Acceleration and Self-Betrayal. Beyond Leisure Time and the Distributive Issue

Abstract

To a large extent, Rosa’s work can be reconstructed in terms of a searching for the causes of acceleration and the phenomenological clarification of such complex phenomena, as well as a critical analysis of its consequences. Following this intuition, the article provides a reconstructive framework of Rosa’s work, connecting the acceleration phenomena with one of its consequences: the discrepancies between value orientations, on the one hand, and actual actions, on the other - a question associated by Rosa with the phenomena of alienation. Why do people act in ways they don’t wish, which diverge from their value orientations? This question remains key to connecting critical theory and empirical sociology, that is, the study of social pathologies of time and acceleration with issues related to injustices.