Jurgita Imbrasaite

Dieser Beitrag widmet sich Hannah Arendts Kritik des modernen Arbeitsparadigmas, die wesentliche Einsichten in die Bedingungen der Vita Activa in der Gegenwart eröffnet. Während Arbeit in der Antike als sklavische Notwendigkeit galt, wird sie in der Moderne zur höchsten gesellschaftlichen Kategorie erhoben. Die verheerende Konsequenz dieser Entwicklung ist die Einschmelzung des dreigegliederten menschlichen Tätigseins in einen totalisierten Arbeitsbegriff, der das Herstellen und Handeln funktionalisiert und der Logik der Produktivität unterwirft. Um diesen modernen Umbruch offenzulegen, nutzt Arendt den antiken Arbeitsbegriff als epistemischen „Hebel“. Zudem wird gezeigt, dass die Verherrlichung der Arbeit nicht nur das Tätigsein transformiert, sondern selbst totalitäre Tendenzen aufweist. Der Artikel rückt Arendts bislang wenig beachtete Analyse dieser Umwälzung in den Fokus und verknüpft sie mit ihrer Auseinandersetzung mit totalitärer Herrschaft. So wird die historische Diskontinuität in Arendts Denken der Arbeit sichtbar und eine neue Perspektive auf ihr Werk sowie auf die politische Bedeutung der Arbeitsgesellschaft eröffnet.

The pandemic and subsequent wave of lockdowns in many countries led to a massive increase in TikTok users globally, boosting the platform’s public significance. Even if TikTok’s political potential is already established, the platform still lacks a theoretical underpinning as a space for action. Using both a political-philosophical as well as a techno-philosophical perspective, I seek to discuss and substantiate TikTok’s potential as a public realm that enables political action. Due to the unique algorithmic logic of this app, I argue that users are acting-with the algorithm when engaging in political action from home: be it in the form of national political protest or international acts of care and empowerment. I base my analysis on philosophical theory, cross-disciplinary TikTok research, and my own experiences on TikTok during the pandemic years.

The pandemic and subsequent wave of lockdowns in many countries led to a massive increase in TikTok users globally, boosting the platform’s public significance. Even if TikTok’s political potential is already established, the platform still lacks a theoretical underpinning as a space for action. Using both a political-philosophical as well as a techno-philosophical perspective, I seek to discuss and substantiate TikTok’s potential as a public realm that enables political action. Due to the unique algorithmic logic of this app, I argue that users are acting-with the algorithm when engaging in political action from home: be it in the form of national political protest or international acts of care and empowerment. I base my analysis on philosophical theory, cross-disciplinary TikTok research, and my own experiences on TikTok during the pandemic years.

This paper explores Arendt’s and Foucault’s thinking through the lens of the modern labor paradigm. Even if the question of labor is a less prominent path in both thinkers’ research, it leads to the heart of the modern era as they both understand it. In their respective fields, Arendt and Foucault sketch a similar link between the beginning of the modern age and the transformation of the notion of labor. While Arendt directly examines the modern glorification of labor and the emergence of the labor society, Foucault provides numerous analyses of labor as an instrument and target of disciplinary society, along with an epistemic distinction of modernity deeply connected to the term, ‘labor.’ This joint reading contributes to what might be called their philosophies of labor, as well as to the ongoing debate about the nature and meaning of labor in contemporary society.