Adam Smith's Concept of Alienation

Lamb, Robert

doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.oep.a041259

Cited by 19 publications

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“…For Adam Smith (1986), the uncultivated person is alienated for he [sic] is unable to enjoy the pleasures of community and appreciate the fruits of urban culture (West, 2004(West, [1975). Smith recognized, however, that alienation loomed for urban factory workers, who, in performing simple repetitious tasks, according to the division of labor, were isolated from their fellows, estranged from their humanity, and powerless to negotiate contracts (Lamb, 2004(Lamb, [1973). Although he also saw the negative implications of alienation, Hegel (2007) posited that alienation (Entaüsserung) had positive effects because through individuals' externalized consciousness, the spirit built a shared culture in civil society (Ice, n.d.).…”

Section: Alienation: a Brief Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Alienation: The critique that refuses to disappear

Kalekin‐Fishman

Langman

2015

Current Sociology

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Although it is often condemned as an imprecise concept, alienation continues to flourish as critique in contemporary philosophy, theology, and psychology, as well as in sociology. Historically originating in Roman law, where it referred to the transfer of land ownership, alienation has since been applied extensively to analyses of labor relations, politics, and culture. In the 19th century, Marx showed that workers' alienation, their dehumanization and estrangement, was a consequence of the structure of exploitation in capitalist industry. The concern was echoed in Weber's metaphor of the 'iron cage' as an outcome of rationalized structures, as well as in Durkheim's conceptualization of anomie as a variant of alienation causing socially induced psychological states. Today, while research in the structural tradition does not assume that people necessarily are aware of their condition, researchers who assume that alienation is a conscious experience have invented scales to measure its intensity. Continuing both the structural and the psychosocial traditions, researchers now study alienation in relation to uses of digital technologies and new forms of exploitation in work, as well as in politics and popular culture. Alienation is also studied in families, especially in investigations of parenthood.

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Section: Alienation: a Brief Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Alienation: The critique that refuses to disappear

Kalekin‐Fishman

Langman

2015

Current Sociology

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“…Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations is replete with observations of this fundamental tension between capital and labour. Numerous examples are cited in: Lamb (1973); Rosenberg (1960); Samuels (1973); and West (1969). 3.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ignored question of workplace democracy in political discourse

Wisman

1997

International Journal of Social Economics

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Over the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic expansion, especially in Europe and the USA, in the number of firms that are owned and controlled by their workforces. Although in some of these firms workers have partial ownership but little control, the number of firms that are both worker-owned and worker-controlled has been growing at an increasing rate. Furthermore, these producer co-operatives are enjoying a degree of success in terms of profitability and survival that far surpasses expectations based on earlier experiments.There has also been a rapid expansion of intellectual interest in the nature of and potential for worker-owned and worker-controlled firms. Increasing numbers of academics specialize in the study of producer co-operatives. These scholars are found principally in the disciplines of economics, sociology, political science, labour relations, and management. New journals have sprung up dedicated to this field, and articles dealing with the topic appear increasingly in the prestigious journals of specialized social science disciplines. Several conferences are held each year, and even at general professional social science conferences, greater numbers of sessions are being devoted to the topic. Associations and consulting firms have sprung up to provide expertise to those wishing to create producer co-operatives or convert to them from traditional capitalist firms.There has also been a renewal of interest in worker participation within labour unions and worker organizations. The belief that labour must maintain an adversarial role towards capital and management appears to be giving way, albeit slowly, to a search for strategies that will reduce capital-labour conflict. These strategies have spanned the spectrum from putting workers on corporate boards of directors to full worker ownership and control.Even governments in Western capitalist countries have taken actions towards increasing worker participation. In a number of countries, legislation has been passed requiring worker representation on the boards of directors of large firms. State aid has been provided for establishing producer co-operatives. In the USA, significant tax advantages are offered to firms that grant workers a degree of ownership. Indeed, there is surprising support within many traditional political parties. In England, for instance, all major political parties are on record as favouring greater worker participation.

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“…WN, V.i.f.50, 782. The famous passage in Book V on the negative effects of the division of labour gave rise to an abundant literature, most often seeking to confront it with the concept of alienation as presented in Marx's Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, in order to determine if Smith was or was not a proto-Marxist (see West 1964West , 1969West , 1975Lamb 1973;Rosenberg 1965; and more recently Drosos 1996). We believe, however, following in the steps of Winch (1978), that it is preferable, for a better understanding, to place this subject in the intellectual context of the time, and more particularly in the tradition of civic humanism.…”

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Adam Smith on the subordination of wage-earners in the commercial society

Dellemotte¹,

Walraevens²

2013

The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought

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International audienceAdam Smith's discourse on wage labour is both original for its time and complex. While Smith indisputably considered the substitution of serfdom by wage labour as an improvement in both opulence and independence, we argue that he nevertheless saw the wage relationship as one founded on subordination. We then cast light on the material factors and symbolic mechanisms which, in his writings, explain how and why the worker agrees to this subordination. Finally, we endeavour to show that Smith's praise for the system of natural liberty as well as his repeated criticisms of merchants and capital owners aimed to transcend this issue

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Adam Smith's Concept of Alienation

Cited by 19 publications

References 0 publications

Alienation: The critique that refuses to disappear

Alienation: The critique that refuses to disappear

The ignored question of workplace democracy in political discourse

Adam Smith on the subordination of wage-earners in the commercial society

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