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Perspectives In Sociology

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Themes and Perspectives in Sociology I
What are the links between Class and Alienation According to Marx?

Marx outlined four types of alienation (worker from the product, worker from the work, from 'species-being' and from other humans), which he regarded as the result of a class structured society. This led Marx to believe communism was the solution to preventing alienation and the negative effects it caused. A communist society could potentially resolve structural economic-related alienation between humans by removing class conflict. However, it would not account for alienation as a result of other stratification such as gender and ethnicity, or existential alienation as the result of human agency or the unpredictability of human nature. …show more content…

Marx saw alienation as the negative outcome of a class ordered society, which is why he proposed communism as the solution. Restructuring society could remove the socio-economic causes of alienation, but such a deterministic view does not remove existential alienation. The correlation between class and alienation might not prove causation, nor indeed is class the only cause of alienation. Also, Marx does not define what he meant by fulfilment, and every person has different needs: existential alienation to other humans and of 'species being' is highly subjective and variable. To eradicate a class society could potentially deny some people fulfilment: those who enjoy hard work, profit and material goods, although these are questionable markers of success if they bring suffering to others. Marx also overlooks other structural causes of alienation like gender and ethnicity; as a white European male perhaps Marx was not able to apply enough objectivity to his observations. Schweickart included issues of gender and ethnicity in his “critique of modern political, economic and social life that he identifies as The Counterproject” ( Padgett 207: 123), in which he outlines a theory which he believes could be a successor to capitalism - economic democracy. Marx is unable to see solutions to alienation within a capitalist society by finding fulfilment within work. Padgett argues that “economic democracy places greater control in the hands of the workers and significantly reduces alienation” (2007: 129), so changes to the distribution of power in the workplace would be beneficial by creating a sense of ownership over job roles, rather than changing the whole way society is

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