One-sided social acceleration threatens to desynchronize systems from each other.
Evidence
In view of the essential limitation of a human lifetime one may assume that the acceleration of goal-directed processes (the production of goods or states of affairs, the traversal of transport routes, the transmission of information) is, in principal, viewed as desirable. Nevertheless, an evident danger here consists in the potential desynchronization of processes, systems, and perspectives as a result of one-sided acceleration. Acceleration in one subregion of society only remains compatible with the rest of society if corresponding increases in tempo at structural and cultural points of intersection allow for frictionless “translation.” In a growing number of diagnoses of the time, however, one finds the implicit or explicit claim that just this “translation” or “resynchronization” is becoming increasingly problematic in many areas of society. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 113
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the systems/desynchronization theme from Rosa’s overall theory of social acceleration and to E.P. Thompson’s temporal-orientation account cited just after. — connects to: Functional differentiation drives desynchronization between societal systems’ time structures. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 200; Uneven contraction across spheres produces social desynchronization — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 261; Individually opting out of acceleration causes social desynchronization costs — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 437 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Individually opting out of acceleration causes social desynchronization costs
#expands(0.82) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 437 - Social acceleration splits into technical acceleration and social rates of change
#expands(0.80) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 227 - Temporal synchronization, not stubborn resistance, is what undermines power’s plans
#complicates(0.78) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 753