Modernity’s temporalization of time restructures every social form and concept.

Evidence

Durkheim was interested in how social order and stability is possible in the face of the ongoing acceleration and fragmentation of social relations. Nevertheless his reflections offer neither a systematic cultural grounding for the experience of acceleration nor an analysis of its social-structural consequences. For this reason it was left to Niklas Luhmann and representatives of the systems theory he developed to analyze the temporal consequences of functional differentiation and to indicate the systematic internal connection of processes of differentiation and acceleration. According to Luhmann, system structures and temporal structures are tightly correlated, such that the differentiation of modern functional systems also involves the differentiation of their time structures as well as the past and future time horizons they involve. Here Luhmann shares Koselleck’s view that there has been a “temporalization” or dynamization of time in modernity that is not just an effect of structural differentiation but also just as much underlies it: “with the rise of bourgeois society the structure of time drastically shifted in the direction of higher complexity … [therefore] we must assume that this restructuring has an impact on each social structure and every concept. Nothing will retain its earlier meaning. Even if there is a formal continuity in institutions or terminologies, this only hides the fact that each individual form has achieved higher contingency and higher selectivity.” — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 199

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Koselleck’s ‘temporalization’ concepts and Luhmann systems theory, likely cross-referenced in other chapters of this book or in prior reading on critical theory and modernization. — connects to: Modernity’s own self-observation forces time structures to become sociology’s central object — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 123; Modernization transforms concepts of time wherever it spreads — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 144; Cultural modernity as a whole is a reaction to accelerated time — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 154 (+5 more)
• QUESTION: What precisely is ‘higher contingency and higher selectivity’ meant to describe in Luhmann’s terms — a worthwhile thread to chase if exploring systems-theoretic debates.

Broader Connections

• Three mechanisms drive modernity’s dynamism and process of time-space distanciation #expands (0.85) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 131
• Temporal structures reveal modernity’s underlying principles as if under a magnifying glass. #corroborates (0.78) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 103
• Modernity transforms both global interconnection and the most intimate personal life #expands (0.70) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 24