World Alienation

Definition

World alienation is Hannah Arendt's term for the modern loss of a stable, durable common world. Unlike earth alienation (flight from the earth into the universe via science), world alienation is the flight from the human artifice into the self or into mass society. It arose from the expropriation of property (Reformation), which destroyed stable worldly locations, and the rise of "the social," which transformed all things into objects of consumption. "World alienation determined the course and the development of modern society." The result is a rootless society where nothing is built to last, where all things are consumed, and where the common world that "relates and separates men at the same time" has disintegrated.

Key Thinkers

• arendt-hannah — developed the concept in The Human Condition (1958); distinguished world alienation from earth alienation
• marx-karl — analyzed alienation but focused on alienation from labor/product; Arendt focuses on alienation from the world itself

Related Concepts

• earth-alienation — scientific flight from earth into universe; distinct from but related to world alienation
• dwelling — world alienation is the loss of the condition for dwelling; the world no longer provides an "existential foothold"
• the-social — the social is both cause and effect of world alienation; it destroys the stable world
• consumerism — world alienation transforms all objects into disposable consumer goods
• (Homelessness, modernity are mentioned in the source but not yet separate pages — see log.md.)

Source Support

Sources in the wiki that discuss world alienation:

• arendt-1958-the-human-condition — "What ushered in the modern age was not the age-old desire of astronomers for simplicity, harmony, and beauty . . . nor the Renaissance's new-awakened love for the earth and the world; this love of the world, on the contrary, was the first to fall victim to the modern age's triumphal world alienation." (p. 263)

Open Questions

• How does world alienation manifest in contemporary architecture—glass towers, temporary structures, "pop-up" urbanism?
• What is the relationship between world alienation and gentrification—the destruction of stable neighborhoods for speculative development?
• Can architecture resist world alienation by creating durable, meaningful places?