SOC 233 Lecture Notes - Surplus Labour, Fetishism
Document Summary
Alienation: workers are not connected to other workers, employers, or to the product they are producing. Alienation occurs in 4 ways: productive activity. Satisfying the needs of capitalists, not their own. Workers do not see how their labour contributes: product of labour. Workers have to buy the product they produce. Eg) a person could work in a bakery, but would starve if he/she could not afford to purchase the bread baked in the bakery. Purchase what they make: fellow workers. No communal activity; individuals doing specific tasks in isolation. Interests of capitalists to keep working conditions competitive; workers pitted against one another in capitalist economy: human potential. Instead of working to feel fulfilled (e. g. , agricultural community), we are made to function like machines. No longer involved in creative process of creating a product. Note marx wanted to find a solution to this alienation. International facility management study on literal office space; cubicles shrunk, and corner offices (i. e. , boss) increased.