Description
Book SynopsisExamines the processes of acceleration in politics, economic, culture, and society at large. Focuses on why and how the high-speed contours of crucial forms of social activity now shape so many facets of human existence, and suggests possible responses.
Trade Review“An excellently edited collection of interesting essays on an important subject.”
—Steven Lukes,New York University
“This is an intriguing collection of texts centering on a theme about which social science has had little, and certainly little that is systematic and cumulative, to say. The editors’ idea is to try to capture the thought, ever more widespread since the eighteenth century, that more and more aspects of our lives—technological, economic, public and political, private and intimate—are speeding up. To what extent is this true? If true, what are its consequences, for instance, for the quality of individual lives and for the functioning of democratic politics, and for the condition of those marginalized by and excluded from this allegedly accelerating dynamism of modernity? It is an excellently edited collection of interesting essays on an important subject.”
—Steven Lukes,New York University
“Hartmut Rosa and William Scheuerman have fathered a first-rate set of contributions and produced an excellent collection on an unusual yet deeply important topic. I know of no other book quite like it.”
—Stephen Eric Bronner,Rutgers University
“Ever since Paul Virilio coined the term ‘dromology’ (the study of speed) in 1977, searching for the meaning of ever speedier change has become a progressively more respectable path of scholarship. This anthology of writings dedicated solely to this topic is the first of its kind, and as such has great value, especially for readers who are unfamiliar with the major thinkers to have considered societal celerity seriously. . . . It could serve as a uniquely stimulating text for advanced theory students in the social sciences and humanities.”
—Contemporary Sociology
“Scheuerman’s concluding essay thoughtfully assays the problematic effects of social acceleration on civic engagement.”
—Colloquy
Table of ContentsContents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Hartmut Rosa and William E. Scheuerman
Part 1. Classical Perspectives on Social Acceleration
1. A Law of Acceleration
Henry Adams
2. The Pace of Life and the Money Economy
Georg Simmel
3. The New Religion-Morality of Speed
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
4. The Mania for Motion and Speed
John Dewey
5. The Motorized Legislator
Carl Schmitt
Part 2. High-Speed Society: Theoretical Foundations
6. Social Acceleration: Ethical and Political Consequences of a Desychronized High-Speed Society
Hartmut Rosa
7. Is There an Acceleration of History?
Reinhart Koselleck
8. The Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Globalizing Capital and Their Impact on State Power and Democracy
Bob Jessop
9. The Contraction of the Present
Hermann Lübbe
10. Speeding Up and Slowing Down
John Urry
Part 3. High-Speed Society: Political Consequences?
11. The State of Emergency
Paul Virilio
12. The Nihilism of Speed: On the Work of Paul Virilio
Stefan Breuer
13. Temporal Rhythms and Military Force: Acceleration, Deceleration, and War
Herfried Münkler
14. Speed, Concentric Circles, and Cosmopolitanism
William E. Connolly
15. Citizenship and Speed
William E. Scheuerman
List of Contributors
Index
