Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World
The pace of modern life is undoubtedly speeding up, yet this acceleration does not seem to have made us any happier or more content. If acceleration is the problem, then the solution, argues Hartmut Rosa in this major new work, lies in “resonance.” The quality of a human life cannot be measured simply in terms of resources, options, and moments of happiness; instead, we must consider our relationship to, or resonance with, the world.

Applying his theory of resonance to many domains of human activity, Rosa describes the full spectrum of ways in which we establish our relationship to the world, from the act of breathing to the adoption of culturally distinct worldviews. He then turns to the realms of concrete experience and action – family and politics, work and sports, religion and art – in which we as late modern subjects seek out resonance.  This task is proving ever more difficult as modernity’s logic of escalation is both cause and consequence of a distorted relationship to the world, at individual and collective levels. As Rosa shows, all the great crises of modern society – the environmental crisis, the crisis of democracy, the psychological crisis – can also be understood and analyzed in terms of resonance and our broken relationship to the world around us.

Building on his now classic work on acceleration, Rosa’s new book is a major new contribution to the theory of modernity, showing how our problematic relation to the world is at the crux of some of the most pressing issues we face today. This bold renewal of critical theory for our times will be of great interest to students and scholars across the social sciences and humanities.

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Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World
The pace of modern life is undoubtedly speeding up, yet this acceleration does not seem to have made us any happier or more content. If acceleration is the problem, then the solution, argues Hartmut Rosa in this major new work, lies in “resonance.” The quality of a human life cannot be measured simply in terms of resources, options, and moments of happiness; instead, we must consider our relationship to, or resonance with, the world.

Applying his theory of resonance to many domains of human activity, Rosa describes the full spectrum of ways in which we establish our relationship to the world, from the act of breathing to the adoption of culturally distinct worldviews. He then turns to the realms of concrete experience and action – family and politics, work and sports, religion and art – in which we as late modern subjects seek out resonance.  This task is proving ever more difficult as modernity’s logic of escalation is both cause and consequence of a distorted relationship to the world, at individual and collective levels. As Rosa shows, all the great crises of modern society – the environmental crisis, the crisis of democracy, the psychological crisis – can also be understood and analyzed in terms of resonance and our broken relationship to the world around us.

Building on his now classic work on acceleration, Rosa’s new book is a major new contribution to the theory of modernity, showing how our problematic relation to the world is at the crux of some of the most pressing issues we face today. This bold renewal of critical theory for our times will be of great interest to students and scholars across the social sciences and humanities.

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Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World

Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World

Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World

Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World

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Overview

The pace of modern life is undoubtedly speeding up, yet this acceleration does not seem to have made us any happier or more content. If acceleration is the problem, then the solution, argues Hartmut Rosa in this major new work, lies in “resonance.” The quality of a human life cannot be measured simply in terms of resources, options, and moments of happiness; instead, we must consider our relationship to, or resonance with, the world.

Applying his theory of resonance to many domains of human activity, Rosa describes the full spectrum of ways in which we establish our relationship to the world, from the act of breathing to the adoption of culturally distinct worldviews. He then turns to the realms of concrete experience and action – family and politics, work and sports, religion and art – in which we as late modern subjects seek out resonance.  This task is proving ever more difficult as modernity’s logic of escalation is both cause and consequence of a distorted relationship to the world, at individual and collective levels. As Rosa shows, all the great crises of modern society – the environmental crisis, the crisis of democracy, the psychological crisis – can also be understood and analyzed in terms of resonance and our broken relationship to the world around us.

Building on his now classic work on acceleration, Rosa’s new book is a major new contribution to the theory of modernity, showing how our problematic relation to the world is at the crux of some of the most pressing issues we face today. This bold renewal of critical theory for our times will be of great interest to students and scholars across the social sciences and humanities.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781509519897
Publisher: Polity Press
Publication date: 07/29/2019
Pages: 450
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 2.00(d)

About the Author

Hartmut Rosa is Professor of Sociology at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany, and Director of the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, Erfurt, Germany.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xii

In Lieu of a Foreword: Sociology and the Story of Anna and Hannah 1

I Introduction 17

1 Sociology, Modernity, and the Good Life 17

2 The Basic Idea: Successful and Unsuccessful Relationships to the World 26

3 What is the World? Who is a Subject? 31

4 Method of Analysis 37

Part 1 The Basic Elements of Human Relationships to the World

II Bodily Relationships to the World 47

1 Being Situated in the World 47

2 Breathing 52

3 Eating and Drinking 56

4 Voice, Gaze, Countenance 62

5 Walking, Standing, Sleeping 71

6 Laughing, Crying, Loving 76

III Appropriating World and Experiencing World 83

1 Inscription and Expression: The Worldly Body as Designed Self 83

2 Media of Our Relationship to the World 88

3 Modifying from Without or Subduing from Within: The Body as Resource, Instrument, and Design Object 96

4 Self-Alienation: The Body as Enemy 104

IV Emotional, Evaluative, and Cognitive Relationships to the World 110

1 Fear and Desire as Elementary Forms of Our Relationship to the World 110

2 Experiencing World and Appropriating World 124

3 Cognitive Roadmaps and Cultural Worldviews 126

4 Roadmaps of Desire and Evaluation 132

5 Psycho-Emotional Grounding and Defining the Problem of Existence 138

V Resonance and Alienation as Basic Categories of a Theory of Our Relationship to the World 145

1 Mirror Neurons and Divining Rods: Intersubjectivity as an Anthropological Basis 145

2 Intrinsic Interests and Perceived Self-Efficacy 158

3 Resonance 164

4 Alienation 174

5 The Dialectic of Resonance and Alienation 184

Part 2 Spheres and Axes of Resonance

VI Introduction: Spheres of Resonance, Recognition, and the Axes of Our Relationship to the World 195

VII Horizontal Axes of Resonance 202

1 Family as a Harbor of Resonance in a Stormy Sea 202

2 Friendship: Human Affection and the Power of Forgiveness 209

3 Politics: The Four Voices of Democracy 215

VIII Diagonal Axes of Resonance 226

1 Relating to Objects: "I Love to Hear the Singing of Things" 226

2 Work: When Material Begins to Respond 233

3 Schools as Resonant Spaces 238

4 Sports and Consumption as Efforts to Feel Oneself 249

IX Vertical Axes of Resonance 258

1 The Promise of Religion 258

2 The Voice of Nature 268

3 The Power of Art 280

4 The Mantle of History 296

Part 3 Fear of the Muting of the World: A Reconstruction of Modernity in Terms of Resonance Theory

X Modernity as the History of a Catastrophe of Resonance 307

1 What is Modernity? 307

2 The Muting of the World in Literature and Philosophy 310

3 Toward a Sociology of Our Relationship to the World 320

XI Modernity as the History of Increasing Sensitivity to Resonance 357

XII Deserts and Oases of Life: Modern Everyday Practices in Terms of Resonance Theory 367

Part 4 A Critical Theory Of Our Relationship to the World

XIII Social Conditions of Successful and Unsuccessful Relationships to the World 381

1 Contextual Factors: On Atmospheres and Moods 381

2 Cultural and Sociostructural Factors: Is Resonance Catholic, Feminine, Young? 388

3 Institutional Factors: Between School and Stock Market 397

XIV Dynamic Stabilization: The Escalatory Logic of Modernity and Its Consequences 404

1 What Does "Dynamic Stabilization" Mean? 404

2 Competition and Acceleration: Individual Relationships to the World under the Conditions of an Escalatory Regime 414

3 Illegibility: The World as Adversary and Affront 420

XV Late Modern Crises of Resonance and the Contours of a Post-Growth Society 425

1 Crisis and the Muting of the World 425

2 Contours of a Post-Growth Society 434

In Lieu of an Afterword: Defending Resonance Theory against Its Critics - and Optimism against Skeptics 444

Notes 460

References 504

Index 529

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