SOC101Y1 Lecture Notes - Counterargument
Document Summary
Alienation: a subjective, psychological experience of losing touch with one"s. Self" or human nature, brought about by objective conditions in the workplace. Expressing/fulfilling one"s core potential and needs occurs through activity of work. Labour: creative activity carried out in cooperation with others, where people transform the world around them". Under industrial capitalism, workers lost control over the labor process to owners/managers. This loss of control led to alienation. Decisions over work speed, scheduling, the manner in which a task is performed are not controlled by the worker. Workers are not able to fulfill needs to demonstrate their own. Workers are not able to collaborate of their own free will but instead by the decree of owners/managers. Shift to an economic system where labor is sold results in alienation. Loss of control of labor process => alienation. Other scholars have examined how alienation varies across work organization. Blauner: role of technology in production techniques shapes experience of alienation.