Social acceleration splits into technical acceleration and social rates of change

Evidence

Nowotny’s reflections make clear that the articulation of a workable definition of social acceleration should involve a strict analytical distinction between two basic forms of acceleration. Numerous phenomena can be described as forms of 1. an intentional and goal-directed and therefore in the widest sense “technical” acceleration of particular processes (e.g., enhancements of performance in sports, transportation, or computer technology). To be distinguished from this form of technological-teleological acceleration are 2. increased social rates of change, that is, for instance, the acceleration of changeover in jobs, political party preferences, intimate partners, and membership in voluntary associations or of change per unit of time in occupational and family structures, artistic styles, etc., i.e., the acceleration of social changes that are not inherently goal directed. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 227

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the two-part analytical definition dividing goal-directed technical acceleration from non-goal-directed social change rates.
• XREF: connects to: Acceleration within society differs categorically from acceleration of society as a whole. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 128; Meta-acceleration means social change itself accelerates, not just technology — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 181; A theory of social acceleration must unify heterogeneous phenomena across unrelated social domains — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 225 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Social acceleration takes three analytically distinct forms #expands (0.82) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 65