Karl Marx - Alienation - Assignment PDF

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Outline Karl Marx’s theory of alienation and discuss why sociologists should still be concerned with alienation in the twenty-first century.

Alienation a term coined by the famous German sociologist and philosopher Karl Marx, is the separation or isolation of human beings from some important aspect of their existence or culture, often resulting in feelings of powerlessness or helplessness. Marx established his theory of alienation from Feuerbach's philosophic criticism of Christianity (Thompson, 2017). Today we hear the term commonly used in the media, for example we may hear about youth feeling alienated by mainstream values. Traditionally, the notion has been used in sociology, to convey a much deeper sense of alienation than most modern usage. The sociological use of the word derives from Marx's idea of alienation, which he used to establish the impact of capitalism on work experience in particular and on society more broadly.

Work in the past was less alienating as laborers had more control over their working conditions. Workers were more skilled and didn’t have as many constraints. Most jobs were done by hand or manually, giving workers a sense of pride. In 19th century manufacturing industries, workers effectively had little influence of what they were doing. Their job was unskilled, and they were essentially a 'cog in a system'. Most work was in factories meaning little to no hands on labour was required. Workers felt alienated by this, there was no sense of accomplishment from working. Today, this is also evident, many factory jobs consist of pushing a button and with technology evolving daily many future jobs will continue to be less satisfactory, leading to more people feeling a sense of alienation. Marx's theory indicates that capitalist development causes alienation in four main fields.

The first field in which alienation occurs is the alienation of the worker from their product. The goods that workers produce by means of their labour are not their own, but actually belong to others and are created for others. Because of their lack of control/ownership, their product becomes an alien entity. An object that deliberately acts against their interests. So the more the worker makes, the less the worker has, and the more helpless they become. They thus help to maintain the mechanism, the method of production that works against them (Armando, 2017). The conception and creation of production rest not in the hands of the employee, but in the decisions of the capitalists. A worker has no power over what he or she wants to manufacture or the requirements of his or her product (Thompson, 2017).

The second aspect of alienation is, alienation of the worker from the act of production. Within a capitalist society production of goods and services is formulaic and robotic offering little if any psychological satisfaction to the worker. Labour seems to be coerced because the worker completes it as a way of survival, a way of providing money to keep them fed and provide them with shelter. The worker feels as though he has lost control of his life's activity. Not only do they lose control of the good being produced, but they also lose control of the activity of producing it. The activity has no relation to the wishes of the workers as to what they want to do, no relation to the way the worker chooses to express himself, and no relation to who the worker is or who the worker might try to become. Marx claims that human beings are reduced to the level of an animal, working only to fill a physical gap, producing products not because it brings them joy but because it keeps them full (Horowitz, 2010).

The alienation of the worker from his species-essence was the third form of alienation defined by Marx. The species-essence or "Gattungswesen" of an individual contains all its inherent possibilities. Under the capitalist economic system, the dignity of a person is lost as well as the potential for self-development as he or she is forced to sell his or her labour power as a commodity on the market. (Horowitz, 2010). According to Marx, gratifying work is a vital part of being human, and capitalism is making work a misery, so working under capitalism is alienating man from himself. It's no longer a joy, it's just a means. For Marx humanity's species-essence is labour itself. Labour is our 'conscious life' operation,' Marx argues that human beings are, by their very existence, imaginative conscious beings. We are objective in the goods we make. In essence, we are alienating ourselves from our own existence in order to build what we want at will. Simply put, capitalist society makes man's free conscious action, work, a means to an end, instead of an end in itself, says James Boulden. For Karl Marx labour takes the object of his production from man, alienated labour takes him from his species-life.

The fourth and final type of alienation Marx describes is Alienation of the worker from other workers. The decrease of labour to scant market commodities creates a so-called labour market in which a worker competes against another worker. Labour is exchanged in a competitive labour market, rather than viewed as a productive socio-economic activity defined by a combined effort. Workers are pitted against each other in order to remain competitive for jobs, making them feel detached and alienated from colleagues. In the capitalist relations of production, we are separated not just from the commodity and the

method of production, but also from ourselves and from each other. This alienation is manifested as hostility or competition between workers and members of society. This is shown, for example, in how employees vote against their own interests or against the interests of other people, such as the stigmatized victims of the capitalist system of production: the poor in welfare. Marx's theory of alienation may serve to underscore this.

The first major work on alienation since the 1970s is by Jaeggi (2014) that defends the relevance of the term. For the most part, it focuses on alienation as a dysfunctional social relationship and on the experience of such relationships. But it is also critical of 11 essentialist notions of selfhood and equally critical of the post-structural removal of the subject as the basis for its potential alienation. She believes that 'alienation is a defective relationship with the universe... a troubled world. (Jaeggi, 2014: 151). Jaeggi therefore prefers to disregard the socio-economic causes of alienation that are more important to the social sciences, which, as we have noted, include capitalism/wage labour, reification, dehumanization of factory output, rationality, demystification of the environment, consumerism, and so on (Fishman and Langman, 2012). Despite her assertion of indebtedness to both Rousseau and Marx, her interpretation appears to be philosophic, ethical, and subjective. Today, workers are increasingly subject to supervision and regimentation, while jobs are increasingly made up of short-term commitments, largely employed in teams of limited duration. Most of this work is as alienating as Marx's textile output.

Today, factors such as the division of labour and the displacement of certain skills lead to alienation. However, digital technology also tends to de-alienate through the collaborative aspect of the Internet, which provides new opportunities. Despite technological advances, the primary factors causing alienation remain similar to those of the 1840s. Employers aim to improve productivity through technical advancement in order to succeed in today's markets. Much of the repetitive production work has been automated. Technology has changed those skills and developed new ones. Growing inequality and division of labour are reminiscent of factors described by Marx as leading to alienation. The Mckinsey report (2012) points out that there is a "growing polarisation of opportunities in the labour market". If we look at the fast food chain McDonalds we see that you can now order from a touch screen computer instead if going to a worker behind the counter. The workers watching the “robots” feel alienated as they can do their job. They feel like there is no use for them there anymore and

that a machine has the ability to do the same job that they do in a faster time. This machine can serve more customers per hour, just as many machines and robots have replaced workers in factories, working more efficiently at a lower cost to many factories.

Critics argued that emerging technologies such as the Internet, produce new forms of alienation" (Kellner 2006, p.48). This involves isolation from other people, our bodies, nature, and "real life." Keller denies such claims as unsubstantiated. He argues that Marx's alienation amounted to the alienation of workers from their creative capacity due to exploitation, although reports of "new alienation" fail to provide proof of negative outcomes for users. Keller argues that such statements are also downplaying the "democratizing" knowledge sharing opportunities provided by digital technologies. For example, the collaborative nature of Web2 helped connect like-minded individuals and gave voice to those previously marginalized. In the job scenario, Internet-based labour made it possible for some workers to have more flexibility to adapt work to their lifestyle choices (McKinsey, 2012). It also provided new prospects for the development of skills and profits. This shows that contemporary technology can also be de-alienating and empowering.

Alienation traditionally used as a term to describe the feeling of workers, is today a broader term used among almost everyone in society. Today, while research in the systemic tradition, does not believe that people are actually aware of their condition, researchers who presume that alienation is a conscious experience have developed scales to quantify its severity (Fishman and Langman, 2012). We could even say that everyone in their lifetime may feel alienated to some degree. As well as alienation in the work place young people may feel alienated, if they do not succumb to the peer pressures they face. We can also look at the LGBTQ community and their feelings of alienation. A proportion of society may make this community feel alienated because they don’t fall into the norms that society has created. Thankfully this is changing in today’s modern society however it still exists to a certain degree.

The relationship between technology and alienation is still as true today as it was 150 years ago. Alienation is the detachment of individuals from employment conceptualized by Marx against the backdrop of capitalism and industrialisation, which has driven workers into exploitative, repetitive production jobs. Modern sociologists have identified alienation as more common through employment with restricted worker autonomy. Today, technology has

helped to automate or outsource many manual or less qualified work, but the factors leading to alienation remain. These include the disintegration of professional jobs, the polarization of demand for skills and the widening income gap. If these concerns are not resolved, the deterioration and degradation of the workforce may result. However, technology has also provided means for greater collaboration, versatility and empowerment. A recent study has shown that the factors leading to alienation today are similar to those of 150 years ago and are related to the commercialization of workers by the capitalist system. Overall, the relationship between alienation and technology remained important in the 21st century. However it is the social and economic background that defines the degree to which technology can alienate or alienate workers.

Reference list Armando (2017). Marx’s Conception of Alienation. [online] Medium. Available at: https://demoskratia.org/marxs-conception-of-alienation-7e9d47b78220. Fishman and Langman (2012). Alienation: The Critique that Refuses to Disappear. [online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268094059_Alienation_in_the_21st_century. Horowitz, A. (2010). Asher Horowitz | Department of Political Science | Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies | York University. [online] Yorku.ca. Available at: http://www.yorku.ca/horowitz/courses/lectures/35_marx_alienation.html. Simon, K. (2019). Four Types of Alienation According to Karl Marx | Profolus. [online] Profolus. Available at: https://www.profolus.com/topics/four-types-of-alienation-accordingto-karl-marx/. Thompson, K. (2017). What is Alienation? [online] ReviseSociology. Available at: https://revisesociology.com/2017/08/24/what-is-alienation/. Zaykova, A. (2015). Alienation in the 21st century: the relationship between work and technology. [online] Midnight Media Musings... Available at: https://midnightmediamusings.wordpress.com/2015/07/11/alienation-in-the-21st-century-therelationship-between-work-and-technology/....