The Sociology of Speed: Digital, Organizational, and Social Temporalities

ISBN-13: 9780198782865 / Angielski / Miękka / 2017 / 224 str.

Judy Wajcman; Nigel Dodd

Opis

There is a widespread perception that life is faster than it used to be. We hear constant laments that we live too fast, that time is scarce, and that the pace of everyday life is spiraling out of our control. The iconic image that abounds is that of the frenetic, technologically tethered, iPhone/iPad-addicted citizen. Yet weren't modern machines supposed to save, and thereby free up, time?
The purpose of this book is to bring a much-needed sociological perspective to bear on speed: it examines how speed and acceleration came to signify the zeitgeist, and explores the political implications of this. Among the major questions addressed are: when did acceleration become the primary rationale for technological innovation and the key measure of social progress? Is acceleration occurring across all sectors of society and all aspects of life, or are some groups able to mobilise speed as a resource while others are marginalised and excluded? Does the growing centrality of technological mediations (of both information and communication) produce slower as well as faster times, waiting as well as 'busyness', stasis as well as mobility? To what extent is the contemporary imperative of speed as much a cultural artefact as a material one? To make sense of everyday life in the twenty-first century, we must begin by interrogating the social dynamics of speed.
This book shows how time is a collective accomplishment, and that temporality is experienced very differently by diverse groups of people, especially between the affluent and those who service them.

Recenzje

The acceleration of time is a leading characteristic of modernity. This excellent book contributes to our understanding of the many dimensions of temporal change by investigating the technological, power-infused and cultural underpinnings of speed.

O autorze

Judy Wajcman is the Anthony Giddens Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She was previously Professor of Sociology in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University. Her scholarship has focused on the sociology of work and organizations, science and technology studies, and gender theory. Her books include: TechnoFeminism, The Politics of Working Life, and most recently Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism (University of Chicago Press 2015). Nigel Dodd is a Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics, and Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Sociology. Nigel's main interests are in the sociology of money, economic sociology and classical and contemporary social thought. He is author of The Sociology of Money and Social Theory and Modernity (both published by Polity Press). His latest book, The Social Life of Money, was published by Princeton University Press in 2014. Nigel is also co-editor (with Patrik Aspers) of Re-Imagining Economic Sociology (Oxford University Press, 2015).