Making Marx Accessible: Understanding Alienated Labor through Experiential Learning
In: Teaching sociology: TS, Band 41, Heft 4, S. 360-369
ISSN: 1939-862X
We introduce an exercise designed to make Marx's theory of alienated labor accessible to students in a Sociology of Work class. Through a role-playing activity where students create and sell goods under conditions of both alienated and nonalienated labor, students actually experience the different material and social consequences of these conditions. The article briefly describes the exercise and shows how it can be used with Marx's original writings. We assess the effectiveness of the exercise, using students' answers to open-ended questions about the activity, and discuss possible limitations.