Hartmut Rosa

Situation and Constellation

On the Disappearance of Human Agency
U1 for Situation and Constellation
Suhrkamp | Insel
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English world rights (Polity), Spanish world rights (NED Ediciones), Chinese simplex rights (Shanghai People’s Publishing House), Brazilian Portuguese rights (UNESP), France (La Découverte), Italy (LUISS), Netherlands (Boom), Denmark (Eksistensen), Sweden (Daidalos), Norway (Cappelen Damm), Bulgaria (KX – Critique and Humanism), Turkey (Albaraka)

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Academic
Sociology
Hartmut Rosa
Situation and Constellation / Situation und Konstellation
On the Disappearance of Human Agency
A major new monograph from one of the German-speaking world's most influential sociologists

Debuted at #4 on the Spiegel bestseller list, with more than 20,000 copies sold
The teacher who can’t give marks for encouragement, the doctor who treats screens instead of patients, the football referee whose judgment is squeezed out by VAR: imperceptibly, the character of human agency within contemporary society is changing. Particularly in our professional lives – but increasingly also in our leisure time – our decision-making is prescribed in advance by guidelines and forms, algorithms and apps, right down to the smallest of details. The role of situational, sensitive...
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The teacher who can’t give marks for encouragement, the doctor who treats screens instead of patients, the football referee whose judgment is squeezed out by VAR: imperceptibly, the character of human agency within contemporary society is changing. Particularly in our professional lives – but increasingly also in our leisure time – our decision-making is prescribed in advance by guidelines and forms, algorithms and apps, right down to the smallest of details. The role of situational, sensitive consideration and judgment is being replaced by the constellation-based machine logic of execution, which we wield on a daily basis. »Agree«/»Reject« – this is how agents of action turn into executors of actions.

And as much as this development might serve the goals of equality and transparency, it comes at a high price, which Hartmut Rosa vividly unpacks in this new eye-opening work. Because when spheres of discretion and judgment disappear and the creativity of human agency is eliminated from everyday practices of execution, we feel an increased sense of powerlessness. And as our power of judgment dwindles, so does our energy to act. But how can we work to counter this individual and collective loss of energy within society? We can do so, argues Rosa, by strengthening human agency on all planes of social existence.
 
»There are books that have the power to not just change our perspective on the world, but also to change our perspective of ourselves. This is one of those books.« DER SPIEGEL

»This essay is a vibrant plea for a mature form of liberalism.« Kilian Thomas, Philosophie Magazin

»With a suggestive force, the sociologist tells of an increasing number of situations in which human beings no longer have the power to make their own judgements.« DIE WELT

»Rosa does not deliver a prefabricated conceptual construction kit but building blocks for further thinking. In this way, he fosters agency…« Katharina Körting, der Freitag

»The humane attentiveness and anecdotal elements comprise the strength [of Rosa’s book]. Particularly since the anecdotes are not chosen by chance but evince a finely honed sense of the spirit of the times.« Jens-Christian Rabe, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»Rosa sums up the discontent over our technologized and bureaucratised society.« Martina Läubli, NZZ am Sonntag  
»There are books that have the power to not just change our perspective on the world, but also to change our perspective of ourselves. This is one of those books.« DER SPIEGEL

»This essay is a vibrant plea for a mature form of liberalism.« Kilian Thomas, Philosophie Magazin

»With a suggestive force, the sociologist tells of an increasing number of situations in which human beings no longer have the power to make their own judgements.« DIE...
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2026, 247 pages
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Academic
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Hartmut Rosa

Author
Hartmut Rosa, born in 1965, is professor of General and Theoretical Sociology at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and director of the Max Weber Center for Advanced Studies in Erfurt. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Tractatus Prize, the Erich Fromm Prize and the Leibniz Prize.
Hartmut Rosa, born in 1965, is professor of General and Theoretical Sociology at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and director of the Max Weber...
© Jürgen Bauer

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Latest first
Late Modernity in Crisis
Year of Publication: 2021
Andreas Reckwitz, Hartmut RosaYear of Publication: 2021

Late Modernity in Crisis

In times of profound social upheavals and manifest crises, there is a need for fundamental analyses that take a look at contemporary society as a whole, examine its structural features and...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Polity), Spanish world rights (NED Ediciones), Chinese simplex rights (Shanghai People’s Publishing House), Chinese complex rights (Wu-Nan), France (MSH), Denmark (Reitzels), Korea (Saemulgyul), Greece (Propobos)

 

Resonance
Year of Publication: 2016
Hartmut RosaYear of Publication: 2016

Resonance

If acceleration is the problem, then perhaps resonance is the solution. This, in the briefest possible terms, is the central thesis of Hartmut Rosa’s latest book, which can be seen as the...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Polity; audiobook rights: Echo Point), Spanish world rights (Katz Editores), Chinese simplex rights (Shanghai People’s Publishing House), France (La Découverte), Italy (Cortina), Denmark (Eksistensen), Norway (Cappelen Damm), Japan (Shinsensha), Turkey (Albaraka)

Acceleration and Alienation
Year of Publication: 2013
Hartmut RosaYear of Publication: 2013

Acceleration and Alienation

»This book is a short essay on modern life. It strives to ask the ›right‹ sorts of questions that would allow social philosophy and sociology to speak to the everyday reality...

Rights sold to:

Spanish world rights (Katz), Chinese simplex rights (Shanghai People's Publishing House), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Editora Vozes), France (Découverte), Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (Boom), Denmark (Reitzels), Korea (Academy of Mobility Humanities / LPBook Publishing), Romania (Idea), Turkey (Albaraka), Greece (Lykabettus Editions / Michail Koulouras Sole Proprietorship)

English edition available through Aarhus UP

Global Relationships in the Age of Acceleration
Year of Publication: 2012
Hartmut RosaYear of Publication: 2012

Global Relationships in the Age of Acceleration

After Hartmut Rosa’s widely noted and successful Beschleunigung. Die Veränderung der Zeitstrukturen in der Moderne, his new work analyzes from various perspectives how the acceleration of ...
Rights sold to:

Sweden (Daidalos), Serbia (Akademska Knjiga)

Sociology – Capitalism – Criticism
Year of Publication: 2009
Year of Publication: 2009

Sociology – Capitalism – Criticism

It was once one of the central tasks of sociology to clarify to modern society the social assumptions and consequences of its proneness to crisis. The authors of this collection are committed to this...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Verso)

Social Acceleration
Year of Publication: 2005
Hartmut RosaYear of Publication: 2005

Social Acceleration

Acceleration is a key term of modernity and »deceleration« a fashionable contemporary term. Both form part of a social development that has had a lasting impact on the last decades. Neither...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Columbia UP), Spanish world rights (Herder México), Chinese simplex rights (Shanghai People’s Publishing House), Brazilian Portuguese rights (UNESP), Arabic world rights (BookClub Publications), France (La Decouverte), Japan (Fukumura Shuppan), Bulgaria (Critique & Humanism)