Weber's Rationality And The Concept Of Alienation

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There is a connection between Weber’s conception of rationality and the concept of alienation. In what follows alienation will be discussed and linked with formal rationality. Marx uses the concept of alienation as a means of explaining how workers are detached from commodities that they produce. “…the more the worker spends himself, the more powerful becomes the alien world of objects which he creates over and against himself, the poorer he himself – his inner world – becomes, the less belongs to him as his own.” For Marx alienation often exists as a triadic relation between worker, commodity, and owner. Marx emphasises the estrangement of workers from the commodities that they produce. These commodities are sold by the owners of business …show more content…

This is to say that there is variety in the extent of alienation and that it will affect workplaces to different degrees and in different ways (Subberwal 2009). If we use the previous example of a factory producing computer components then a significant portion of what is involved in the construction of that component will be automated. Consider what is required to create a circuit board for some electronic in terms of capacitors, transistors, batteries, switches, and then the soldering and connecting of these components onto the board. A task that requires some skill, planning, reliability, and efficiency. However, without automation it would be one that is less reliable in terms of quality, less efficient, labour intensive, and repetitive. For the worker this environment would be one in which “…is boring and monotonous resulting in a heightened consciousness of time” (Cotgrove 440). This process of automation is removing the individual as an alienated worker by removing the need for them to occupy this task. Nonetheless, a likely situation is one in which supervisors are then required to monitor the construction of such components and once more alienation enters the picture (Erikson 1986). This sort of alienation would be somewhat different from the Marxian conception. The worker is mainly an observer of a machine producing commodities. …show more content…

Theoretical rationalisation was linked to the disenchantment of the traditional religious sphere as the world became more pragmatic and rule based. Formal rationality was then shown to be a feature in contemporary bureaucratic systems that had a dehumanising effect on workers. Formal rationality as dehumanising was then demonstrated to be contingent as technology can have the reverse effect in that it can be a source for autonomy, interconnectedness, self-exploration, and improved well-being. Formal rationality was then linked with alienation as both conceptions involve treatment of persons as means to ends. The contingency of alienation was then discussed as it relates to the workforce, technology, and the production of commodities in contemporary Western

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