On Unavailability (Or: The Art Of Not Having Control)

posted on 17 January 2025

I got to know the field of sociology pretty late in my education. The first time I set foot in such a class was when I started catching up on my Abitur (the German equivalent of the British A-level education qualification), and I found it to be the most interesting social science subject that my school offered. I thought philosophy to be too broad and, while I also enjoy learning history, it didn’t quite scratch the same itch that sociology – the study of society and groups and human behavior and their many intersection points with other academic disciplines – did for me.

While scouring the local library for books on sociology last summer, I came across a book titled Unverfügbarkeit (‘unavailability’ in English) by a moderately popular modern sociologist named Hartmut Rosa. In it he ascertains human beings’ desire to know, conquer, master, and make (economic) use of everything in the world, or in short, make everything attainable at any time. If that’s not understandable enough, perhaps the example of moving to a big city could make this concept a bit more clear. Cities are often characterized by liveliness, by having everything you need under one metaphorical roof. The latter is often one major reason why many people move to urban areas; it’s where the jobs, the big shopping centers, the restaurants are. The further you go from a metropolis, the further the places of interest are from each other. And this feeling of having options simply appeals to the majority of people, even if they, say, don’t actually go to the zoo or to a record store frequently. It’s the thought that those places are within reach that matters.

It didn’t take a long time for me to see that I was doing the very thing Rosa describes in his essay. For instance, whenever I leave the house, I usually take a heavy bag with me. This bag has everything I could possibly need if an unexpected event happens: some cereal bars in case I get hungry, an umbrella in case my phone’s weather app lied to me, a phone charger and a power bank in case my phone somehow gets drained while travelling, a cloth bag in case I drop by the grocery store on the way back, a face mask in case I have to go through crowded areas. And this list goes on and on. While I wouldn’t call this certain behavioral quirk of mine “wrong”, I would totally understand if you perceived me as a paranoid, overly careful person :D I simply like to be prepared.

But how could this kind of mentality affect our daily life? Rosa argues that trying to perfectly engineer everything around us into working to our favor ends up in an emotional disconnect from the world. Expanding our horizon just to make even more things available also increases feelings of aggression towards our environment. Nothing with a fixed outcome is enjoyable, and not getting the intended result irritates us. As Rosa states in the book, events such as sports matches are exciting especially because of their unpredictability. Imagine watching a tennis game but already knowing who’s going to win and how many sets the game is going to last. Sounds boring, right?

Rosa presents the process of “resonance” as a method for coming to terms with an unavailable world. He has published an entire book about this theory that I have yet to read, but to sum it up, being in resonance with a certain object means being in dialogue with that something and being transformed in the process. Fulfillment comes from engaging with something unavailable and accepting an outcome that isn’t deliberately forced. The sociologist concludes how resonance makes for authentic life and a greater level of “responsiveness” between self and subject. Thus, he calls these experiences a gift, as something we don’t have any control over.

In theory, being more free and open to changes in our world sounds like it would make life more meaningful. However, in practice, the global economic processes we come into contact with daily require control, planned growth, and vigilance for surprises along the way. Aside from this, our lives need structure. Not planning weekly meals ahead would take too much time, and not being up-to-date on market standards would certainly make it difficult to find an employer. Perhaps it’s all about striking the perfect balance between total control and letting things happen.

PS: In a video interview Rosa gave, he actually expresses his dislike for the term “unavailability”, saying how it reminds him too much of technology being broken or people not being reachable by phone. He suggests using the term “uncontrollability” instead.