Project management: Prof. Dr. Oliver Nachtwey
Project team: Mirela Ivanova, Helene Thaa in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Friedericke Hardering and Felix Nickel (both from FH Münster)
Project duration: 1/9/2019–31/8/2023
Funded by: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
SNF-ID: 100019E_183669

This project aims to develop an empirically grounded conception of digital alienation in the field of work. It poses the question of the extent to which the digital work engaged in by different occupational groups in the service sector is accompanied by specific experiences of alienation, and what efforts to appropriate work can be identified on the part of the employees. To this end, a new approach to exploring subjective experiences of alienation has been adopted. The study seeks to obtain insights into the experiences of groups of employees with different levels of qualifications, in order to arrive at an understanding of the interpretations of and ways of dealing with the potential for alienation in the world of digital work. On this basis, it will be possible to develop a meaningful conception of digital alienation, which is connected to the experiences of employees and serves as a complement to inquiries into other experiences of suffering at work. Moreover, it is of central importance that a conception of digital alienation be developed that avoids a technologically deterministic perspective, but that instead adopts a conception of digital technologies as playing a structuring rather than a determining role. By adopting the innovative approach of conducting empirical research into alienation, this project will also produce insights that are relevant not only to the narrow discussion taking place within sociology, but also to broader research on philosophical and psychological alienation.