The Sociology Book

233

Automated technology on car

assembly lines should be organized

and deployed in ways that enable the

manufacturing workers to regain a

sense of control over their environment.

See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Erich Fromm 188 ■ Daniel Bell 224–25 ■
Harry Braverman 226–31 ■ Arlie Hochschild 236–43 ■ Michael Burawoy 244–45

WORK AND CONSUMERISM

that all workers are necessarily
alienated due to the increased
automation of work. Blauner
suggests, on the contrary, that
automation can actually facilitate,
empower, and liberate workers.
Using a wide range of data
(including statistics, interviews
with workers, and attitudinal
surveys), Blauner examines four
types of industry: craft printing,
car assembly lines, textile
machine-tending, and chemical-
processing. Alienation levels are
tested according to four criteria:
job control, social isolation,
sense of self-estrangement,
and meaningfulness of work.

Technology and alienation
Blauner describes his results as
conforming to an “inverted U
curve.” According to his study,
alienation is typically very low
among print workers. He suggests
that the use of machinery is
empowering for these employees
because it provides them with
greater control and autonomy.
The same is true for workers in
chemical-processing plants: again,
these individuals are empowered,

he proposes, because they possess

expert knowledge of the relevant

technology, which in turn is

meaningful and fulfilling because

it furnishes them with a significant

degree of control over their work

experience and environment.

By contrast, the automated

technology used in car production

and in textile factories leads to

relatively high levels of alienation.

These findings seem to contradict

Blauner’s claim that greater

automation diminishes alienation.

To explain this, however, he argues

that it is not technology itself that

alienates workers, but a lack of

control over the way it is used, how

work is organized, and the nature of

the relationships between workers

and management.

Blauner concludes that under

the right organizational conditions,

automation increases the worker’s

control over his work process and

diminishes a sense of alienation

in equal measure.

Blauner’s study has greatly

influenced the sociology of work,

as testified by follow-up studies

conducted by sociologists in

the US, as well as in Britain

and France during the 1970s and

1980s. Furthermore, the “political”

character of Blauner’s work

means studies of alienating work

environments have fed into, and

strongly influenced, commercial

working directives and policies.

The global technology firm Apple,

for example, is renowned for

investing heavily in training staff

to use Apple technology to enhance

their working experience as well as

their own personal lives. ■

Robert Blauner

Robert Blauner is an emeritus

professor of sociology at

the University of California,

Berkeley. He was awarded

his undergraduate degree

from the University of Chicago

in 1948.

Blauner was a staunch

communist, and after

graduating he worked in

factories for five years, aiming

to inspire a working-class

revolution. Unsuccessful in

those efforts, he completed

his MA and PhD at Berkeley

in 1962. His PhD thesis

became the 1964 study that

established his reputation. In

addition to his contributions

to the study of alienation

and work, Blauner has made

penetrating analyses of race

relations in the US.

Key works

1964 Alienation and Freedom:

The Factory Worker and His

Industry

1972 Radical Oppression

in America

1989 Black Lives, White Lives:

Three Decades of Race

Relations in America

Alienation exists when

workers are unable to

control their immediate

work processes.

Robert Blauner