Managed world

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The term administered world is traced back to Theodor W. Adorno . He used it among other things in the subtitle Music in the managed world of his work Dissonances (first edition 1956). Adorno used the term as a synonymous term for late capitalist , more precisely: post-liberal and post-fascist society, in which the “universal rule of the exchange principle” is superimposed by the “universal rule of the organizational principle”. Karl Korn then took it up a few years later for the book title of his critical language analysis - Language in the administered world (first edition 1959).

Racket theory as a precursor

The term comes from a theoretical context that was based on the theoretical drafts presented by Friedrich Pollock and Max Horkheimer in the 1940s when they were emigrating to the United States . Following on from Pollock's - already in the former group of emigrants at the Institute for Social Research - the controversial diagnosis of fascism as authoritarian state capitalism with the characteristic of the command economy, in which "the business magnates with the most powerful military as well as the cadres from politics and bureaucracy form a clique allied that keeps the rest of society in check, ”is how Horkheimer formulated his“ sociology of the racket ”. Racket , a term from organized crime, understood Horkheimer, Christoph Türcke and Gerhard Bolte to be a “conspiratorial clique that excludes all who do not unconditionally submit to their will” and “obey the strict hierarchy of leaders and followers”. Rackets are also understood as power groups and monopolies in an anarchic competition for power.

Adorno adopted the thesis that the economic laws of movement belonged to the "liberal episode" and were overridden by the rackets. Ultimately, he drew the conclusion that the administration should become independent - "primacy of administration", it says in aesthetic theory - over society and the economy. The perspective of "saving" the subject, which has always been aimed at by the critical theorists, is basically the same for both, because it makes almost no difference for the subject which form of rule it is under. However, the two theories contradict each other. In his sociological writings, Adorno differentiates the "history of gang fights, gangs and rackets" from the "last economic phase, the history of monopolies".

Content-related moments

On the sounding board of Max Weber's bureaucratic theory , which Adorno turns dialectically , he defines the managed world as the forced socialization and anonymization of domination , which aims at the liquidation of the individual and the elimination of the non-identical. Due to its own tendency to stifle all spontaneity , the administered world makes all "hiding places disappear". There is total control, a resistance-free integration of the individuals who are in line.

literature

  • Theodor W. Adorno: Collected writings . Digital library.
  • Theodor W. Adorno: Dissonances. Music in the managed world (first edition: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1956). In: Collected Writings, Vol. 14: Dissonances. Introduction to the sociology of music . 3rd ed. 1990, pp. 7-167.
  • Theodor W. Adorno: Culture and Administration . In: Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. 8: Sociological Writings 1 . 3rd ed., Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1990, pp. 122-146.
  • Theodor W. Adorno / Max Horkheimer / Eugen Kogon : The administered world or: The crisis of the individual . Recording of a conversation on Hessischer Rundfunk on September 4, 1950. Printed in: Max Horkheimer: Gesammelte Schriften . Volume 13: Legacy Writings 1949-1972 . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1989, pp. 121-142.
  • Karl Korn : Language in the Managed World . Walter-Verlag, Olten and Freiburg 1959.
  • Tobias ten Brink : State Capitalism and the Theory of the Obsolete World. Friedrich Pollock and the consequences . In: WestEnd Volume 10, H. 2/2013, pp. 128–136.
  • Christoph Türcke / Gerhard Bolte: Introduction to Critical Theory . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1994.
  • Rolf Wiggershaus : Theodor W. Adorno . Beck, Munich 1987.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ However , it can be proven as early as 1950 as the topic of a radio talk between Horkheimer, Adorno and Eugen Kogon (see literature).
  2. ↑ It can be found 114 times in the digital version of Adorno's Gesammelte Schriften . The count takes into account the inflected endings of the adjective, i.e.: administered, administered, administered .
  3. ^ Rolf Wiggershaus: Theodor W. Adorno . Beck, Munich 1987, p. 67.
  4. ↑ Christoph Türcke / Gerhard Bolte: Introduction to Critical Theory . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1994, p. 46.
  5. ↑ Max Horkheimer: On the sociology of class relationships . In: ders., Gesammelte Schriften , Volume 12: Nachgelassene Schriften 1931-1949 . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1985, p. 104.
  6. ↑ Christoph Türcke / Gerhard Bolte: Introduction to Critical Theory . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1994, p. 49.
  7. ^ Theodor W. Adorno: Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. 7: Aesthetic Theory . 6th edition, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1996, p. 372.
  8. ↑ Michael Th. Greven: Critical Theory and Historical Politics . In: Wilfried Röhrich and Carsten Schlüter-Knauer (eds.): Kiel contributions to politics and social science . 1st edition. tape 8 . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1994, ISBN 3-8100-1147-9 , pp. 180 f .
  9. ↑ Theodor W. Adorno: Sociological writings I . In: Collected Writings . 1st edition. tape 8 . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1972, p. 381 .
  10. ^ Theodor W. Adorno: Culture and Administration . In: ibid .: Collected Works , Volume 8: Sociological writings I . 3. Edition. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1990, p. 145.
  11. ↑ Dirk Hülst: 'Not being at home with yourself'. Power and rule with Horkheimer and Adorno . In: Peter Imbusch (ed.): Power and rule. Social science theories and conceptions . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 212, p. 130.