Toward a theory of alienation: futurelessness in financial capitalism

Autor: Tad Skotnicki, Kelly Nielsen
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
History
050402 sociology
Sociology and Political Science
Inclusion (disability rights)
Alienation
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology|Politics and Social Change
Denialism
SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology
0504 sociology
SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology|Marxist Sociology
050602 political science & public administration
Inclusion–exclusion principle
Sociology
SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology|Theory
Finance
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology|Theory
Knowledge and Science
Commodification
SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology|Culture
business.industry
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology|Sociology of Culture
05 social sciences
Capitalism
0506 political science
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences
SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Sociology|Political Economy of the World System
SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences
business
Zdroj: Theory and Society. 50:837-865
ISSN: 1573-7853
0304-2421
DOI: 10.1007/s11186-021-09440-6
Popis: There is an extensive body of literature detailing the forces behind and experiences of alienation in a modern capitalist world. However, social scientific interest in alienation had become parochial and balkanized by the 1970s. To reconstruct a unifying theory of alienation that addresses general features of capitalism, such as compulsory growth and commodification, and particular phases like financialized capitalism, we begin with the notion of futurelessness. Futurelessness refers to a deficient relationship to the future in which people’s senses of possibility ossify or dissipate. It may result from inclusion in and exclusion from capitalist mechanisms or processes. Moreover, processes of inclusion and exclusion may appear more voluntary or involuntary. With these general terms, we identify four manifestations of futurelessness in financial capitalism: commercial exhaustion, imaginative marginalization, therapeutic nowism, and pragmatic denialism. The conclusion addresses future-sustenance in an alienating world and the prospects of a more systematic and synthetic approach to alienation.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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