Alienations, cleavages, reclassifications

Abstract

This article analyses the problem of alienation within the framework of a theory of social reclassifications. In principle, it provides a survey of recent proposals on the subject, particularly that by Rosa regarding social acceleration, alienation and ''a lack of resonance'', and that by Jaeggi on the ''relation of relationlessness''. Based on these approaches, a definition of alienation is elaborated linked to the practical production of cleavages between various stances (individuals, groups, subgroups, institutions, spheres, or practices and representations), which are crosscut by processes of social domination. In this context, a critical and multidimensional theory of social and sociological reclassifications is deployed, allowing to approach alienation from a practical viewpoint in terms of the modes with which the divisions of the world and its attributes are re-elaborated and disputed, both implicitly and explicitly. This presupposes a fundamental concern with the emancipatory strategies and struggles of reclassification, which oppose and fracture alienating cleavages and the relations of domination linked to them. Thus, it is possible to include a theoretical-analytical perspective on alienation in that reclassifying dynamic which, by means of its critical viewpoint, may participate in such an emancipatory production, in a mutual play of reclassification with other social stances.