Facebook, it then asks, how can we understand alienation in the realm of the media? Axel Honneth has reformulated Georg Lukács’ theory of reification and alienation in a critical theory of recognition. The advantage of this theory is that it is based on the distinction of three subdomains of society, reformulates Hegel’s dialectic of essence and existence in moral theory and thereby transcends postmodern moral relativism, stresses the importance of sociality as moral essence, and distinguishes between alienation’s subjective, intersubjective and objective dimensions. It however downplays the importance of the economy and co-production in society.
Building on and departing from Lukács and Honneth, this chapter first formulates some principles of a moral theory that is grounded in the notion of co-operation as co-production that allows to identify nine dimensions of alienation: economic, political, cultural, subjective, intersubjective and objective alienation. The example of Facebook shows that alienation has not ceased to exist in the world of digital media, but has become more complex. The exploitation of digital labour, the surveillance-industrial complex, and centralised online visibility constitute additional forms of digital alienation.
1.6.5. Chapter 6: Beyond Habermas: Rethinking Critical Theories of Communication
This chapter asks, what is the relationship of labour and communication? This question is one about how the economy and culture are causally connected in society in general and contemporary society in particular. The chapter discusses several critical theories of communication and provides a classification of approaches. It engages especially with the approaches of Alfred Sohn-Rethel, Jean Baudrillard, Jürgen Habermas, Lev Vygotsky, Valentin Vološinov, Ferruccio Rossi-Landi, and Raymond Williams.
It applies a reading of these theorists to foundations of a dialectical critical theory of communication. Such a theory is dialectical in a manifold sense. It theorises the dialectics of work/communication, body/mind, individuality/ sociality, internalisation/externalisation, subject/object, practices/technology, communication/media, agency/structures, communication/communications, instrumental communication/co-operative communication that are fundamental determinants of communication.
Notes
1 See: Geschichte des Instituts für Sozialforschung, http://www.ifs.uni-frankfurt. de/institut/geschichte/, accessed on 6 January 2016.
2 Google Scholar, accessed on 19 March 2016.
3 See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev\_Vygotsky
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentin\_Voloshinov
Introduction: Critical Theory of Communication
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