Alienation or alienation: Definition, Understanding and Meaning

In social science, alienation or alienation shows the state of being isolated or separate from the environment, work, product of work, or yourself.

The meaning and understanding of alienation or alienation appears in the most common variants as follows:

(1) helplessness, namely the feeling that a person’s fate is not under his own control but is determined by external agents, fate, luck. Or institutional arrangement,

(2) helplessness, refers to the lack of understanding or consistent meaning in any field of action (such as world affairs or interpersonal relations). Or general feelings about non -purpose in life,

(3) the absence of norms. Namely lack of commitment to the convention of social behavior (which causes widespread deviations, distrust, uncontrolled individual competition, and the like),

(4) Cultural alienation, reflecting feelings of being eliminated from established values ​​in society. Like, for example, in an intellectual uprising or student against conventional institutions,

(5) Social isolation, which is a sense of loneliness or exclusion in social relations (such as, for example, among members of the minority group), and

(6) Self -alienation, is an understanding that in one or another the way individuals are not related to themselves.

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The introduction of the concept of alienation or alienation in Western thinking is also difficult to understand. Although the entry of alienation or alienation did not appear in the main reference book of social science until the 1930s.

The concept of alienation or alienation has existed implicitly or explicitly in the 19th century classical sociology work. And early in the 20th century there was the concept of Karl Marx, émile Durkheim, Ferdinand Tönnies, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel.

Alien Karl Marx

Karl Marx’s alienation theory illustrates human alienation (alienation) from aspects of the essence of its species (Gattungswesen) as a result of the system of capitalism. This alienation occurs because of the division of labor and ownership of production tools that are centered on the bourgeoisie class, making workers feel separate from their work products, work processes, themselves, and the community

Alienation consists of the fact that workers do not get satisfaction from work.
But Marxism only represents a school of thought about alienation or alienation in modern society. The second flow, which is less optimistic about the prospect of de-alienation, as in the theory of “mass society”.

Observing the dislocation caused by industrialization in the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Durkheim and Tönnies-and finally also Weber and Simmel-each, in their own way, documented the loss of traditional society and the loss of togetherness as a result of this.

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Modern humans are isolated, alloated and isolated in an unprecedented way. They are anonymous and impersonal in the midst of people who experience urbanization, uprooted from old values, but do not believe in the rational order and new bureaucracy.

Perhaps the clearest expression of this theme is in Durkheim’s idea of ​​”Anomie” (from the Greek Anomia, “violation of the law”). Anomy is a social condition with the characteristics of rampant individualism and disintegration of binding social norms.

Both Weber and Simmel carry the theme of Durkheimian further. Weber emphasized the fundamental shift towards rationalization and formalization in social organizations; Personal relationships become less, and impersonal bureaucracy becomes bigger.

Georg Simmel emphasizes tensions in social life between subjective and personal, on the one hand, and more objective and anonymous, on the other hand.

Ambiguity of alienation or alienation

Definition of alienation or alienation given above – no empowerment, no meaning, absence of norms, cultural alienation, social isolation, and self -alienation – can only function as a rough guide because there is a very different conception of ideas in one of these categories.

So, in connection with self -alienation, a person can “get out of contact” with himself in several very different ways. In addition, the writers are different not only in their definitions but also in the assumptions underlying the definition.

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The two contrast assumptions are normative and subjective assumptions. First, those who really adhere to the Marxian tradition (for example, Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, Georges Friedmann, and Henri Lefebvre) treat alienation or alienation as a normative concept, as an instrument to criticize existing conditions based on certain standards based on human nature, “natural law”, or moral principles.

In addition, Marxian theorists emphasize alienation or alienation as an objective condition that does not depend on individual awareness – Therefore, a person can be exiled in the workplace regardless of his feelings for work experience.

Although popular in the analysis of today’s life, the idea of ​​alienation or alienation remains an ambiguous concept with meaning that is difficult to understand.

Socio-psychological and philosophical facts

Alternatively, some authors emphasize that alienation or alienation is a socio-psychological facts: alienation is an experience of helplessness, a sense of alienation. Assumptions like this are often present in the analysis and description of deviant behavior and in the theoretical experts such as Robert K. Merton and Talcott Parsons.

Many efforts to measure and test the event of alienation or alienation in various populations (such as urban residents or assembly workers) have produced ambiguous results and questioned the usefulness of alienation as a conceptual tool for social science research. Some social scientists have concluded that the concept is basically philosophical.