1. “Change is the other name of time.” (Aristotle) Anita Rubin University of Alicante December 4, 2009

2. 2.12.2009 2 The changing nature of change As a phenomenon, contemporary change cannot be analyzed by merely following a fixed, unidirectional development path of some specific phenomenon or event; cannot be explained by a mere reference to social, political, economic or even natural laws or some inner logic. Instead, it can only be explained by systemic processes with a reference to a number of controversies, non-linear development and antagonisms which may end up in unintended or non-foreseeable consequences.

3. 2.12.2009 3 In the form of technology, change… does not take a linear path from theory to application to social utilisation; and is influenced by social choices at every point of its development. Consequently, technologies bear the imprint of the social processes that have brought them forth. All this also means that when we talk about “ubiquous society” or “information society”, we cannot separate information into a separate aspect from that society where it is being used and utilised. In the end they are the same.

5. Spiral shape effect: Social factors form technology, and because technology is socially shaped, its characteristics and effects can be seen as parts of social reality. 2.12.2009 4

7. 2.12.2009 6 …and new institutions The limits of “the plausible” are continuously redrawn at an accelerating pace and then, after a while, overridden afresh, when new information are gained or created. This gradually affects socially-shared rationality, starting thus to change the processes of choice making both on the personal and social level. Need for totally new models and institutions for choice-making both from the social, economic, cultural and educational point-of-view. the culture of self-actualisation

8. 2.12.2009 7 Rob Gonsalves: High Park Pickets

9. 2.12.2009 8 From industrial to ubiquous society Whereindustrialsocietyemphasises ”the middle of the road” thinking and aims at balance, convergence and stability, ubiquoussocietytearsapart, divides, exacerbates, emphasisesdiversity and developsthroughcontroversy. New sense of communitywhich is highlysensitive -- emotionality of culture common emotionsthorough the media/social media create an iterativephenomenon (actor’sexperience and feelingstrengthen just becausehe/sheknowsthattherearethousands of othersfeeling the same at the verysamemoment.)

11. emergence of lines and borders,

12. the formation of realitythroughthat,

13. immediateexperience and feedback.2.12.2009 9

14. 2.12.2009 10 The dilemma of Ubiquitous Network Society Emotionalisation of the culture Emotions are experienced via and with the media, in the public gaze Public intimacy Danger: emotional numbing; commercialization of emotions Potential: neo-solidarity: new social responsibility, sense of community

15. 2.12.2009 11 Rob Gonsalves (Uskallatkokiivetäpuuhunjakatsoatoisin?)

17. Ethics, morals and socialityaremore and moredependent on personalchoice.TENSION: Traditionalcommunality and caring spirit of ”workparty”, talkoot Explainingone’sself to oneself (and to the others)  Facebook

18. The paradox of society of emotional experience OSTINACY, PATIENCE, ABILITY TO TOLERATE BOREDOM EXPERIENCE, FEELING Decisionshave to be made fast, effectively and shortsightedly, while the swelling and expanding ”present” is conqueringspacefrom the past and the future. Wecanexperienceglobalemotionstogetherwithotherpeople. However, the stimulus has to continuouslystrenghten in ordet to reach the samefeelingagain and again. VISONARITY, FUTURES ORIENTATION JÄNNITE: Kokonaisuuksien logiikka hämärtyy  lyhytnäköisyys Tulevaisuusajattelu: monet mahdolliset ja vaihtoehtoiset tulevaisuudet

23. At the sametime, to bepossible, creativity and innovativityrequirealso

24. peace,

25. seclusion,

26. slowness,

27. a promise to consider, wonder, degust, and tasteplacid and cosy life (the discourse of slow life)

29. Choice of behaviour (based on available information, which is defined as relevant to the issue at hand and understood as reliable.)…/…

30. 2.12.2009 21 Values and decision-making cont. As long as most of our everyday choices could still be made on a routine basis, it was not necessary to consider the values behind every decision. People could rest assured that the values of human society were in-built in the ways of acceptable action – the responsibility of a human being was to conduct his/her behaviour according to the guidelines on which social consensus prevailed. Therefore it was not necessary to actively evaluate or even think about values each time a new situation was confronted.

33. the consideration of grounds behind personal choice have become a private matter;

35. 2.12.2009 25 Education as/and civilization Knowledge: to be gained through learning  lifelong & life-wide learning (24/7) Proper behaviour, manners, models of action: Cultural change poses a challenge to what is included in proper behaviour  non-adherent habits, manners, models of choice and behaviour Culture: socially-defined conscious intention to develop, to choose valid goals and create commonly acceptable means to reach those goals  Which culture should / will be chosen as the one the goals of which one can struggle for?  value change, value conflicts Comprehensive life management: proactivity, independence of immediate reactions, ability to choose one’s reaction  futures orientation?

36. 2.12.2009 26 Life management can be understood as the ability of an individual to successfully cope in different life situations; the ability to build personal goals on a realistic level and then to mould strategies in order to reach them. External life management unfolds in behaviour visible to the others. Internal life managementunfolds in individual abilities and readiness to face difficulties in life now and in the future.

38. based on belief of identity’s self-sufficiency and autonomy.

39. One can only develop as a human being in personal relationship with the others by acknowledging the differences and dissimilarities which become visible in them.

40. A human being has a strong need to belong.

42. 2.12.2009 29 Identity building cont. The individuals of our time are developing hybrid identities, which appear as flexible and changeable in front of the demands of each new situation or person. While a person has a strong need to belong, at the same time morals and sociality are dependent on his/her own value choices and other preferences. Human beings face a danger to change from active subjects into an object of their own lives. They become ”a part of the event, a character in the play of experiences where nobody knows the author, there is no director, thescene is world-wide, the thread is blurred, and theme unclear.” (Ulrich Beck)

43. 2.12.2009 30 Productizion of identity Interaction becomes an increasingly absolute value at the same time when social solidarity is forming into a new kind of loyalty and devotion to the given micro group (or tribe): Adherence to personal life style and freedom to trend choice and implementation;  Tendency to utilise the community as the stage of one’s self-actualisation; Life style is used to signal one’s personal competitivity; Productisation of identity and branding of one’s personal life.

45. 2.12.2009 32 Antagonisms of … cont. Technology both enables and limits human possibilities to think, feel and self-actualize: Courage to experiment vs. media criticism, source criticism; The freedom of science and hunger for knowledge vs. vulnerability to catastrophies vs. catastrophy proportions; Individualisation vs. globalisation Personal security vs. personal freedom; Transparency in political decision-making and the media vs. security; The creative potential of culture (requiring knowledge of history as well as ability to adopt, absorb and copy); open source, etc. vs. copyrights, laws against piratism, immaterial rights, etc.  the forming of a (or many) new cultures from tensions and interface.

47. social systems becoming increasingly complex and abstract;what will happen to people’s will and ability to take care of each other and to make a difference?

49. multitude of comparable value systems and values;

51. ubiquitous information society …/…

52. 2.12.2009 35 Emotional universality We share collective emotions through and with the help of (social) media. Privately experienced human feelings and emotions become acceptable and desirable just because we know that thousands and perhaps millions of other people experience the very same same feelings at this very same moment. Shared experiences are no more based on any common set of values or history, but their strenght lays precisely in the fact that they are so universal.

54. The importance of entertaining, circumstantial and experience-accentuating information grows as the basis of decision-making  edutainment, infotainment;

55. Choices and solutions are more and more often made on emotional reasons and grounds. Emphasized individualism  Personal responsibility as the challenge

56. 2.12.2009 37 Questions of cultural emotionalisation How does the emotionalisation of culture affect social experience? How does the legitimation of emotional rationality change our understanding of the nature of reality? What does it mean in the light of strengthening individualization? How does the increasing collective experience of emotions through and by the media and social media – public intimacy -- affect us? How does this affect our ability to act and choose tangible ways of action?

58. deregulation and

59. globalisationis getting the ideal of community and joint liability, likewise based on our European heritage, as its counterforce. The sense of community grows in the form of expanding the limits of individual responsibility.

61. The growth of solidarity as the extension of the limits of personal responsibility.