“Human beings are first and foremost resonant beings”

Hartmut Rosa is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Jena, and one of the most original and prolific critical social theorists of our time. The connections between the theoretical and substantive concerns of Rosa’s work, on the one hand, and the analytical purposes of this issue of Civitas dedicated to “existential sociology”, on the other, are manifold. Rosa’s arguments on how acceleration as a social-structural trend of late modernity throws light upon intimate dilemmas of individual self-identity, for instance, could certainly be interpreted as (existential) sociological imagination at its best. The same goes for Rosa’s subtlety and ingenuity in capturing human modes of relating to the world in his theory of resonance, which apprehends the intermingling of bodily, affective, evaluative and cognitive dimensions in a manner that could be deemed “existential” - in a broad and original sense of the word - as broad and original is also the conception of the “critical” element in his “critical theory” of late modernity. For these reasons, we are very pleased to include the following interview in this issue of Civitas.

Illuminating Existential Meaning: A New Approach in the Study of Retirement

Current discussions on the importance of retirement are largely built on statistical analyses of longitudinal data showing that well-being seldom changes from before to after entering retirement, but is rather mainly dependent on the individual’s social resource position. In contrast, qualitatively oriented researchers underline that the retirement process is a complex life transition that needs to be further illuminated. To do this, however, we need to advance new theoretical and methodological perspectives. In this article, an existential sociology approach is outlined, emphasizing the multifaceted spectra of lived experiences and meaning-making in the retirement process. The phenomenological approaches of existential sociology allow us to consider how the exit from working life is created in the processes of motion rather than as expressions of static positions. A merit of this approach is that retirement as an empirical case may say something general about being in transition as a basic social condition. In the article, we discuss how a socio-biographical methodology, based on longitudinal qualitative interviews, helps us capture how existential meaning is formed and reformed in the ambiguous situations which arise in similar life-course transitions. Theoretically, we especially draw on concepts from the existential anthropologist Jackson and the phenomenological tradition of existential philosophers such as Arendt and Heidegger.

Kekerasan dalam Pacaran: Anatomi Konflik dan Penyelesaiannya

This article aims to study one of the social relationship forms called “love relationship”. Love relationships may define as a relation between two individuals, opposite sex generally, in addition, to adapt to each other before marriage. As one of the social relationship forms, it can not avoid conflict, even violence. Those concerns are becoming the focus study in this research. Furthermore, this research using the individual's conflict theory by George Simmel, conflict theory of Lewis A. Coser, and also existential sociology of Jean-Paul Sartre about love. The method of this research is qualitative which explanative-descriptive research variant. Based on the research, it is found that most of the informants lie love relationship in “functional” form. Despite this, most of them are not realized of love relationship violence which held. Finally, the resolution of all matters took moderate to radical form, it is reconciliation or broke up, and even not engaged anymore.