The Vicious Cycle: Alienation and Objectification in Contemporary Society
محورهای موضوعی : مجله جامعهشناسی ایران
Alireza Dabirnia
1
,
Mehrad Momen
2
1 - Associate Professor, Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law, Qom University
2 - Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law, Qom University, Iran
کلید واژه: Alienation, Objectification, Vicious Circle, Social Theory, Power, Recognition Theory, Capabilities Approach,
چکیده مقاله :
This paper employs an interdisciplinary conceptual analysis to argue that alienation and objectification form a self-reinforcing vicious cycle at the heart of contemporary social pathologies. While classical theory, notably Marx, rooted alienation in capitalist economic relations, this study demonstrates how this cycle is now amplified and perpetuated across political, cultural, and digital domains. We contend that individuals experiencing alienation - a state of estrangement from their labor, others, or themselves - become more susceptible to objectification, being reduced to mere instruments or commodities. This objectification, in turn, deepens the initial alienation, creating a feedback loop that erodes human dignity, agency, and social cohesion. The analysis traces this cycle through three key manifestations: its economic foundation in exploitative labor and consumerism, its political and cultural amplification through oppressive power dynamics and the culture industry, and its contemporary acceleration within globalized digital networks. Moving beyond critique, the paper concludes by exploring pathways for breaking this cycle, drawing on recognition theory (Honneth) and the capabilities approach (Nussbaum) to propose a framework for fostering resilience, inclusive communities, and a renewed ethics of human dignity. The findings underscore the urgent need for integrated strategies that address both the structural and phenomenological dimensions of this pervasive cycle in the 21st century.
This paper employs an interdisciplinary conceptual analysis to argue that alienation and objectification form a self-reinforcing vicious cycle at the heart of contemporary social pathologies. While classical theory, notably Marx, rooted alienation in capitalist economic relations, this study demonstrates how this cycle is now amplified and perpetuated across political, cultural, and digital domains. We contend that individuals experiencing alienation - a state of estrangement from their labor, others, or themselves - become more susceptible to objectification, being reduced to mere instruments or commodities. This objectification, in turn, deepens the initial alienation, creating a feedback loop that erodes human dignity, agency, and social cohesion. The analysis traces this cycle through three key manifestations: its economic foundation in exploitative labor and consumerism, its political and cultural amplification through oppressive power dynamics and the culture industry, and its contemporary acceleration within globalized digital networks. Moving beyond critique, the paper concludes by exploring pathways for breaking this cycle, drawing on recognition theory (Honneth) and the capabilities approach (Nussbaum) to propose a framework for fostering resilience, inclusive communities, and a renewed ethics of human dignity. The findings underscore the urgent need for integrated strategies that address both the structural and phenomenological dimensions of this pervasive cycle in the 21st century.
Arendt, H. (1969). Reflections on violence. Journal of International Affairs, pp.1-35.
Baudrillard, J. (1994). Simulacra and simulation. University of Michigan press.
Bauman, Z. (2000). Social issues of law and order. British Journal of Criminology, 40(2), 205-221.
Bauman, Z. (2007). Los retos de la educación en la modernidad líquida. Gedisa editorial.
Bauman, Z. (2013). Liquid modernity. John Wiley & Sons.
Butler, S. (2021). The development of market-driven identities in young people: A socio-ecological evolutionary approach. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 623-675.
Finifter, A. W. (1970). Dimensions of political alienation. American political science review, 64(2), 389-410.
Flohr, M. (2024). Karl Marx’s critique of the state as an alienation of society in his 1843 Critique of Hegel’s Doctrine of State. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 25(3), 361-385.
Gill, R. (2011). Sexism reloaded, or, it's time to get angry again!. Feminist media studies, 11(01), 61-71.
Golubović, Z. (1989). New Forms of Alienation Under Real Socialism. Schweitzer, D. y F., Geyer (eds.), Alienation Theories and De-Alienation Strategies, Northwood: Science Reviews, 95-121.
Habermas, J. (1989). The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Trans. Thomas Burger and Frederick Lawrence. Cambridge, Mass.
Harvey, D. (2020). Universal alienation. In How capitalism forms our lives (pp. 33-46). Routledge.
Honneth, A. (1996). The struggle for recognition: The moral grammar of social conflicts. MIT press.
Horkheimer, M. and Adorno, T.W. (1972). Dialectic of Enlightenment. New York: Seabury Press.
Kalekin-Fishman, D., & Langman, L. (2015). Alienation: The critique that refuses to disappear. Current sociology, 63(6), 916-933.
Laqueur, W. (1996). The dream that failed: reflections on the Soviet Union. Oxford University Press.
Loughlin, M. (2010). Foundations of public law. Oxford University Press, USA.
Lu, Q., & Ren, Q. (2018, June). Review on Marcuse’s Theory of the Alienation of Science and Technology and Its Contemporary Values. In 2018 2nd International Conference on Management, Education and Social Science (ICMESS 2018) (pp. 1800-1803). Atlantis Press.
Marcuse, H. (1964). One-dimensional man: Studies in the ideology of advanced industrial society. Beacon Press.
Marx, K. (1867). Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Volume I. Verlag von Otto Meisner.
Marx, K. (1976). Results of the immediate process of production. Published as an appendix to Capital, 1.
Musto, M. (2021). Alienation redux: Marxian perspectives. In Karl Marx's Writings on Alienation (pp. 3-48). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Nussbaum, M. C. (1995). Objectification. Philosophy & public affairs, 24(4), 249-291.
Nussbaum, M.C. (2000). Women and human development: The capabilities approach (Vol. 3). Cambridge university press.
Sayers, S. (2011). Alienation as a critical concept. International Critical Thought, 1(3), 287-304.
Seeman, M. (1959). On the meaning of alienation. American sociological review, 783-791.
Singla, S. (2023). Impact of Globalization on Consumerism. Issue 1 Indian JL & Legal Rsch., 5, p.1.
Tutkal, S. (2022). Dehumanization on Twitter in the Turkish–Kurdish conflict. Media, War & Conflict, 15(2), 165-182.
Verbeke, A., & Hutzschenreuter, T. (2021). The dark side of digital globalization. Academy of Management Perspectives, 35(4), 606-621.
Vo, T. (2021, January). Cultural alienation: a concept analysis. In Nursing Forum (Vol. 56, No. 1, pp. 160-171).
Zuboff, S. (2019). The age of surveillance capitalism: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. PublicAffairs.
