Acceleration. The change in time structures in modern times

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Acceleration , subtitle The Change in Time Structures in Modernity is the work of the sociologist and political scientist Hartmut Rosa , which he submitted as a habilitation thesis to the University of Jena in 2004 and which was published in 2005 as a paperback. In it, Rosa examines the social acceleration in modern times. The monograph is a highly regarded work in the sociology of time . Rosa also worked on the subject of acceleration in several of his subsequent publications.

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The book is divided into the introduction (Chapter I), introduction to the topic (Chapter II), the definition of social acceleration (Chapter III), modes of action and manifestations of social acceleration (Chapters IV to VI), causes of social acceleration (Chapter VII to IX) and consequences of social acceleration (Chapters X to XIV).

The basic structure of social acceleration

Rosa defines acceleration as an increase in quantity per unit of time or, equivalent, as a reduction in the time required per unit of quantity; The amount can be as diverse as a distance traveled, a communicated amount of data or goods produced (p. 115). The attempt to save time by shortening or condensing action episodes such as fast food , speed dating , power nap or multitasking is a reaction to the shortage of time resources (p. 114). With acceleration in this sense, one now transports, communicates, produces etc. more and faster than in the previous social epoch (p. 118). Rosa then relates acceleration rates and growth rates to one another: to the extent that acceleration rates lag behind the corresponding growth rates, the shortage of time increases; to the extent that acceleration rates exceed the corresponding growth rates, more time is available; if the acceleration and growth rates are identical, the time resource remains identical (p. 119). To illustrate this, Rosa mentions e-mail communication: Although writing and sending an e-mail may only take half as much time as that of a conventional letter, today you write four times as many e-mails a day as you do Had written letters earlier, it would double the time devoted to communication. The fact that you now write more e-mails per unit of time than you would have written letters earlier in the same time is only made possible by technical progress and not forced, but the pressure to increase results from the "present shrinkage" made possible by technical progress the accelerated change in the contexts of communication and action (p. 119, footnote 11).

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reception