Situation and Constellation

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