Empires of speed : : time and the acceleration of politics and society / / by Robert Hassan.

• Superior document: Supplements to The study of time, v. 4
• Author: Hassan, Robert, 1959-
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Supplements to The study of time ; v. 4.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (262 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

The beginning of the 21st century is witnessing the emergence of a social, political and technological revolution in networked computing. We now live in a networked society, but it functions and develops at such an accelerating rate that it becomes increasingly difficult to adequately understand the nature of this radical society. Empires of Speed is the first book to analyse the far-reaching transformations of speed-filled everyday life. In a compelling study Hassan shows that we are leaving behind a modern world based upon the time of the clock, and are entering a new and volatile phase where an accelerating ‘network time’ poses fundamental economic and political challenges in our postmodern world, challenges we barely comprehend and are thus woefully unprepared for.

Table of Contents

A new empire -- The first empire of speed : clock time modernity -- The second empire of speed : networked society -- Pathologies of speed -- Cyberculture : a culture of speed -- The speed of liberal democracy -- Time for politics : a temporalized democracy.