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ABSTRACT
This article builds on current debates on the concept of alienation as a vehicle for the immanent critique of social pathologies in the world of work. Despite the renewals of the concept of alienation, the problem of how a theoretical diagnosis of alienation can be linked back to empirical material remains unsolved. Therefore, this paper develops a heuristic approach that makes it possible to identify specific forms of suffering as feelings of alienation. Alienation is understood as, unsuccessful identity work, which is documented in experiences of suffering, unfulfilled expectations, and critiques of conditions in the working world. This paper shows how identity work processes can be examined in narrated life stories. For the analysis of feelings of alienation, two indications are presented: (1) the identification of a gap between previous and current experiences in the working world and (2) the identification of specific experiences of suffering. Experiences of alienation can thus be identified as specific forms of experiences of suffering. Such an analysis also makes it possible to integrate the actors’ voices into an immanent critique of the world of work.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank the reviewers for their helpful comments. I would also like to thank the work group on ‘work’ at the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt, where I presented an early version of the text. And I would like to thank Felix Nickel, Thiago Simim and Oliver Nachtwey for helpful discussions about the text and the concept of alienation.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Friedericke Hardering, Dr, is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Sociology at Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. Her main research areas are: sociology of work, digital sociology, meaningful work, social theory, social inequality, qualitative social research and health and wellbeing. Recent publications: Hardering, F., and G. Wagner. 2018. Vom erschöpften Selbst zum achtsamen Selbst? Zum Wandel von Subjektivität in der digitalen Arbeitswelt. In Das überforderte Subjekt. Zeitdiagnosen einer beschleunigten Gesellschaft, eds. T. Fuchs, L. Iwer, and S. Micali, 1st ed., 258-278. Berlin: Suhrkamp; Will-Zocholl, M., and F. Hardering. 2018. Doing meaning in bureaucratic organizations? Findings from the public service sector. In The transformation of work in welfare state organizations: New public management and the institutional diffusion of ideas, eds. F. Sowa, R. Staples, and S. Zapfel. London: Routledge.
Notes
1 See the new Epilogue in Jaeggi's book on Alienation (Jaeggi Citation2016).
2 Social pathologies are defined here in a broad conception as ‘socially-created obstacles to human self-realization’ (Harris Citation2019, 47). For the concept of social pathologies, see also Zurn (Citation2011).
3 The idea that critique should be attached to the actors’ voices is assessed very differently. See especially Festl (Citation2014) and Honneth (Citation2008).
4 This distinction builds on Rahel Jaeggis’ differentiation of work alienation phenomena in the epilogue of the new edition of her book on alienation (Citation2016).
5 For the new type of alienation, see: Boltanski and Chiapello (Citation2003), Jaeggi (Citation2016), Hardering (Citation2017).
6 For the English version of this article, see Honneth (Citation2010).
7 At the end of his contribution, Honneth argues that there are opportunities to involve the actors’ voices; in particular, when theorists must decide whether the world of work should be regarded as a place of system integration or also as a place of social integration, employees’ views can provide orientation here.
8 The distinction between ‘wishes’ and normatively founded claims can be found in Hürtgen and Voswinkel (Citation2014). It allows a distinction to be made between the mere demands of employees and claims that can be classified as legitimate along the moral framework of the work world.
9 This passage is translated by the author.
10 With the inclusion of the actors’ normatively founded critiques, I fall back on impulses of the sociology of critique, which concern the evaluations of actors in their everyday actions: Boltanski (Citation2010); Boltanski and Chiapello (Citation2003).
11 The page numbers refer to the German version. For the translation the English translation by Martin Milligan was used (Marx Citation[1959] 1844).
12 Henning (Citation2015) also emphasizes that Marx was interested in the subjective side of alienation.
13 This passage was translated by the author.
14 Even Rosa (Citation2016) speaks of experiences of alienation, arguing that resonance is not an emotional state but a relation. Problematic in this understanding is the following: how can you identify the existence of a relation or evaluate the quality of a relation when you eliminate subjective feelings?
15 I use the term identity work here because it emphasizes the dynamics and permanent changeability of identity. Identity work as a concept is different from understandings of identity that assume a stable core self.
16 Rilinger argues that a specific methodological programme can be derived from the claim to pursue immanent critique. Although I see this approach as a plausible way of identifying appropriation dynamics, the specification of a survey and evaluation methodology nevertheless seems to me to narrow the possibilities of analysis.
17 Rosa (Citation2016) also takes up Jaeggi's turn of a ‘relation of relationlessness’ as a definition of alienation. He argues that alienation is a state in which one has relationships, but in which they have become indifferent or meaningless (2016). Thus, for Rosa, alienation also stands for an existing connection and thus a previous appropriation or relationship with persons or an object.
18 When I speak of expectations here, it can theoretically be both realistic and unrealistic expectations. The argumentation is based on the assumption that expectations are socially formed and thus already represent the result of social negotiation processes. Expectations are not to be understood as individual wishes, but are based on norms about good work and therefore have a normative surplus. They thus have a reference to the existing social order. I would like to thank the anonymous experts for this question.
19 The quote was translated by the author.
20 The interview material originates from data collected in the research project „Societal conceptions about what makes work meaningful and individual's experiences of meaningfulness at work, which was funded by the German Research Foundation, DFG, HA6994/2-1, 2-2 and was conducted at the Goethe University Frankfurt between 2014 and 2018. For the description of the sample and methods see Hardering (Citation2017).
21 The quote was translated by the author. For a detailed analysis of this passage, in which the experience of stress is analyzed, see Hardering (Citation2017).
22 Excluded here are those approaches that assume that alienation is precisely characterized by the fact that subjects do not experience it.
23 In fact, there are numerous overlaps in the concepts of alienation and job dissatisfaction. Unmet expectations are mentioned as criteria in both work alienation and job dissatisfaction. The loss of self can be identified as the essential difference between alienation and job dissatisfaction. For an example of suffering from unfulfilled expectations at work see Hardering (Citationforthcoming).
24 I would like to thank the reviewers for asking to what extent further emotions can serve as indicators of alienation. A collection of further emotions that can serve as alienation indicators would certainly be interesting. At the same time, the impression should be avoided that only by identifying the emotion a conclusion about alienation can be drawn. In many biographical contexts, disillusionment can also be something quite different from an indication of an alienation experience. It becomes even more difficult when feelings such as sadness or frustration are used as indicators. Therefore, emotions are to be seen as markers, along which a more precise analysis can then begin.