Luhmann’s systems theory independently concludes modernity shortens the present

Evidence

While the acceleration of social change is defined in the first place by Lübbe in an action-theoretical way, it finds a surprising correspondence and confirmation in the systems-theoretical reflections of Niklas Luhmann. For Luhmann “the present” is, in the first instance, constitutive for each system operation insofar as it continually redifferentiates past and future; where the past appears as determined, the future, on the other hand, as (still) undetermined. In a further sense, however, he understands it also as a time period within which (from the perspective of a system) the time horizons of the past and future, and consequently the basis for expectations and decisions (or selections), remain stable, and he leaves no doubt that modernity is characterized by a progressive shortening of these time periods. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 262

Categorization

• XREF: Links to the reader’s standing interest in desynchronization of change across spheres; also connects Luhmann’s per-system time horizons to institutional logics literature.