
The impacts upon so many areas that concern us when thinking about contemporary society, it's impossible to sum them up. So just to give a brief enumeration: the subjective sense of not having enough time; the fragmentation of identity; the inability to commit to things; bureaucracy appearing as a hurdle to acceleration when previously it was a carrier of it; the growing impotence of the political steering mechanism; the sense that everything is changing fast while at the same time nothing changes - 'frenetic standstill'; the epidemic of depression; the loss of intergenerational trust and the lack of respect accorded to wisdom; the loss of meaning; the 'end of history'...
This has made me fully grasp the nihilism of speed; that the external compulsion to infinitely accelerate into the future is not a way of realising the promise of modernity. The autonomous, external compulsion to accelerate is deleterious to precisely the things for which we started to accelerate in the first place: the ability to seize control of History and construct a world fit for humans.
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August 21, 2025Es ist höchst aufschlussreich und ironisch, dieses Buch in einer Lebensphase der Schallbeschleunigung zu lesen, denn nach jedem Kapitel checke ich kurz wie lange ich noch zu lesen habe, weil die nächsten zehn Bücher der Liste ja schon warten. So lesen sich die wirklich wortgewaltigen Seiten fast wie ein Selbsthilfebuch.
Es ist höchst richtig und wichtig diese Theorie der sozialen Beschleunigung zu verstehen in einer Zeit, die von künstlicher Intelligenz, Crypto und neoimperialem Weltherrschaftsanspruch angetrieben ist. je die Sekunden schneller vergehen lässt. Nach den vergangenen zwanzig Jahre, in denen die Weltlage die Sekunden schneller vergehen ließ, erscheint dieses Buch heute unglaublich jung. Es muss wohl an der neuen Face-Lift-Technik liegen, mit denen auch Kris Jenner und Co. ihren biologischen Zerfall endlich anhalten…
Oder es liegt daran, dass Rosa eine wahnsinnig entscheidende These über die Gegenwart entwickelt hat, auf die unglaublicherweise niemand vor ihm gekommen ist.
Dieses Buch ist die tatsächliche Beschreibung und Erklärung unserer Zeit, es ist das akkuratere „Ende der Geschichte“ (Fukuyama). Denn was, wenn nicht die soziale Beschleunigung ist der Grund für unsere unmögliche Arbeitswelt, die globale Klimazerstörung und für den ziellosen Blick, mit dem jeder durch sein Leben schwank.
Es ist höchst richtig und wichtig diese Theorie der sozialen Beschleunigung zu verstehen in einer Zeit, die von künstlicher Intelligenz, Crypto und neoimperialem Weltherrschaftsanspruch angetrieben ist. je die Sekunden schneller vergehen lässt. Nach den vergangenen zwanzig Jahre, in denen die Weltlage die Sekunden schneller vergehen ließ, erscheint dieses Buch heute unglaublich jung. Es muss wohl an der neuen Face-Lift-Technik liegen, mit denen auch Kris Jenner und Co. ihren biologischen Zerfall endlich anhalten…
Oder es liegt daran, dass Rosa eine wahnsinnig entscheidende These über die Gegenwart entwickelt hat, auf die unglaublicherweise niemand vor ihm gekommen ist.
Dieses Buch ist die tatsächliche Beschreibung und Erklärung unserer Zeit, es ist das akkuratere „Ende der Geschichte“ (Fukuyama). Denn was, wenn nicht die soziale Beschleunigung ist der Grund für unsere unmögliche Arbeitswelt, die globale Klimazerstörung und für den ziellosen Blick, mit dem jeder durch sein Leben schwank.
February 17, 2024
Det här är en väldigt bra och omfattande bok med en analys som jag till stora delar upplevde stämmer väl överens med vad vi lever i för S O C I E T Y. Min enda hmm med boken var att den går väääldigt långt i sitt porträtt av moderniteten som något unikt att det blir nästan som att vi till slut beskrivs leva på en annan planet. Sååå unik kanske nutiden inte är?
Utöver det var det ändå ett riktigt väl underbyggt resonemang som var lätt att följa med och som gett mig nya perspektiv på saker etc etc.
4,5/5
Utöver det var det ändå ett riktigt väl underbyggt resonemang som var lätt att följa med och som gett mig nya perspektiv på saker etc etc.
4,5/5
December 27, 2024
Sehr interessant aber auch sehr kompliziert geschrieben. Mit seinen Schlussworten wurde aber einiges klarer.
April 9, 2020
Our world has experienced unprecedented exponential development, a dynamization of technology and a shift to the modern globalized society, all in the last century. Rosa's theory of social acceleration brings forth a way to understanding our fastened pace in contemporary society. Due to a more connected society the world can seem smaller. For instance, the red cross displays current global updates from e.g. Myanmar and the Caribbean on their front page. Technological acceleration has brought forward revolutionary communication forums like the radio, tv and finally the internet which helps, among others, the red cross to reach out globally to a large audience and fast. This acceleration of communication, through the fast speed of digital transmission, has accumulated an enormous amount of available information. This information has made it possible for many to retrieve a wide range of knowledge but with the side effect that we can't possibly grasp or comprehend it all.
Time is a relative parameter to all the three stages of social acceleration. Rosa presents studies that show how technological innovations have made our daily lives more efficient but in spite of that, we tend to experience a perception of time scarcity. This places demands on websites, like the red cross, to be appealing and user-friendly to appeal to visitors shortened attention span. Individuals often don't feel that they have the time to scroll through a whole website or maybe even a page. If one cannot find what they are looking for within a few clicks then the risk is that the visitor simply starts looking somewhere else on the web.
The acceleration of social change has also increased our pace of life. We're expected to do more in the same 24 hours than we did before. To handle time pressure Rosa lifts forward that we order our time in a sort of "to-do" list, according to how much we value an issue. Spare time to read through a website and to do further research, in order to make a rational decision, is just not a luxury many feel that they have and so forth it becomes very low on the "to do" list.
Rosas theory of social acceleration, contributing to the exponential growth of diverse markets, has consequently also led to more competition. The overflow of information also makes it hard for an audience to choose the right organisation to invest their time and money in. This out of a strategic communication perspective means that an organisation, website or text, needs to stand out now even more than ever, in order to be seen.
Time is a relative parameter to all the three stages of social acceleration. Rosa presents studies that show how technological innovations have made our daily lives more efficient but in spite of that, we tend to experience a perception of time scarcity. This places demands on websites, like the red cross, to be appealing and user-friendly to appeal to visitors shortened attention span. Individuals often don't feel that they have the time to scroll through a whole website or maybe even a page. If one cannot find what they are looking for within a few clicks then the risk is that the visitor simply starts looking somewhere else on the web.
The acceleration of social change has also increased our pace of life. We're expected to do more in the same 24 hours than we did before. To handle time pressure Rosa lifts forward that we order our time in a sort of "to-do" list, according to how much we value an issue. Spare time to read through a website and to do further research, in order to make a rational decision, is just not a luxury many feel that they have and so forth it becomes very low on the "to do" list.
Rosas theory of social acceleration, contributing to the exponential growth of diverse markets, has consequently also led to more competition. The overflow of information also makes it hard for an audience to choose the right organisation to invest their time and money in. This out of a strategic communication perspective means that an organisation, website or text, needs to stand out now even more than ever, in order to be seen.
March 2, 2023
The ending to this book written in 2004 pressages many of the things already come to pass in the 19 years since its completion. Rosa lays out 4 scenarios for how we can proceed in late modernity and concludes that we simply do not have it in us to disembed from the social acceleration mechanism driving late modernity and the only way we will get out of this ever increasing spiral is societal collapse - either the collapse of the ecosystem, or political upheaval leading to mass violence on multiple levels and global wars.
I agree with this, but what is interesting is a few pages before this sobering honest assessment of the current state of things, he cites Richard Rorty and his book Contigeniency, Irony, and Solidarity, as a method for coping with the inevitable collapse of modern society, and that is to have an orientation to the world in which we need to fundamentally appreciate that the universe is indifferent to us - the human project - and that we need to develop an ironic, playful relation to the uncontrollable vicissitudes of life.
There are a few books I have read that have fundamentally altered my relation to the world, that book by Richard Rorty is one of them. I am not sure how else you cope with a world on a collision course with annihilation within a generation or two except to develop and practice an ironic and playful relation to the vicissitudes of life.
I wondered why this book by Rosa is not more widely known and I believe it may have to do with the fact that this is an academic book through and through and not written for the general audience in mind. It may also have to do with the fact that Rosa has impressively articulated the end game for our civilization and no one really wants to read that. I for one am glad I took the time to work through this book and appreciate Rosa's dedication to this project.
I agree with this, but what is interesting is a few pages before this sobering honest assessment of the current state of things, he cites Richard Rorty and his book Contigeniency, Irony, and Solidarity, as a method for coping with the inevitable collapse of modern society, and that is to have an orientation to the world in which we need to fundamentally appreciate that the universe is indifferent to us - the human project - and that we need to develop an ironic, playful relation to the uncontrollable vicissitudes of life.
There are a few books I have read that have fundamentally altered my relation to the world, that book by Richard Rorty is one of them. I am not sure how else you cope with a world on a collision course with annihilation within a generation or two except to develop and practice an ironic and playful relation to the vicissitudes of life.
I wondered why this book by Rosa is not more widely known and I believe it may have to do with the fact that this is an academic book through and through and not written for the general audience in mind. It may also have to do with the fact that Rosa has impressively articulated the end game for our civilization and no one really wants to read that. I for one am glad I took the time to work through this book and appreciate Rosa's dedication to this project.
October 7, 2020
Wir haben keine Zeit, obwohl wir für einzelne Tätigkeiten immer weniger Zeit benötigen. Rosa untersucht auf eindrucksvolle Weise unseren aktuellen gesellschaftlichen Umgang mit "Zeit" und dessen Folgen. Was sich anfangs banal anhören mag, wird immer mehr zu einer sehr aufschlussreichen Lektüre mit zahlreichen Denkanstößen. Obwohl die Habilitationsschrift, auf der das Buch basiert, bereits 2003 finalisiert worden ist, hat das Buch keineswegs an Aktualität verloren. Vielmehr zeigt es gerade auch im Hinblick auf die derzeitige Corona-Pandemie, wie sehr der Parameter "Beschleunigung" die Gestaltung unserer Leben beeinflusst.
January 5, 2022
If you're concerned with the ways society is changing, this book is for you. Though he doesn't offer solutions in this book (wait for Resonance), he offers some clear observations and theories as to how people and institutions could pursue a different relationship with time. Someone should write about how this work impacts the church's sense of its calling and mission.
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October 12, 2025The author's hypothesis, which I agree with, is that the essential distinction of Modernity (and Post-Modernity) is that it is an age in which our subjective experience of time is accelerating. The examples of this phenomenon are everywhere, and we can all feel this sense of acceleration, this feeling that everything is always moving faster and faster, in the hectic and stressful pace of our lives. This felt experience of acceleration is so profound that it fundamentally changes what it is to be human.
For example, for most of human history, parents were able to pass down to their children knowledge and experience about how to live and how to behave that children could use to find a place in their world. This is no longer the case in our age of non-stop acceleration and the social change it brings. In my parent's generation, a college degree was a guarantee of an upper middle class life, but the value of a university education has radically changed in less than a generation. This is just one small example how social acceleration alters human relationships and society. Fundamental social structures such as the education system breakdown and change in form faster and faster with the process of acceleration in modernity, rushed ever forward by technological advancement. There is no area of modern life that is left unaffected. Work, leisure, travel, even religion and spirituality are all warped and changed as they are brought in line with an ever accelerating society.
However, while I believe the topic that the author is exploring is an essential one for us coming to terms with what it means to be a human right now, the book is way too academic for me. The author is a sociologist and feels the need to justify his positions with studies and scientific facts. But I don't think that what the author is getting at can be verified by science, it is much better approached through the arts and literature (and to be fair the author admits this at points). So in this book we have an exploration of what is an incredibly important and fascinating topic, but it comes across as dense and academic.
I prefer to leave it to the artists to show me that truth of what is happening in our machine accelerated society, because they can do so without needing to rely on the tyranny of scientific rationalism (which is in many ways the mindset that actually leads to acceleration in the first place).
For instance here is Pynchon -
"Kekulé dreams the Great Serpent holding its own tail in its mouth, the dreaming Serpent which surrounds the World. But the meanness, the cynicism with which this dream is to be used. The Serpent that announces, "The World is a closed thing, cyclical, resonant, eternally-returning," is to be delivered into a system whose only aim is to violate the Cycle. Taking and not giving back, demanding that "productivity" and "earnings" keep on increasing with time, the System removing from the rest of the World these vast quantities of energy to keep its own tiny desperate fraction showing a profit: and not only most of humanity—most of the World, animal, vegetable, and mineral, is laid waste in the process. The System may or may not understand that it's only buying time. And that time is an artificial resource to begin with, of no value to anyone or anything but the System, which must sooner or later crash to its death, when its addiction to energy has become more than the rest of the World can supply, dragging with it innocent souls all along the chain of life."
Or, here is the great aphorist Nicolas Gomez Davila -
"Given the rapid obsolescence of everything in our age, man lives today in a psychologically briefer time."
I've often heard people repeat the axion that life is short. But is this true? Or is our orientation to time, our culture of constant acceleration, hurtling us through life so quickly that we do not have the ability to stop and take the time to appreciate the time that we do have?
For example, for most of human history, parents were able to pass down to their children knowledge and experience about how to live and how to behave that children could use to find a place in their world. This is no longer the case in our age of non-stop acceleration and the social change it brings. In my parent's generation, a college degree was a guarantee of an upper middle class life, but the value of a university education has radically changed in less than a generation. This is just one small example how social acceleration alters human relationships and society. Fundamental social structures such as the education system breakdown and change in form faster and faster with the process of acceleration in modernity, rushed ever forward by technological advancement. There is no area of modern life that is left unaffected. Work, leisure, travel, even religion and spirituality are all warped and changed as they are brought in line with an ever accelerating society.
However, while I believe the topic that the author is exploring is an essential one for us coming to terms with what it means to be a human right now, the book is way too academic for me. The author is a sociologist and feels the need to justify his positions with studies and scientific facts. But I don't think that what the author is getting at can be verified by science, it is much better approached through the arts and literature (and to be fair the author admits this at points). So in this book we have an exploration of what is an incredibly important and fascinating topic, but it comes across as dense and academic.
I prefer to leave it to the artists to show me that truth of what is happening in our machine accelerated society, because they can do so without needing to rely on the tyranny of scientific rationalism (which is in many ways the mindset that actually leads to acceleration in the first place).
For instance here is Pynchon -
"Kekulé dreams the Great Serpent holding its own tail in its mouth, the dreaming Serpent which surrounds the World. But the meanness, the cynicism with which this dream is to be used. The Serpent that announces, "The World is a closed thing, cyclical, resonant, eternally-returning," is to be delivered into a system whose only aim is to violate the Cycle. Taking and not giving back, demanding that "productivity" and "earnings" keep on increasing with time, the System removing from the rest of the World these vast quantities of energy to keep its own tiny desperate fraction showing a profit: and not only most of humanity—most of the World, animal, vegetable, and mineral, is laid waste in the process. The System may or may not understand that it's only buying time. And that time is an artificial resource to begin with, of no value to anyone or anything but the System, which must sooner or later crash to its death, when its addiction to energy has become more than the rest of the World can supply, dragging with it innocent souls all along the chain of life."
Or, here is the great aphorist Nicolas Gomez Davila -
"Given the rapid obsolescence of everything in our age, man lives today in a psychologically briefer time."
I've often heard people repeat the axion that life is short. But is this true? Or is our orientation to time, our culture of constant acceleration, hurtling us through life so quickly that we do not have the ability to stop and take the time to appreciate the time that we do have?
September 1, 2024
A great book is often a book that can speak to truths that sit somewhere in your subconscious but need to be fleshed out and brought to the forefront of your mind. Within the sometimes challenging academic language of this incredible book is a truly breathtaking dissection of our relationship with time. Harmut Rosa's analysis of how we as a society are driven by the compulsion for acceleration, the reasons why, and also the consequences of this compulsion is truly transformative.
Rosa analyses at the acceleration of time in three specific areas - technological acceleration, the acceleration of social change and the acceleration of the pace of life. This book posits some incredibly convincing theories on topics as broad as to why the pace of life seems to be increasing incessantly and how the acceleration of time affects our identities and intergenerational relationships.
Despite being written 19 years ago, many of the conclusions that Rosa notes seem to be unfortunately ringing true. Did the below predict the recent monopolisation of Tik Tok and shorts over any content longer than 10 seconds?
"The temporal structures of late modernity seem to be characterized in large measure by fragmentation, i.e., by the breaking down of series of actions and experiences into ever smaller sequences with shrinking windows of attention. Eriksen sees here an outstanding marker of the late modern“tyranny of the moment” that is caused by permanent availability for communication(and hence vulnerability to a variety of external interruptions), the flexibilization and deinstitutionalization of practices, and also excess information and material abundance. This creates a situation,“where both working time and leisure time are cut into pieces, where the intervals become smaller and smaller, where a growing number of events are squeezed into decreasing time slots.”
A truly fantastic book and a must read.
Rosa analyses at the acceleration of time in three specific areas - technological acceleration, the acceleration of social change and the acceleration of the pace of life. This book posits some incredibly convincing theories on topics as broad as to why the pace of life seems to be increasing incessantly and how the acceleration of time affects our identities and intergenerational relationships.
Despite being written 19 years ago, many of the conclusions that Rosa notes seem to be unfortunately ringing true. Did the below predict the recent monopolisation of Tik Tok and shorts over any content longer than 10 seconds?
"The temporal structures of late modernity seem to be characterized in large measure by fragmentation, i.e., by the breaking down of series of actions and experiences into ever smaller sequences with shrinking windows of attention. Eriksen sees here an outstanding marker of the late modern“tyranny of the moment” that is caused by permanent availability for communication(and hence vulnerability to a variety of external interruptions), the flexibilization and deinstitutionalization of practices, and also excess information and material abundance. This creates a situation,“where both working time and leisure time are cut into pieces, where the intervals become smaller and smaller, where a growing number of events are squeezed into decreasing time slots.”
A truly fantastic book and a must read.
August 23, 2024
Dies ist das erste wissenschaftliches bzw. soziologisches Buch, das ich je gelesen habe. Trotz der Komplexität und des Umfangs der Beschleunigungstheorie - die ja angesichts der Komplexität der reellen Welt schon berechtigt sind - war die Argumentationsweise im Laufe des Buches plausibel und überzeugend verfasst.
Einige Abschnitte, wie etwa der zweite Teil des sechsten Kapitels, in dem es um die Wahrnehemung einer rasenden Zeit geht, haben mich sehr beeindruckt, da alltägliche (philosophische/psychologische/zeitbezogene) Phänomene, die man ja mitbekommt, jedoch nur in den Hintegrund des Hirns steckt, ohne sich damit intensiv zu beschäftigen, sehr gut auf den Punkt gebracht werden. Hier wurden meiner Meinung nach sehr interessante Konzepte wie das Slipping-Slopes-Syndrome, die Müssens-Semantik sowie das Fernsehparadoxon erläutert.
Jedoch fand ich kurios, dass bestimmte Aussagen vorweggenommen wurden bzw. sich wiederholen, was zwar gut zum Auffrischen des Vergessenen war, ich aber für ein wenig unnötig hielt. Diese Teile des Buches hätte man kürzen oder gar weglassen können.
Insgesamt finde ich trotzdem, dass man diesem Thema mehr Achtung schenken sollte, auch wenn man, vielleicht etwas pessimistisch ausgedrückt, als Individuum nicht viel gegen die systemischen, gesellschaftlichen und globalen Veränderungen unternehmen kann.
Einige Abschnitte, wie etwa der zweite Teil des sechsten Kapitels, in dem es um die Wahrnehemung einer rasenden Zeit geht, haben mich sehr beeindruckt, da alltägliche (philosophische/psychologische/zeitbezogene) Phänomene, die man ja mitbekommt, jedoch nur in den Hintegrund des Hirns steckt, ohne sich damit intensiv zu beschäftigen, sehr gut auf den Punkt gebracht werden. Hier wurden meiner Meinung nach sehr interessante Konzepte wie das Slipping-Slopes-Syndrome, die Müssens-Semantik sowie das Fernsehparadoxon erläutert.
Jedoch fand ich kurios, dass bestimmte Aussagen vorweggenommen wurden bzw. sich wiederholen, was zwar gut zum Auffrischen des Vergessenen war, ich aber für ein wenig unnötig hielt. Diese Teile des Buches hätte man kürzen oder gar weglassen können.
Insgesamt finde ich trotzdem, dass man diesem Thema mehr Achtung schenken sollte, auch wenn man, vielleicht etwas pessimistisch ausgedrückt, als Individuum nicht viel gegen die systemischen, gesellschaftlichen und globalen Veränderungen unternehmen kann.
November 30, 2024
Impressive analysis of the change of temporal structure since the beginning of our modern world and its consequences. The author manages to explain many phenomena like having less time for important things even though we have mastered saving time, a loss of respect towards the knowledge of the elderly, desynchronization of social subsystems, all within one common framework.
To me the most notable achievement is that the author formulated a theory which encapsulates both modernity and late modernity and is able to describe the dynamical process of shifting from one to the other, all while staying within a single unchanged framework (capitalism, liberalism, acceleration).
Great book to obtain a better understanding of the structural processes underlying our world!
*translated from German 'Spätmoderne' in contrast to the diagonsis of a post modern world.
To me the most notable achievement is that the author formulated a theory which encapsulates both modernity and late modernity and is able to describe the dynamical process of shifting from one to the other, all while staying within a single unchanged framework (capitalism, liberalism, acceleration).
Great book to obtain a better understanding of the structural processes underlying our world!
*translated from German 'Spätmoderne' in contrast to the diagonsis of a post modern world.
November 9, 2020
An incredibly sharp book about how society accelerates and how individuals adjust. It really nails down extremely logically how technology, social change and rhythm of life produce the feeling of going faster, and feed one another. I found the book extremely useful to deconstruct the paradox of why technology that « saves » time if combined with industrialisation produces people who have less time. The other finding I found fascinating is how the relationship to time and how the new generations construct their identity in this accelerating world
February 8, 2025
This took me a long time to work through, it’s incredibly dense, difficult and worth it.
While the language (at least in the English version) is a little)unaccessible with the help of chat GPT, or a quick google search you can understand the ideas quickly enough.
This perspective on Modernity gave me entirely new lenses by which to understand the society around me and my relationship with it. While this is a philosophical/sociological book, the practical implications are obvious and plentiful.
While the language (at least in the English version) is a little)unaccessible with the help of chat GPT, or a quick google search you can understand the ideas quickly enough.
This perspective on Modernity gave me entirely new lenses by which to understand the society around me and my relationship with it. While this is a philosophical/sociological book, the practical implications are obvious and plentiful.
November 13, 2025
Rosa sets out to show that modernity is caused by acceleration of time in peoples lives. Many aspects on the world going faster are discussed. Most people will recognize many of these aspects from their own lives. Rosa may not totally succeed to prove modernism = acceleration of time, but there are still a lot of interesting perspectives in this book. Although it is long and at least at times not easily accessible, it is an interesting book. Due to the reognition factor I suspect even people normally not reading a lot of philosophy will find many parts they enjoy.
December 20, 2025
este libro es un eterno si y no, si y no, si y no. al menos podemos afirmar con todas sus letras que está haciendo Teoría Crítica y que sin duda es un aporte novedoso al conocimiento. pero vamos, que afirmando y negando con la cabeza a partes iguales (lo único que no me convence es el término resonancia soy una exagerada)
April 26, 2021
Mind blown.
July 23, 2021
Probablement l'ouvrage de sociologie le plus important de notre époque. À lire absolument.
September 19, 2023
Le genre de livre qu’on cite en exemple de discussions pendant des années tant le sujet est central et fondamental. Un MUST-MUST read!
April 22, 2025
Very interesting book on how acceleration have occured on many different levels in society and everyday life in general. A lot of synergies between the different aspects affected.
July 6, 2025
Sehr anstrengend zu lesen aber auch sehr interessant.
February 9, 2013
This is a fantastic and interesting book, but still I'm not sure I understood it all. Written by a sociologist it is based on the dromology, or the study of speed and covers the speed of new discoveries, the speed of the people moving across countries and what does that imply when we think about the political part of that all. These essays are really really deep and open the mind to a new way of thinking all the world around us.
Questo libro è stato veramente eccezionale ed interessante, ma ancora non sono sicura di avero capito tutto. Scritto da un sociologo è basato sulla dromologia, lo studio della velocità dei cambiamenti e racconta della rapidità con cui ogni giorno vengono fatte nuove scoperte, la velocità con cui le persone si muovono attraverso i continenti e quanto può pesare questo sulla politica nazionale ed internazionale di un paese. Questi saggi sono veramente profondi e permettono alla mente di affrontare tutta una serie di vecchie questioni da un nuovo punto di vista.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE PREVIEW.
Questo libro è stato veramente eccezionale ed interessante, ma ancora non sono sicura di avero capito tutto. Scritto da un sociologo è basato sulla dromologia, lo studio della velocità dei cambiamenti e racconta della rapidità con cui ogni giorno vengono fatte nuove scoperte, la velocità con cui le persone si muovono attraverso i continenti e quanto può pesare questo sulla politica nazionale ed internazionale di un paese. Questi saggi sono veramente profondi e permettono alla mente di affrontare tutta una serie di vecchie questioni da un nuovo punto di vista.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE PREVIEW.
March 15, 2022
This is a very good book. It makes a good case for acceleration as the primary category of modernity. Also shows interesting late modern (post 89) pathologies of acceleration in social, political, and personal spheres. Even though it was written 15 years ago or so, remains very timely nowadays.
Edit: after re-reading it, I have to change it from 4 to 5 stars. This book is really amazing.
Edit: after re-reading it, I have to change it from 4 to 5 stars. This book is really amazing.
March 3, 2023
Um livro impactante que nos coloca frente a frente com os avanços da sociedade moderna. Como criamos as ferramentas que nos possibilitam ter mais tempo e, ainda assim, estamos sempre presos na loucura de produzir mais e mais
August 14, 2011
Une plongée angoissante pour mieux comprendre la perte de sens et de direction de nos sociétés modernes, face à l'accélération des techniques et des changements sociaux.
January 29, 2016
AMAZING!!
February 11, 2016
Hard book to read, a hard argument to follow. but this guy is a genius. it will show you how a brand new theory is being formed.
July 9, 2023
omg those Germans
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