Project information
Society in times of crisis: Acceleration, Singularisation, and the Crisis of Emancipation

The project offers a critical-theoretical synthesis of a multi-year trajectory of specific dissertation-related research examining the structural and cultural dimensions of societal crisis in late modernity. Building on previous investigations into rationalization, legitimacy, technology, digital reorganization, and Anthropocene violence, our interpretive strategy explores the intersection of social acceleration (Rosa), singularization (Reckwitz), and the normative critique of forms of life (Jaeggi). It argues that in late modernity, crisis has become a constitutive mode of existence, driven by temporal compression, cultural individualization, and the erosion of institutional integration. These dynamics culminate in a crisis of emancipation, where the promises of individual autonomy and social progress are undermined by systemic contradictions and social fragmentation. Through a synthesis of critical sociological theory and empirically grounded diagnoses, the project assesses the conditions under which meaningful social transformation remains possible.