Social Acceleration Theory and the Self

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a rapidly growing body of work in the social sciences that underscores the prevalence of the phenomenon of 'social acceleration'-the speeding up of social life-in many parts of the Western world. Although research on social acceleration has tended to analyze the phenomenon on a social-structural level, there is also a need to investigate how social acceleration has 'ramifications for the socially dominant forms of self-relation'. One way to gain a more in-depth understanding of this facet of social acceleration is to investigate the speeding up of social life through the prism of the self. The central argument of this article is that there are at least five images of the self which can be associated with the social acceleration phenomenon: (1) the 'detached' self, (2) the 'reflexive' self, (3) the 'reinventive' self, (4) the 'stationary' self and (5) the 'decelerating' self. By explaining how these kinds of self relate to the speeding up process, we seek to advance a more nuanced and sophisticated theory of social acceleration, which captures some of the complexities and paradoxes that the phenomenon involves.

Edgework, Uncertainty, and Social Character

“…The constraints placed on people by successive 'lockdowns' during the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, and the disorienting effects of what Rosa (2013Rosa ( , 2019 -radicalising Archer's (2012) account of morphogenesis -has identified as an ongoing intensification of 'social acceleration', are both likely to be relevant here. These multi-layered developments shape the macro-contexts in which edgework and social character exist, with the reduction in physically copresence occasioned by the former (Collins, 2020), and the sense of personal detachment associated with the latter (Rosa, 2019), potentially shaping those qualities shared by people keen to seek out once again the potential for activities that are experienced as providing 'authenticity' and 'resonance' with themselves and the world in which they live (Rosa, 2019: 27-30; see also Hsu and Elliott, 2015).…”

Must disasters be rapidly occurring? The case for an expanded temporal typology of disasters

“…According to this growing body of literature, one of the manifold properties of speed is that it affects how people make decisions. In an accelerated social context, people may be more able to reflexively alter the course of their lives, since the capacity to live in a post-traditional social order is linked to higher rates of social change (Hsu and Elliott, 2015). But in an accelerating social world, people may also feel that they are prone to act more recklessly because there is often little time for deliberation and reflection before action needs to be taken (Scheuerman, 2004;Tomlinson, 2007: 44-71).…”

Failing without Failure in the Design Rationale of an Accelerated Society

“…What interests me is a theoretical development of Rosa's account of social acceleration that has been rather less commented on, one that regards the consequences of this phenomenon for the construction of personal identity and the formation of the self. 8 Namely, I will pay attention to the chapter in Rosa's seminal book, Social Acceleration: a new theory of modernity, 9 dedicated to the figure of the "Drifters and Players:" a new kind of anthropological man borne out of "the acceleration in the temporal structures of modern society" 10 and well-suited to an experience of time that has become discontinuous in new advanced capitalist societies. For Rosa, these new forms of subjective engagement with time illustrated with the "Drifters and Players" solve a crucial problem: the incompatibility between, on the one hand, individuals' primary need to unfold their life along a narrative, and, on the other hand, the postmodern experience of disjointed time.…”