Hartmut Rosas teori om social acceleration får mycket uppmärksamhet för tillfället. Accelerationsteorin, som den också kallas, driver tesen att modernitet bäst definieras som samhällen där allting av nödvändighet befinner sig i ständig acceleration. Vissa forskare har dock påpekat att det saknas empiriska belägg som underbygger teorins påståenden. Detta har gett upphov till en debatt kring teorins vetenskapliga status. Debatten har bland annat föranlett ett antal studier som testar teorins påståenden om den historiska utvecklingen av mänsklig levnadstakt. Teorin säger att vi både gör och upplever mer för varje år som går, och säger att detta indikeras av att människor 1. multitaskar mer, 2. tar till ett högre tempo i utförandet av sina dagliga aktiviteter samt 3. drar ned på mängden pauser och dödtid. Denna studie utgör ett empiriskt test av dessa tre påståenden med avsikten att bidra till den sagda debatten om teorins empiriska belägg. Huvudmaterialet består av tidsdagböcker från USA perioden 1965–1998, för att fördjupa analysen används även tidsdagboksdata från 2003–2019. Linjära regressioner och oberoende t-test används utifrån riktade hypoteser för att på så sätt finna historiska trender inom de tre undersökningsvariablerna. Resultaten stödjer teorins påstående att multitasking och aktivitetstempo ökar, men pekar även på en tydlig ökning i pausmängd, snarare än teorins påstådda minskning. Denna studies två centrala slutsatser är att accelerationsteorins begrepp levnadstakt – trots sin popularitet – ännu saknar tydliga belägg i de befintliga forskningsresultaten, samt att data inte stödjer teorins uppfattning om pauser och dödtid i vårt frenetiskt accelererande samhälle.

Facebook is in the forefront when it comes to technical development and allowing new and faster communication opportunities. In this study, one of the latest technical additions on Facebook is being researched; namely the reaction-button. The aim of this paper is to understand the usage of the reaction-button as well as its impact on interpersonal communications, immediacy and speed in society. The research focuses on six different themes; Culture of Speed, Social acceleration, Space and time, Media richness, Immediacy as well as Telemediation. Empirical material have been collected through qualitative Think-aloud interviews and quantitative content analysis. The research is, among other things, questioning the actual need of a reaction-button and whether it is used the way it is intended. Furthermore, it presents the problematics within a potential harm on social relationships, a loss in communicative value and an inactive behavior caused by the obsession about speeding up online social interactions.

Mémoire en recherche-création / Ce mémoire de recherche-création a comme objectif de mieux comprendre les perceptions qu’ont les journalistes sur leur travail quotidien à l’ère numérique. Plus précisément, on tente de comprendre comment ces perceptions ont évolué depuis l’intégration des nouvelles technologies, comme Internet et les réseaux sociaux, au sein des entreprises médiatiques dans les 10 dernières années. En s’inspirant du concept d’accélération sociale d’Harmut Rosa, nous voulions examiner comment l’immédiateté conditionne quotidiennement les perceptions des journalistes sur les pratiques journalistiques. Pour l’illustrer, nous avons interviewé huit journalistes canadiens issus des quatre médiums différents – la télévision, la radio, la presse écrite et le web. D’autres facteurs comme l’âge, l’expérience de travail et le genre ont été pris en considération dans le processus de sélection des participants afin d’obtenir différentes perspectives sur le phénomène à l’étude. Ainsi, les journalistes participants ont été questionnés sur leurs façons de travailler et sur leur production, mais aussi sur leur rythme de travail, leur rapport au temps, l’intégration des technologies dans leur travail et les impacts de celles-ci. Les résultats, présentés sous forme de mise en abîme du journalisme, montrent que les journalistes ont l’impression qu’ils travaillent plus, travaillent plus vite, ont plus de pression, sont plus autonomes et multitâches, mais aussi que l’évolution des méthodes de travail a des répercussions sur la qualité de l’information. Ces sujets sont tous abordés dans les articles d’analyse rédigés pour le site web (Annexe 1) qui a été créé pour la partie créative de ce mémoire. Pour en arriver à ces résultats, nous avons opté pour une analyse thématique. Bien entendu, le faible échantillon de l’étude ne permet en aucun temps de proposer des généralités en la matière. Malgré cela, le nombre d’éléments communs dans chacune des entrevues démontre un raisonnement qui porte à croire que le travail des journalistes a bel et bien évolué depuis le début de l’ère numérique. / This research-creation dissertation aims to better understand the perception that journalists have on the daily work in the digital age. More specifically, we try to understand how these perceptions have evolved since the integration of new technologies, such as the Internet and social networks, within media companies in the last 10 years. Drawing on Harmut Rosa's concept of social acceleration, we wanted to examine how immediacy conditions the perceptions that the press workers have on journalistic practices on a daily basis. To demonstrate this, we interviewed eight Canadian journalists from four different media - television, radio, print and the web. Other factors such as age, work experience and gender were taken into consideration in the selection process of participants in order to gain different perspectives on the phenomenon under study. Thus, the participating journalists were questioned about their ways of working and their production, but also about their pace of work, their relationship to time, the integration of technologies into their work and the impacts of these on their work. The results, presented in the form of a news website, show that journalists are under the impression that they work more, work faster, are under more pressure, are more autonomous and required to multitask, but also that the evolution of working methods has repercussions on the quality of the news. These topics are all covered in the articles written for the website (Appendix 1) that was created for the creative part of this dissertation. To get to these results, we opted for a thematic analysis. Of course, the small sample of the study does not at any time allow us to offer generalities in this area. Despite this, the number of common elements in each of the interviews demonstrates reasoning that suggests that the work of journalists has indeed evolved since the onset of the digital age.

[pt] A experiência fundamental da sociedade moderna é a de uma intensa aceleração do fluxo de experiência de cada indivíduo (ROSA, 2019a). Os reflexos deste fenômeno são observados em larga escala, coexistindo com um discurso cultural que relaciona a velocidade a limitações sociais, ambientais e individuais. Frente a isso, nota-se o surgimento de movimentos contestatórios à lógica temporal moderna, utilizados como válvulas de escape em relação à aceleração (BAUER et al, 2015; HUSEMANN e ECKHARDT, 2019; LEVINE, 2015; ROSA, 2019a), dentre os quais o Slow Movement (HONORE, 2019; PARKINS, 2004). Neste contexto, este estudo propõe compreender o processo de desaceleração do consumidor no ambiente estrutural contemporâneo, por meio do consumo sob o rótulo Slow. Como a noção de temporalidade está relacionada ao desdobramento de significados que emergem das práticas de vida, utiliza-se a Sociossemiótica (LANDOWSKI, 2014a) como aporte teórico-metodológico para entender a criação de sentido e os significados da desaceleração em torno do consumo Slow. Com base em entrevistas em profundidade com consumidores do Movimento Slow, foi possível concluir que este tipo de consumo pode equivaler a uma experiência extraordinária de lentificação, revelando-se como oásis de desaceleração (ROSA, 2019a) em meio ao contexto contemporâneo acelerado. Este extraordinário possui a estesia como elemento central, emergindo a partir da busca dos consumidores por sentido no que e em como consomem, da combinação de elementos estruturais e antiestruturais e do emprego de estratégias de desaceleração específicas. / [en] A critical experience of modern society involves an intense acceleration of experience flux of each individual (ROSA, 2019a). The consequences of this phenomenon are observed in a large scale, coexisting with a cultural discourse that relates speed to social, environmental and individual limitations. In view of this, movements have emerged contesting the modern temporal logic, used as escape valves from acceleration (BAUER et al., 2015; HUSEMANN and ECKHARDT, 2019; LEVINE, 2015; ROSA, 2019a), including the Slow Movement (HONORE, 2019; PARKINS, 2004). This study seeks to understand the process of consumer deceleration in the contemporary structural environment, assessing Slow Movement consumption. As the notion of temporality is related to the development of meanings that emerge from life practices, Sociosemiotics (LANDOWSKI, 2014a) is used as a theoretical-methodological approach to understand the creation of sense and meanings from deceleration via slow consumption. Based on in-depth interviews conducted with Slow Movement consumers it was possible to conclude that such type of consumption can ensure an extraordinary experience of deceleration, acting as an oasis of deceleration (ROSA, 2019a) in the fast-paced contemporary context. This extraordinary experience has esthesia as its central element, emerging from the search of consumers for meaning in what and how they consume, the combination of structural and anti-structural elements, and the use of specific deceleration strategies.

This report is a survey study examining the educational practices of social sciences teachers,specifically addressing the phenomenon of social acceleration. Investigating teaching methods,challenges, and innovations, the study explores how educators adapt to the accelerated pace ofsocietal changes. Through a survey, the research provides valuable insights into the experiences ofsocial sciences teachers, offering a comprehensive understanding of the interplay between educationalpractices and the effects of social acceleration. The findings contribute to a nuanced perspective on theevolving landscape of social sciences education in response to rapid societal transformations. / <p>Godkänd 2024-01-19</p>

En 2015, j’ai mené une enquête de terrain sur les routes de Compostelle. Inspiré de l’héritage théorique de Victor Turner, l’extraquotidienneté liminaire du pèlerinage de Compostelle est envisagé comme voie d’accès pour comprendre le quotidien normal des pèlerins. Le choix d’étudier l’extraquotidienneté se justifie par son rapport d’interdépendance à l’égard du quotidien. En effet, le pèlerinage est un état de passage où se joue une crise qui tire son origine au sein même du quotidien normal. À la suite des entrevues et observations menées, un dénominateur commun semble caractériser l’expérience pèlerine : l’impression de se sentir « ici et maintenant ». L’impressionnante recrudescence de l’affluence pèlerine sur les routes jacquaires, à une époque où les rites se sécularisent et s’individualisent, soulève deux interrogations déterminantes. Si les rites sont effectivement des soupapes de sécurité de la structure sociale quotidienne, de quelle crise témoigne cette recrudescence? De plus, quels attraits propres au pèlerinage de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle justifient un accroissement marqué de son affluence? Dans ce mémoire, il est démontré les conditions selon lesquelles le pèlerinage de Compostelle s’établit en tant qu’anti-structure extraquotidienne. Je trace ensuite le portrait des étapes que franchissent les pèlerins qui entament le périple : la séparation, la crise, l’adaptation et la communitas. Nous verrons que ledit sentiment de présence témoigne de l’atteinte du seuil de la communitas. Afin d’expliquer le sentiment de présence, j’ai recours au concept de flow élaboré par Csikszentmihalyi. Selon Csikszentmihalyi, l’expérience du flow s’accompagne d’une impression d’être présent « ici et maintenant ». Nous verrons que l’expérience extraquotidienne du pèlerinage favorise le flow. À l’opposé, je défends la thèse selon laquelle les processus au cœur de l’accélération sociale font obstacle au flow, notamment : l’incessante obsolescence des pratiques et savoirs à l’ère de l’information et l’altération des perceptions induite par les technologies, et particulièrement le numérique. / In 2015, I conducted fieldwork on St. James Way. As is demonstrated by Victor Turner’s theoretical work, it is this paper’s belief that liminal phenomena, that are manifested during rites of passage such as St. James Way, provide precious insight into the daily life from which it arises from, namely, social structure. The study of extraordinary temporality here is justified thus, by its interdependence to daily life. In fact, liminal phenomena are known to frame crises in daily life. Results of the fieldwork conducted on St. James Way’s extraordinary temporality led to the observation that the impression of ‘being in the moment’ is a prevalent theme amongst pilgrims. The impressive upsurge of pilgrims walking the paths to Santiago, at a time of secularization and individualization, raises questions. If rites of passage are indeed mechanism acting like pressure releasing valve, to which crisis do they owe this surge? Secondly, which aspects of this pilgrimage explain its current appeal? First, it will be argued that St. James Way’s pilgrimage establishes itself as an anti-structure, or put otherwise, an extraordinary temporality. For the purpose of this demonstration, an overview of the stages pilgrims go through will be presented, namely: separation, crisis, adaptation and communitas. Furthermore, we will see that the impression of being in the moment marks the threshold of the communitas. To explain this ‘impression’, this paper invokes a psychological perspective that St. James Way delivers a proper experience of flow. According to Csikszentmihalyi, the flow is known to trigger a feeling of ‘being in the moment’. On the contrary, this research supports the thesis that the structure of daily life fails to deliver an equally optimal experience. Therefore, this paper investigates the processes through which the society of acceleration hinders the experience of flow. Among these processes, emphasis is given here to the impending obsolescence of knowledge in the age of information technology and the altered perception induced by technologies, more specifically, digital devices.