High-Speed Society: Social Acceleration, Power, and Modernity

325 Pages·2009·1.64 MB·English

by  Hartmut Rosa

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high-speed society
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HIGH-SPEED
SOCIETY
SOCIAL ACCELERATION, POWER, AND MODERNITY
EDITED BY HARTMUT ROSA AND
WILLIAM E. SCHEUERMAN
THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
UNIVERSITY PARK, PENNSYLVANIA
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library of congress cataloging-in-publication data
High-speed society : social acceleration, power, and modernity /
edited by Hartmut Rosa and William E. Scheuerman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “Examines 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”— Provided by
publisher.
isbn978-0-271-03416-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Speed—Social aspects.
2. Time—Social aspects.
3. Time pressure.
I. Rosa, Hartmut, 1965– .
II. Scheuerman, William E., 1965– .
HM656.H54 2008
304.2'37—dc22
2008021775
Copyright © 2009 The Pennsylvania State University
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press,
University Park, PA 16802-1003
The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of
the Association of American University Presses.
It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press
to use acid-free paper. This book is printed on Natures
Natural, containing 50% post-consumer waste, and meets
the minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Material, ansi z39.48–1992.
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Hartmut Rosa and William E. Scheuerman
part 1. classical perspectives on social acceleration
1 A Law of Acceleration 33
Henry Adams
2 The Pace of Life and the Money Economy 41
Georg Simmel
3 The New Religion-Morality of Speed 57
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
4 The Mania for Motion and Speed 61
John Dewey
5 The Motorized Legislator 65
Carl Schmitt
part 2. high-speed society: theoretical foundations
6 Social Acceleration: Ethical and Political Consequences
of a Desynchronized High-Speed Society 77
Hartmut Rosa
7 Is There an Acceleration of History? 113
Reinhart Koselleck
8 The Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Globalizing Capital and
Their Impact on State Power and Democracy 135
Bob Jessop
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vi contents
9 The Contraction of the Present 159
Hermann Lübbe
10 Speeding Up and Slowing Down 179
John Urry
part 3. high-speed society: political consequences?
11 The State of Emergency 201
Paul Virilio
12 The Nihilism of Speed: On the Work of
Paul Virilio 215
Stefan Breuer
13 Temporal Rhythms and Military Force:
Acceleration, Deceleration, and War 243
Herfried Münkler
14 Speed, Concentric Cultures, and
Cosmopolitanism 261
William E. Connolly
15 Citizenship and Speed 287
William E. Scheuerman
List of Contributors 307
Index 309
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ILLUSTRATIONS
figures
1. The process of modernization I 79
2. Motors of acceleration 93
3. Paradoxes of political time 107
4. The process of modernization II 109
tables
1. The dialectics of acceleration and institutional stability:
Modern accelerators as late modern decelerators 103
2. Marx’s Capital,time, and space 144
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The editors are grateful to Sandy Thatcher, Patricia Mitchell, John Morris,
as well as the entire sta¤ at Penn State Press, for helping to make this book a
reality. James Ingram, now in the Political Science Department at McMas-
ter University, did a superb job translating a series of diªcult texts.
Chapter 1 reprints Chapter 34 of The Education of Henry Adams, by Henry
Adams (Boston: Houghton Miºin, 1918). Chapter 2 is from The Philosophy
of Money,by Georg Simmel, translated by Tom Bottomore and David Frisby,
copyright © 1978 [1907] by Routledge and Kegan Paul. Reproducedby per-
mission of Taylor and Francis Books UK. Chapter 3, “The New Religion-
Morality of Speed,” [1916] is from Marinetti: Selected Writings, by F. T.
Marinetti, edited by R. W. Flint, translated by R. W. Flint and Arthur A.
Coppotelli. Translation copyright © by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc. Re-
printed by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Chapter 4 is from
The Public and Its Problems [1927], by John Dewey. Reprinted with the per-
mission of Swallow Press, Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio. Chapter 5
is a translation of an excerpt from Lage der europäischen Rechtwissenschaft,
by Carl Schmitt (Tübingen: Internationale Universitätsverlag, 1950). Used
by permission of George Schwab. An earlier version of Chapter 6 appeared
in Constellations 10, no. 1 (2003). Chapter 7 is a translation of “Gibt es eine
Beschleunigung der Geschichte?” in Zeitschichten: Studien zur Historik, by
Reinhart Koselleck, © Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 2000. Chap-
ter 9 is a translation of “Gegenwartsschrumpfung,” by Hermann Lübbe,
in Die Beschleunigungsfalle oder der Triumph der Schildkröte, edited by Klaus
Backhaus and Holger Bonus, 3rd ed. (Stuttgart: Schäfer-Pöschel, 1998).
Chapter 11 is from Speed and Politics, by Paul Virilio, translated by Mark Poliz-
zotti (Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2006). Reproduced by permission of Semi-
otext(e) USA. Chapter 14 reprints William Connolly, “Speed, Concentric
Cultures, and Cosmopolitanism,” Political Theory28, no. 5 (2000): 596–618,
copyright 2000 by Sage Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Sage
Publications, Inc. An earlier version of Chapter 15 appeared as “Busyness
and Citizenship,” by William E. Scheuerman, Social Research72, no. 2 (2005).