Governance, acceleration and time - emerging issues for governance theory and practice

Time and acceleration have remained at the periphery of debates about the theory and practice of governance, yet they add an important contextual dimension to Sørensen and Torfing’s contribution and discussion about ‘emerging agendas and future paths’. This short intervention illustrates this point by drawing on contemporary debates that have taken contrary positions on what would represent an appropriate response to the ‘accelerated polity’. Whilst some have argued that slower temporal horizons should be promoted over faster ones (acceleration-as-evil), others have argued that we should embrace the opportunities presented by the imperative of speed (acceleration-as-potential). The commentary concludes that whilst the fast/slow dichotomy is unhelpful, it does serve a purpose in provoking further inquiry into the ‘accelerated polity’, its meaning, effect and impact.