Alienation in Neoliberal Society: on Transformation of the Social Subject of our Time

Shkarin D. L.
1. Training Technology Development Center 61 Bolshakov Str., Ekaterinburg, 620142, Russian Federation
dshkarin@mail.ru
The material was received by the Editorial Board: 01.03.2018
The article analyzes the change in the social subject of modernity as the main agent of modern society, considers the factors of its transformation under the domination of the neoliberal model. It is demonstrated that the
subject effects of alienation, identified in the writings of Marx and developed in the work of M. Foucault, are now most fully conceptualized in the studies of P. Dardot, C. Laval, A. Negri. The mechanism of total alienation,
realized as a result of the complete subordination of all aspects of the individual's vital activity to the requirements of the economic order, is reflected in the trend of its statistical codification and full-scale digitization
of performance indicators. The ultimate goal of such a strategy is to make alienation predominantly internal and internalized, which means complete subordination of the individual to the norms of a market society in its neoliberal version. Expansion of this kind is set by the following strategies: the free market doctrine; commercialization of the social sphere; the principle of competition as the dominant principle of social interaction, up to the complete delegitimation of the subjects that did not sustain it, with their reduction to the status of homo sacer in the terminology of D. Agamben. In the end, we outline the prospects for a transition to a globalized digital
community and the further expansion of the neoliberal model into all spheres of modern society.

Keywords: alienation of a social subject, economic coercion, neoliberal society, control strategies, codification of behavior, digital society.


References: Shkarin D. L. Alienation in Neoliberal Society: on Transformation of the Social Subject of our Time. Siberian Journal of Philosophy. 2018, vol. 16, no. 2. P. 75–85. DOI: 10.25205/2541-7517-2018-16-2-75-85