Globalization of the Work Society: Proposal for a Re-interpretation of the Work Society as a Posttraumatic Syndrome

Abstract

In order to understand the driving forces behind current developments of globalization and the obviously extreme difficulties of alternative action, I begin by putting the topic into an historical perspective and casting a look particularly at the violent, ongoing, history of modernity as a work society. The perspective will effectively be widened as it is viewed beyond the boundaries of the classical disciplines of historical science, sociology, political economy, etc., even making room for the inclusion of the results of psycho-analytical research. In this way, I attempt to transfer the perspective from a systemic one into an action perspective and to take up the angle of the original victims of the violent historical process. A short explication is given of the relevant aspects of trauma theory. Through this it will become evident that the deep collective traumas resulting from historical violence must have a lasting effect on modern societies, so that modernity can be interpreted as a posttraumatic society. Given this diagnosis, a discussion of the contents and forms of people’s struggles against their valorization in this pathological system, of which they are at the same time an integral part will be presented.