CFP - online first - Final Publication: 1st April 2026: Social practices in a climate of acceleration: normative criticism and ethical orientations

The process of acceleration that characterises the structure of contemporary societies has a considerable impact on almost every daily social practice. Combined with the merciless imperative to grow and innovate, acceleration has brought about a trend in social dynamics that implies both the modification of the established ways of “doing things” in the world, and the emergence of new practices, generally linked to technological innovations. This can be seen in the fields of employment, in medicine, education, tourism or care, for example; in the democratic sphere; or in the usual ways in which we consume, play, communicate or relate to each other emotionally.

The dynamic of acceleration is therefore an object of interest to normative criticism because of its potential to generate a diverse range of social pathologies: increased rates of burnout and depression, distortion of the ethos of certain activities and the increased complexity of their telos, misalignment between different spheres of social life and the environment or the democratic processes of deliberation, among others. In this context, discussions on the underlying models of criticism and on the ethical orientation of social acceleration and their impact on a practical level are both timely. 

The aim of this call for papers is twofold:

First, we consider that the current state of the art calls for exploration of the possibilities and opportunities – but also the limitations – that a non-paternalistic critical normative of acceleration must face up to, in line with the demands of ethical pluralism. Second, it is an opportune moment to go beyond the normative foundation of criticism to propose possible ethical orientations to tackle the specific problems acceleration creates in certain social practices.

The questions and themes we would like to explore include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Can critical theory contribute to social transformation through a normative criticism of the underlying dynamics of social acceleration?
2. Can critical theory provide the grounding for a critique of the underlying dynamics of social acceleration in a way that is neither paternalistic nor totalitarian?
3. Can moral philosophy draw ethical orientations from a normative grounding of criticism of social acceleration that can be useful for an ethical approach to social practices?
4. How is a critique of social acceleration, as a macro-structural phenomenon, associated with a critique of the acceleration of day-to-day practices at the micro or meso level?
5. How does social acceleration manifest in specific practices (such as caring for others, emotional relationships, the environment, consumer habits, scientific output, democracy etc.)? What strategies do those involved adopt to cope with it?