Marxist Theory of Alienation and Society
Summary
Marx’s theory of alienation delineates how workers become estranged from the products of their labour, the labour process, their own human potential and from one another under capitalist modes of production. In his early writings, alienation is framed as a subjective experience of powerlessness and disconnection, whereas in later works it is presented as an objective structural outcome of the appropriation of surplus value by capital. This dual aspect resolves tensions between essentialism and moral paternalism, highlighting how intensifying social power and interdependence coexist with isolation and social fragmentation. The theory also examines commodity fetishism as a symbolic distortion of social relations and situates alienation within a broader historical materialist analysis of class struggle. By foregrounding the social mediation of labour, Marx’s framework remains central to understanding contemporary issues of worker wellbeing, automation and the ecological crises of capitalist accumulation.
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Technical terms
Alienation: A process by which workers are estranged from the products of their labour, the act of work, their own human potential and their social peers, resulting from capitalist appropriation of value.
Commodity fetishism: The attribution of social power to marketable goods, obscuring the labour relations and social processes that underlie their production.
Historical materialism: A methodological approach that locates social and political developments in material conditions and class relations rather than ideas alone.
References
- Capitalism and alienation: Towards a Marxist theory of alienation for the 21st century. European Journal of Social Theory (2021).
- V. I. Lenin on Alienation. Critical Sociology (2022).
- The labour alienation of civil servants in Zimbabwe: Towards an ubuntu spirituality of work. HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies (2024).
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