Yuki Someda

• 2020-2024 Bachelor of Arts in Sociology at Waseda University
• 2024-2026 Master of Arts in Sociology at the University of Tokyo
• 2026- Doctoral Student at the University of Tokyo
• 2026-2027 Doctoral Fellow of the University of Erfurt, Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies

What is a good society? Reconstructing Hartmut Rosa’s “sociology of the good life”

My research explores a fundamental question: What constitutes an ideal society, and how can sociology contribute to its realization? Although sociology is primarily an empirical discipline, sociological criticism of inequality, exclusion, political power, and institutional failure inevitably relies on normative assumptions about what society ought to be. I therefore investigate how sociology can develop standards for social criticism that are grounded in lived experience while also claiming broader validity.

My work focuses on Hartmut Rosa’s critical social theory, particularly the relationship between autonomy, authenticity, social acceleration, alienation, and resonance. In my master’s thesis, I reconstructed the development of Rosa’s thought from the 1990s to 2010, arguing that his early theory of the good life was based on the ideal of “authenticity in concert with autonomy.” From this perspective, his theory of social acceleration can be understood not merely as an account of the increasing speed of modern life, but as a diagnosis of social conditions that obstruct meaningful identity formation, self-determination, and democratic participation.

My doctoral research examines Rosa’s writings from 2010 onward and explores his theoretical transition from authenticity to resonance. I am particularly interested in whether resonance, understood as a responsive and transformative relationship between self and the world, can provide a convincing normative basis for social criticism across different social and cultural contexts. Combining theoretical sociology, social philosophy, and the history of ideas, my research seeks to reconstruct Rosa’s “sociology of the good life” and to clarify how sociology can unite empirical analysis with reflection on how society might be changed.

• Hartmut Rosa’s Philosophical Anthropology: Focusing on the Concepts of “Self-Interpreting Animals” and “Strong Evaluations,” Sociological Papers, 34: 55-68, 2025.
• From “the Loss of Authenticity” to “the Relation of Relationlessness”: The Reconstruction of the Concept of Alienation in Hartmut Rosa’s Critical Theory, Sociologos, 50: 19-34, 2026.