In the Grip of Authenticity and the Politics of Technology: Human as a Resource

Year 2024, Issue: 39, 317 - 345, 16.12.2024

Boran Ali Mercan , Ahmet Murat Aytaç

https://doi.org/10.53844/flsf.1534881

Abstract

For humans, the world is never merely a collection of unrelated objects. Contrarily, humans are in a meaningful and emotive relationship with the world, and the meaning of things arises from this relational state. The perception of the world, wherein things can serve as resources according to human needs and usage, has transformed in the modern era into an understanding that everything is merely a resource. This article problematizes the way modern technology enframes the world through calculation and measurement, turning everything within it, including humans, into resources to be utilized when necessary. New management ideologies, in the name of creating value from human resources, aim to subject the entire physical, mental, and emotional human existence (bios) to the work–labor space transformed by intelligent and flexible automation systems and algorithm technologies through discourses of "authenticity." In this context, we begin by examining the critique of modern technology in relation to the worldliness of the work–labor act through Heidegger’s discussion of the workshop (Werkstatt), and we deepen this analysis with the concepts of framing and standing reserve. However, unlike Heidegger, we squarely place the transformation of the workshop within a historical and social ground, focusing on the transition from the industrial period—where the Cartesian logic of ontology separated the human mind and action in the labor process—to the biopolitical post-industrial period, which targets the entirety of human life. Subsequently, Adorno's critique of the jargon of authenticity completes the critical axis of the article. The call to be authentic in a work–labor space where the distinction between work and non-work has become blurred does not bring about liberation from work and autonomy; conversely, it entails renewed subordination through and around work.

Keywords

Workshop, enframing, standing reserve, biopolitical workplace, authenticity.

SAHİCİLİK VE TEKNOLOJİ SİYASETİ KISKACINDA: BİR KAYNAK OLARAK İNSAN

Abstract

İnsan için dünya hiçbir zaman birbiriyle ilişkisiz nesneler bütününden ibaret değildir. Aksine insan dünya ile anlamlı ve heyecansal bir ilişkilenme halindedir ve şeylerin anlamı da bu ilişkilenme halinden türer. İnsanın gereksinimleri ve kullanımına göre şeylerin kaynak olabildiği dünya algısı, modern çağda her şeyin sadece birer kaynaktan ibaret olduğu kavrayışına dönüşmüştür. Bu yazı modern teknolojinin dünyayı hesap ve ölçümle çerçeveleyerek insan da dahil içindeki her şeyi gerektiğinde işe koşulacak bir kaynağa dönüştürmesini sorunsallaştırıyor. Yeni yönetim ideolojileri insan kaynağından değer yaratmak adına “sahicilik” söylemleri aracılığıyla fiziksel, zihinsel, duygusal bütün bir insan varoluşunu–yaşamını (bios) akıllı ve esnek otomasyon sistemleri ile algoritma teknolojilerinin dönüştürdüğü iş–çalışma uzamına tabi kılmaya çalışmaktadır. Bu bağlamda, modern teknoloji eleştirisini iş–çalışma ediminin dünyasallığı ekseninde Heidegger’in işlik (Werkstatt) tartışmasıyla başlatıp çerçeveleme ve rezervde durma analiziyle derinleştiriyoruz. Ancak Heidegger’den farklı olarak, Kartezyen ontolojinin mantığıyla insan zihni ve eylemini emek sürecinde ayrıştıran endüstriyel dönemden insan yaşamının tamamını hedefleyen biyopolitik post-endüstriyel döneme geçişle, işliğin (iş yerinin) dönüşümünü tarihsel ve toplumsal bir zemine oturtuyoruz. Nihai olarak, Adorno’nun sahicilik jargonu tartışması yazının eleştirel eksenini tamamlamaktadır. İş ve iş-dışı ayrımının belirsizleştiği bir iş–çalışma uzamında sahici olmak çağrısı işten özgürleşme ve otonomiyi değil; aksine iş aracılığıyla ve iş etrafında yeniden tabi kılınmayı beraberinde getirmektedir.

Keywords

işlik, çerçeveleme, rezervde durma, biyopolitik işyeri, sahicilik

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