THE SOCIAL METAPHOR OF THE HUMAN BODY:The Spectacle As a Tool of Alienation. The Situationists and Their Heritage
Journal Title: Miscellanea Anthropologica et Sociologica - Year 2015, Vol 16, Issue 1
Abstract
In the Marxist tradition social relations mediated by the market are the source of alienation.Alienated individuals are deprived of their subjectivity, they become a passive instrumentof capital. For Marx, the principal instrument of alienation was commodifiedwork, while for post-Marxist thinkers like the Frankfurt School – it was also consumption.The Situationists go further – according to them the whole social reality is alienated. Under capitalism it changes into spectacle. The spectacle imposes artificial, reified socialrelations, inhibits all creativity and spontaneity, and deprives individuals of the ability toactively shape reality, thus stripping people of the fundamental aspects of humanity.The paper discusses the category of spectacle coined by the Situationists. It indicatesthe possibilities of its application to the analysis of a contemporary culture dominated byconsumption and based on images. Situationist concepts and their interpreters are alsopresent in reflection on the problem of the relationship between alienation and communicativetechnologies. The issue of disalienating (emancipating) potential of forms of communicationdeveloped in the networked society and their impact on consumer empowermentis widely discussed nowadays. The ideas developed by the Situationists and theirheirs, presented in the paper, may be useful for its analysis.
Authors and Affiliations
Łukasz Iwasiński
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP53080
- DOI -
- Views 116
- Downloads 0
URBAN COMMUNITY IN CRISIS? Towards the “Prospering” City. Opportunities and Challenges
The article is devoted to the issue of a prosperous city, understood as a vision of the most important socio-spatial environment and the possibilities of achieving prosperity in this environment. Due to the level of urba...
MISCELLANEA: The Common Idea of Wisdom in the Historical-Philosphical Context
The article presents historical key transformations of the idea of wisdom throughout the history of philosophy. e author has noticed that there is a relationship between the separation of being and value in the history...
RECENZJE I SPRAWOZDANIA: Sprawozdanie z konferencji „Socjologia relacji między ludźmi, nie-ludźmi i hybrydami
Tożsamość narracyjna: Mystory/My store. Między tożsamością narracyjną a tożsamością partycypacyjną
Celem tego artykułu jest refleksja nad tożsamością w epoce elektralności (fazie cywilizacji,następującej po oralności i piśmienności). Esej ten czerpie inspiracje przede wszystkimz filozofii mediów (Marka C. Taylora i Gr...
DISEASE, ILLNESS, SICKNESS The Anomia as Social Illness
In this article the phenomenon of social anomia as a specic social disease is considered. The author also analyses traditional sociological studies of this phenomenon from the end of the 19th century until the present da...