Social acceleration

The notion of social or societal acceleration accounts for a compression of time related to the use of a new material or social technology. For example, the use of animal skins for clothing made human travel possible in boreal ecosystems, short-circuiting the long time required to protect themselves from the cold so that their bodies could develop an adaptive response, in the form of a fleece for example.

The adoption of a new technology, material or social, makes it possible to save time or energy. It reduces the labor required for a task (animal transport) or makes possible new processes (division of labor) or dynamics (social relationships). The time freed up or the energy saved can then be used in other ways, thus allowing the boundaries of the possible to be pushed back.

The saving of time generates a paradoxical movement in the sense that the new advantages, in terms of duration (time required) and energy (resources needed), will tend to lose their performativity (tendency to decrease productivity) according to the transformations occurring in the environment. Factors internal to an ecological ecosystem can render a technology obsolete (e.g. a short-term climate change). Cultural factors external to a social group may render a technology unsuitable (the use of polished stone versus carved stone).

If the reduction of the “time needed” to “live well” accompanies the evolutionary process of all human societies, not all of them have made it a driving force in their development, thus limiting the scope of the paradox. Alain Testart¹Testart, Alain (2005). Éléments de classification des sociétés, Paris, éditions Errance. proposes a classification of societies that takes this limitation into account. He describes as achrematic those societies that have limited their production capacity to the “just necessary”, thus reducing the need to develop new material or social technologies. The history of these societies, like the Australian aboriginal societies, gives the impression of being frozen in time.

Now, the acceleration movement coexists, we believe, with two other movements identified by Karl Polanyi²Polanyi, Karl (2011). The Sustenance of Man. The place of the economy in history and society, Paris, Flammarion. to qualify the substantial meaning of the economy :

the movement of localization : the area represented by the totality of the displacement of objects from various places to a center corresponding to the place of durable or transient localization of a group of humans forming a band, community or society ;

the movement of appropriation : the circulation, in terms of possession or accumulation of goods, occurring between people and generating a simple (possession) or lasting (ownership) appropriation of goods passing from one hand to another.

The movements of acceleration, location, and appropriation support the three forms of social integration identified by Karl Polanyi (2011), namely, reciprocity, redistribution, market exchange, and gift, a form that we believe complements the first three.

Of the four forms of integration, giving and reciprocity are the oldest. To these primary forms are added complementary forms represented by redistribution, with the emergence of the state (James Scott³Scott James C. (2019). Homo Domesticus. Une histoire profonde des premiers États, Paris, La Découverte.), and of market exchange, in the sense of exchange based on a rational calculation and the possibility of making a gain (Max Weber⁴Weber, Max (2003). Economy and Society. Tomes 1 et 2, Paris, Pocket).

Limiting economic production to what is strictly necessary to live well corresponds to the situation of achrematic societies, which are based on non-enrichment and simple forms of political organization. The non-limitation of economic production marks a form of rupture or changeover where the paths of enrichment and of complexification of the modalities of governance are valued. The rupture, once consummated, leads to an important modification of the relationship with Nature. From an endogenous relationship, we slide towards an exogenous relationship where a process of disembedding takes place, so that the societies of Worlds II (ostentatious plutocracy) and III (of classes) make of Nature a resource supporting their development.

The societies of World II and particularly those of World III extract more and more resources from the terrestrial ecosystems in order to generate more and more important surpluses. These surpluses are accumulated to generate socially produced and privately monopolized wealth.

It is clear that with the advent of Modern Times, and particularly of Modernity, the acceleration movement has gained in speed to the point of generating both a situation of constant shortage of time and a weakening of the earth’s ecosystems. It is not surprising that a call is being heard to slow down, to decelerate, to value slowness while manifesting the deep desire to renew a viable and sustainable ecosystemic relationship with Nature.

Faced with the rush of societal acceleration, we call for degrowth, deceleration and “lentism”.

Notes

• 1
  Testart, Alain (2005). Éléments de classification des sociétés, Paris, éditions Errance
• 2
  Polanyi, Karl (2011). The Sustenance of Man. The place of the economy in history and society, Paris, Flammarion.
• 3
  Scott James C. (2019). Homo Domesticus. Une histoire profonde des premiers États, Paris, La Découverte.
• 4
  Weber, Max (2003). Economy and Society. Tomes 1 et 2, Paris, Pocket)