Human development and alienation in the context of economic crisis in Vietnam

Alienation of wage-workers

The alienation of wage-workers begins when their labour power is sold as a commodity. The internal relation between workers, their products and their living activities is broken when they cannot determine what, how and when to do something. Also, they have no possession of the products that embody their labour power. Hence, wage-workers lose degrees of independence in their working lives. In the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, Marx explains that wage-workers’ are alienated in four ways during the working process.

First, workers are alienated from commodities, that is, from the goods and services produced by them – which can, of course, be non-material such as a computer programme, a book or even a smile – for example, workers such as air stewards or sales assistants. The commodity is the manifestation, the phenomenal form of alienated labour. The more commodities they produce do not guarantee that they have a better life. Indeed, the more commodities are produced, the stronger the power of the commodity exercised over workers. This is an inversion of the relation between producers and products, in which the former is determined by the latter instead of determining the latter.

Second, workers are alienated from their working activities because the product of their labour is sold and does not belong to them. It looks like workers become components of machines. Workers feel like strangers in the workplace, when work is not voluntary but compulsory (Ellis & Taylor 2006; McLellan 2000: 88). In Wage Labour and Capital, Marx underlined the meaninglessness of time spent in work because their labour activities are alienated: working for existence as a species does (Tucker 1978: 204–205). The function of working is distorted from creating humanistic identities to degradation to part of a machine. Initially, working distinguishes human beings from other species. Working is to live, not merely to exist. Working is a natural necessity which does not relate to money or wages. However, for workers, working is a responsibility due to pressure of making income. It departs totally away from its original meanings.

Third, workers are alienated from their own human potential. As a special species, human beings have consciousness vis-a-vis their living (and indeed dying) activities – which, incidentally, does not give them the right to mistreat other species which may not possess such consciousness. Other species do not distinguish their activities for survival and reproduction. However, under conditions of capitalist commodity production, workers fight for their survival, their very species existence, not for all the possible reasons that they could work, to carry out the possible activities that they really wish to do. It is important to note that, in Marxist political economy, the wage is assumed to fulfil the basic needs of living (varied culturally in their society). Therefore, workers are working merely to sustain life, which is quite similar to what other species do. In this alienation, worker’s conscious life activity is reduced to ‘a mere means to their existence’ instead of being something worth pursuing in its own right (McLellan 2000: 91).

Fourth, workers are alienated from other people or fellowship. Workers and bourgeoisies become alien to each other because the product of labour does not belong to the worker but belongs to the bourgeoisies. Workers are also alienated from their other work colleagues due to competition for employment. Such tensions also contribute to make the workers feel strange in work and feel at home when they are not working (Marx 1964: 110). This kind of alienation is the certain result of alienation from products, life activities and other human beings.

This domination of dead labour over living labour is one of the key manifestations of workers’ alienation. Their living labour depends on the production and circulation of capital (dead labour). The need for living labour in production is determined by capital. The more workers sacrifice living labour for capital – dead labour, the lower the status of workers in society and production.

Alienation of owners and managers

Alienation not only affects wage-workers because, as Marx noted, capitalists, as ‘the master of labour’ are also alienated. In The Holy Family and Economic & Philosophical Manuscripts, he argued that private property, as human estrangement, is the necessary consequence of alienated labour (McLellan 2000: 148; Marx 1964: 117). The alienation of capitalists who own large private property is inevitable. Although the propertied class takes advantage from its ownership of private property, alienation derived from that still makes them ‘stupid and one-sided’ so that all their physical and mental senses are degraded (Marx 1964: 139). In addition, in order to enlarge their private property, capitalists must engage in competition and are constrained themselves by the laws of the market (Wallimann 1981: 97). Gradually, this process breaks their relations to other people, and they become estranged from their human nature.

Ollman (1976: 154–155) interprets Marx’s ideas via several aspects. First, capitalists, responding to competition in producing and exchanging commodities, are forced to obey market demands. As suppliers, to some extent, they are also under control of their products. They cannot supply any commodities they desire but must provide things that consumers are willing to buy. They gain no satisfaction from their own commodity, and any satisfaction is transferred to buyers. Second, capitalists have a ‘theoretical attitude’ (opposite to ‘practical attitude’ of workers) in production and to the product, which causes alienation because this attitude does not reflect real and practical activities but rather its absence. Marx assumed that wage-workers work directly in commodity production while owners and/or managers remain detached from that process. Owners and/or managers are, therefore, less concerned with any engagement in the production process they happen to have and more concerned with ensuring the prices of their commodities are competitive and profitable. Third, while not all capitalists are, many are encouraged to be greedy, cruel and hypocritical in their exploitation (Ollman 1976: 155). Private ownership is the key reason for these characteristics. For capitalists, private property needs to be protected and enlarged without limits. Satisfaction with private property urges capitalists qua producers to possess more valuable property.

Origin of alienation

It is undeniable that alienation develops to higher levels under capitalism because this society provides a favourable context for such processes arising. But alienation of wage workers, managers and owners are not features of capitalism but of commodity production. It is important to distinguish between capitalism as the mode of generalised commodity production and commodity production as the economic mechanism which is founded by a social division of labour and the relative separation of individual producers (Vietnam Ministry of Education and Trainning 2009: 190). Briefly, commodity production has existed in many social systems. There was petty commodity production in civilisations for thousands of years before capitalist commodity production occurred. Since the emergence of capitalism, commodity production has evolved into the advanced dynamic economic mechanism that dominates the world today. Hence, capitalism and commodity production are not the same thing. Capitalism is usually criticised for creating alienation, but this human self-estrangement springs from commodity production, rather than from capitalist exploitation.

First, the social division of labour is involuntary and coerces men and women to produce commodities satisfying alien wills. Hence, producing and exchanging commodities downgrades human relationships to a relationship between commodities. The relations between humans, therefore, take on the form of relations between commodities. In addition, the social division of labour turns each worker (qua producer) into a potential consumer because no one can fulfil their whole needs from their own productive activity. This increases dependence of human beings on commodity production and their purchasing power.

Second, to compete better, in commodity production, enterprises need to deepen the technical division of labour. At its worst, this turns working activity into unfulfilling, boring and repeated tasks. Even where this does not characterise the whole job, if often characterises significant aspects of the job. Gradually, labour becomes a one-sided and incomplete process. Workers can, therefore, become ‘depressed spiritually and physically to the condition of a machine and from being a man becomes an abstract activity and a belly’ (Marx 1964: 68). Thus, the relation between labour power and its result becomes estranged, especially when the workers’ products are uncompleted things that cannot be used separately, but rather, stand in need of being integrated with other uncompleted things in order to become a full, functioning thing. For example, Intel Corporation produces microprocessors that are not final products for consumption but inputs for larger producing processes such as computers, tablets and phones. This causes alienation of human beings both from their products and from working activity. Commodities are estranged from those who produced them, and the producing process is fragmented. These reasons help explain why the social division of labour, as a key principle of economic organisation in commodity production, plays a central part in creating alienation (Wallimann 1981: 89–98).

Third, commodity production reinforces the alienation of capitalists qua producers, encouraging greed and subjecting them to the will of markets. The second necessary condition for commodity production is isolation of production. As Marx said, ‘Only the products of mutually independent acts of labour, performed in isolation, can confront each other as commodities’ (Marx 1990: 132). While this condition atomises capitalists qua producers, causing them to exist independently from each other, it also creates the perfect conditions for them to pursue their own interests. Thus, the entire production process, governed by capitalists qua producers, is organised in order to create profit for them, not to meet the needs of the whole society. In addition, under conditions of isolated production, capitalists qua producers need to compete in order to meet a market demand that changes dynamically. Hence, they are obliged to act according to market discipline, instead of them imposing their wills on it.

In sum, alienation is the inevitable socio-economic aspect of the process of production and exchange based on commodity production – and exchange. The more commodity production develops, the more alienation spreads.

Methodology

I conducted case studies in 2011 in two factories that were under control of the ANCO Corporation, a Vietnamese private enterprise. People were categorised into groups of workers, managers and owners, and the investigation focused on the problems that these groups faced and how they adapted.

Primary data were collected using group discussion and ethnographic observations (to support the former). The method of ‘group discussion’ was selected for several reasons. First, it allows us to explore the actual lived experiences in crisis time and the adaptation of workers, managers and owners to the crisis. In addition, the method is useful for exploring the links between aspects of common lives: employment, consumption, time use and relations with others. Second, the relative homogeneity within each group makes it possible to identify the affected aspects of life without having to resort to individual interviews. Third, discussion of how participants adapt to difficulties reveal how their freedom is affected by such troubles in commodity production.

Ethnographic observation allows the researcher to sense by seeing, touching and hearing things in research locations. This method generated richer data than could be obtained by, for example, administering questionnaires and using rating scales.

In each factory, discussions were taken with two groups of male and female workers (6–8 members), a group of managers (4–6 members) and a group of owners (2 or 3 members). All participants had suffered financial troubles in the previous 2 years in the factory.

The results of group discussions and ethnographic observations are categorised in four aspects of life: employment, consumption, time use and relations to others. Such aspects reveal concretely the lived-experience working in a troubled enterprise.

Troubled enterprises

The research was taken in the context that global economic crisis began to hit Vietnam since 2008. Research locations were a Cake Factory and a Milk Factory that were parts of ANCO Corporation. The Milk Factory was accused of melamine contamination that causes cancer. The products could not, therefore, be traded on the market until late 2008. Consequently, production collapsed to nearly zero. Almost all workers were laid-off. Remaining workers’ wages were lowered to 70% of the minimum wage.

Meanwhile, the Cake Factory was affected by the troubles of the Milk Factory because the ANCO Corporation took capital from the Cake Factory to rescue the Milk Factory. Accordingly, the Cake Factory lacked financial input to run its production. The Cake Factory, which was up to this point competing aggressively with its rivals, lost market share. Production contracted, and the workforce was reduced from 100 staffs to about 30 staffs – at the time of interviewing.

Adaptation among workers, managers and owners and their differences

All four key aspects of life (employment, consumption, time use and relations with others) of workers, managers and owners were worsened.

In terms of employment, due to instability in the main jobs, there were dramatic changes in wages, pressure, tiredness and the working environment with workers, managers and owners.

The instability of production reduced the income of all groups. Within a month, working days contracted to about 8–10 days, in comparison with 22–24 days in stable working months. For the remaining workers, their wage had reduced significantly to about 50% of the normal wage at the Cake Factory and 30%–40% of the normal wage at the Milk Factory. Also, both factories often paid late, 2–3 months in arrears. For managers, they reported that their monthly wage declined by 30% since the factories fell in to trouble. The loss in income depended on how workers and managers were affected by the troubles of the factories.

After over half of the workers moved out of the factories, there were more pressures and tiredness for the remaining workers and managers. The remaining workers had to do more tasks in several specialisations. Sometimes, in the case of new recruitments, the experienced workers took both their working tasks and guided the newcomers. Both male and female workers found that the working environment was not maintained as good as it was before the troubles. Even basic working accessories, such as caps, gloves and gauze masks were not renewed, so that some workers had to buy new ones themselves. For managers in both factories, they had bad moods during the working process. They had to do more tasks which were not part of their duties before; some of them had to work as real workers if the production required more people. They were highly disappointed with the current situation because managers had high expectation of their work but the factory remained in trouble for a long time. Working became not only more uncomfortable than before but also more alien to workers and managers.

A technology manager named Tuan at the Cake Factory said,

I worked for some companies before moving to this factory. I had high expectation for strong growth of the factory and for my job to be stable. However, when the production is unstable suddenly, I feel disappointed. ²

Adapting to this situation, all workers, managers and owners found their own ways to earn additional income in order to cover the living costs of their families. Workers and managers in both factories found additional jobs while owners of ANCO Corporation focused on rescuing the company. Among female groups in both factories, married females were urged more strongly than single females to take additional work because the former is usually the breadwinner in their family, while the latter still get parental support. Additional jobs for the workers were simple ones, such as husbandry, growing rice, selling labour, working at construction, transportation, vender, fixing electronic items, fixing motors and so on. Managers took more complex jobs, such as running small businesses, agricultural self-production and trading. Their additional earnings were approximately the same as their previous wages. Interestingly, the additional jobs of the managers were long term and not temporary as those of the workers. Half of the managers at the Cake Factory confirmed that they would continue the additional jobs even when the factory recovers.

The Cake Factory manager 1 said,

‘The remaining wage is just enough for a few foods’ … ‘Having no work, I have to try hard. When the Factory stops its production, I must find other jobs to earn income that ensures quality of living activities. I cannot wait until the Factory recovers. Currently, I run a restaurant at my hometown. I intend to do simultaneously a job here and that restaurant’. ³

Besides, at home, both workers and managers expanded self-agricultural-production for their own needs and exchange purposes. This was a very unique reaction, which is the opposite than with commodity production and the social division of labour. However, mainly over 30-year-old workers who know agricultural skills did agricultural production; meanwhile, young workers and young managers rarely adapted like that because they have no agricultural skills. Some of them joined self-production together with other members of the family.

For the owner, the boss of ANCO Corporation admitted that his property and monthly salary remained only 10% of the previous level. It means he lost 90% of his property and reduced 90% of his previous salary. However, he did not extend to additional jobs. Instead, he concentrated all efforts to rescue the Corporation that included two factories and ceased temporarily other investing activity. Only if his Corporation runs well would he expand to new business affairs.

With respect to consumption, loss in income forced workers, managers and owners in both factories to reduce what they usually consumed in both quantity and quality. In terms of consumption structure, workers and managers in both factories dropped commodities for recreation but kept using basic commodities, such as foods, clothes, medicines and children’s education. Females in all groups noted that they consumed no new fashion items, no new cosmetics, no new shoes and no hairdressing services. For male workers, they also cut spending for meeting friends, parties, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes and other recreational activities. Some even kept their hair longer in order to save money. Over 50% of interviewed male workers at the Milk Factory admitted that they had to change from using motorbikes to using bicycles. At the Cake Factory, with fewer budgets for consumption, workers and managers took a longer time to decide which types and quantities of goods they should buy. Managers in both factories avoided buying valuable stuffs. Also, they cut down on entertainment and social activities such as joining parties and travelling.

Milk Factory manager 1, male, said,

I often invite friends to my birthday or other festivals, but recently, I just organize these events within my family. ⁴

Owners who lost massive property and salary also consumed more economically. For example, an owner of the ANCO Corporation stopped driving his car but took a taxi only in necessary cases. Avoiding travelling long distances, he changed from driving a car to a motorbike and paid more attention to consumed oil, which he had never had to think about before. He stopped buying luxury goods and spent money only in necessary cases. He shared frankly that daily consumption of his family laid on his wife’s income. All his money was poured in to rescue the Corporation.

In comparison, workers try to de-commodify through a reduction in consuming and replacing commodities by self-products, while managers and owners only reduced to a level that still allows a certain satisfaction. Workers in both factories replaced basic foods that where usually bought at the market, by their own-grown foods, such as vegetables and meats. Thus, as consumers, they engaged less with the market. Of course, they still linked tightly to the market in order to sell their labour and other commodities. However, workers discussed that self-production made them feel safer because they still had foods without money, by exchanging. This is a trend of de-commodification of workers. At the Milk Factory, two managers in a four-manager group also self-produced vegetables and meats. However, other managers in both factories did not adapt in the similar way. De-commodification had not reflected on managers and owners.

Generally, consumption of all groups was contracted dramatically in association with cutting down wages. Therefore, they adapted by being more economical, changing consumption strategy to ‘reduce quantity, ensure acceptable quality’, especially workers; expanding self-products; and accepting lack of commodities. Those changes affected their day-to-day experience. Overall, their satisfaction in living had dropped.

In terms of time use, working time replaced for recreation time of all workers, managers and owners. In turn, this led to confusion in other time parts. Working time of workers and managers was very uncertain. In 2010, the Cake Factory closed from June to August, then re-opened from September to early October, and then closed again until December. Sometimes, when the machines failed to run, workers and managers quit. When the factories got new orders, the staff were called suddenly again for work within a week and then had no work until the end of the month. Some workers took other jobs at other places without knowing when they had to return to their factories. That ‘on-off status’ affected working time of workers and managers at other places. Some workers complained that they sometimes cancelled their outside work in order to complete a sudden task at their factories. However, totally, all discussion participants agreed that working time was expanded from 8 hours/day to about 10–12 hours/day. Despite the fluctuation in working time, many workers were willing to work more, about 2 hours for females and 4–5 hours for males. Consequently, pressures and stress increased in working time.

For all workers, managers and owners in ANCO Corporation, recreation time was minimised to almost zero owing to tiredness after long working days, nervousness of insecurity for the family and lack of money for activities. The owner dismissed playing sports because they were costly and he had no free time. Workers and managers in both factories were so tired after working so hard that sleeping became the only recreation treatment for them. Workers in the Milk Factory also shared this because the more they worked outside the factory, the more wages they got, so they kept working until exhausted by the end of the day.

Time for basic needs, such as sleeping and eating, did not change much, but those periods varied within a day. For example, when workers and managers worked the night shift, they had dinner earlier than usual and ate lightly at midnight. Then, they slept in the morning of the next day. Time for caring for the family and home also decreased due to the increase in working time. All married female workers at the Cake Factory shared that they had no time for caring and playing with their children. Thus, they asked grandmothers to look after the children. Managers and owners admitted that they spent limited time chatting with their children and parents.

Female worker named Dao, 32 years old at the Milk Factory, said,

When the factory was in trouble, I did additional jobs, so quality and duration of my sleeping time reduced. When I did the night working shift, I slept entirely the next day. My parents had to help me to cook and to take care of my children. Our lives were so hard. ⁵

In general, with all the discussion groups, non-working time was shortened especially time for recreation which was replaced mostly by working time. In detail, owners adjusted actively to working time and non-working time while such time for the workers and managers was changed reactively. Workers and managers in both factories had to accept working time controlled by the owners who made the production plans.

From the above aspects of life, during the troubles of the enterprises, the capabilities of workers, managers and owners at two factories were constrained because people had less income and fewer commodities to consume and less time to do what they valued.

Regarding relations with others, troubles in production raised tensions in relations between people and loosened connections that people valued. Workers in both factories were not able to maintain their good connections with friends, neighbours and relatives because they had less time and less income to afford such activities. Also, workers were stressed and tired at work and worried for lack of money. So, very easily they became angry with other members of the family.

A female 35-year-old worker named Thuy at the Cake Factory said,

Family relationships easily become taut. If my child wants a nice pair of shoes that I could not afford, then he cries, and my husband feels annoyed by that. He may criticise me. ⁶

All groups agreed that the connection with surrounding people was not as good as before. They reduced the frequency of meeting with friends because of additional jobs, limited money and limited time. Moreover, with bad jobs at the factories, workers and managers admitted that they hesitated to meet friends and neighbours. They thought that neighbours might evaluate them badly when they stayed at home and did nothing.

A 29-year-old storekeeper at the Cake Factory said,

I was so embarrassed with my mother-in-law and neighbours. Now that my job has declined, I have to actively cut my family expenditure. Having less money, caring for my family and daily consumption becomes more difficult, hence, tensions among husband-wife and parents-children rise more frequently. This affects negatively on family relations. Before the troubles, my wage was about VND 3.5 million per month, ⁷ which was comfortable so that I easily held parties with friends. However, now, it is almost impossible because everyone is so busy and in difficulties. ⁸

Regarding colleagueship, in both factories, the connection between worker–manager and worker–owner worsened when the workers were dissatisfied with the instability of production, low wages, poor working conditions and the gloomy future of the factory. In the worker–manager relation, workers became more aggressive and less manageable. Some aggrieved workers showed their anger with the bad management of the factory by disobeying commands from higher managers. In the Milk Factory, female workers were very angry that the boss did not pay social insurance for them (as stated in national labour law). In addition, tension rose more frequently within each factory after late wage payment. To equalise tensions, managers and owners tried to be patient with such anger.

The Milk Factory’s male manager named Tien, 33 years old, said,

I call workers to work but they go against my request with the reason that they have not received their wages, so I have to accept and be patient with them. ⁹

Among relations of kinship, friendship and colleagueship, to absorb difficulties, workers depended more on family; managers expanded relations with some friends; owners used their own capacities and developed relations with others for business purposes to overcome the troubles. Workers in the Milk Factory and the Cake Factory took advantages from family relations to overcome the troubles. They asked for help from their families to provide financial support, cook foods and look after children. Also, family gave them a spiritual support to release considerable pressures and stress. Managers in both factories made friends with other people in order to have additional jobs and better wages. The more relations with friends and partners widened, the more opportunity they had for good alternative jobs. For owners, friendships and relations with partners were the most affected. The boss of ANCO Corporation admitted that some friends, even good friends, left him during the very hard time. His bad mood prevented him from meeting and chatting freely with other friends. He set up new business partnerships to get support from them.

Briefly, adaptations of workers, managers and owners to the difficult situations are reviewed and compared in Table 1.

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Table 1.

Difference in adaptation of workers, managers and owners.

	Workers	Managers	Owners
Employment	Reactively and temporarily find additional work Expand self-production	Additional work is more stable and independent from first job	Try to overcome troubles in current production, longer working time
Consumption	Minimised as much as possible	Reduced	Reduced
Time use	Reactively changed	Reactively changed	Actively changed
Relations to others	Loosened relations; tensions within family relations. However, family becomes a place absorbing troubles that workers faced	Loosened relations with social friends but expand relations with some friends to absorb their troubles	Developing relations with others for business purpose to overcome troubles

Summary of primary data from group discussion.

These different adaptations of workers, managers and owners signify the different forms of alienation and commodity fetishism mentioned in part 3. For instance, the search by workers for more temporary jobs reflects the fact that their life activity is reduced to a mere means of subsistence. Tensions in the relations of workers and managers suggest that they are both alienated from their social relations. The efforts of owners to regain their lost profit indicate that they are so obsessed by the sense of owning, they tried to increase their share even when they already had decent incomes. These adaptations also imply that freedom of all groups reduced significantly. However, owners still had active choices, while managers and workers had to choose reactively to working, living and joining social relations. Hence, such above adaptations are helpful in understanding the multi-dimensions of alienation, commodity fetishism and human development. This requires an evaluation, not quantitative but qualitative, in the human development of each group when alienation and commodity fetishism are taken into account. Do alienation and commodity fetishism manifest themselves in the adaptations of workers, managers and owners? How do these phenomena affect the human development of these people? Can human development be sustained in the context of alienation and commodity fetishism?

Alienated people in enterprises

The adaptation of people in the troubled period of the enterprises shows that they were alienated in different ways: workers and managers were alienated as wage-workers; owners were alienated as capitalists.

Workers and managers were alienated by selling their labour power. First, alienated from their products, their lives became highly sensitive to market changes. Because cakes and milk were traded limitedly, two factories reduced production significantly. Hence, workers and managers in both factories changed their employment, consumption time use and relations to other people owing to troubles of exchanging cakes and milk. They depended on what they made. It signifies their alienation! Second, they were alienated from human activities when they followed the rhythm of the machines. In both factories, the machines ran, workers and managers worked; the machines stopped, they stopped. They seemed to be powerless in their very activities. Third, they were alienated from human nature. When financial troubles started, workers and managers tried to work more, not because of their love of working but only to earn money. They spent more time earning money (with additional jobs) and less time for their leisure or recreation. Instead of feeling comfortable, as human beings should, they were angry, worried and tired. Instead of developing from work, they were degraded in the very process of working at the Milk Factory and the Cake Factory. Fourth, managers and workers were also alienated from fellow human beings. Their relations with friends, neighbours and colleagues were not well sustained. They got support from family, but it also raised tensions within the family. This was a consequence of the negative situation that they had less money and time for meeting close friends, business friends and relatives. Since human beings are created socially from the communities they are embedded in, the loosened relations of workers and managers indicate that they were estranged from what created their social being.

Simultaneously, as a capitalist, the owner of ANCO Corporation (possessed both the Milk and Cake Factories) was alienated by trying to rescue the corporation in general and his property in particular. He adapted by working harder and decreasing his recreation time. He said, in his core values, that he considered money as a standard of success. It implies that his happiness lay with money: be happy if profit goes up, upset if profit goes down. He seemed to be happy not because of the fulfilment of functioning (his achievement) but because of gaining money (things). This is truly the effect of commodity fetishism and alienation when people have extreme appreciation for money, gold, luxury goods and similar stuff. Generally, the owner adapted strongly from a person enjoying life to one suffering from tiredness, stress and pressure of work.

Alienation, commodity fetishism and human development

The above analysis shows a connection between alienation and commodity fetishism with human living or human development.

During the enterprises’ financial troubles, alienation and commodity fetishism affected human development: most people in the enterprises had become less developed as human beings and more alienated and fetishised. Empirical evidence showed that people had limited use of time, consumption and relations to others. During the enterprises’ financial troubles, they were depressed in work. During group discussion, all three groups underlined again and again how important was the loss of wages and profit. They cited lack of money as the main reason for their difficulties of daily activities (consumption, time use and relations with others) and unemployment (reduction in wages and profit). They blamed loss of income as the fundamental cause of their problems. This, however, is a case of commodity fetishism. They came to believe that their circumstances depended on their capability to consume commodities. Their capabilities, functionings and well-beings were also reduced considerably when commodities were not sold. According to the capability approach, human development had been degraded due to the inability to purchase commodities.

All three groups had, however, become more commodified because of the consequences of the troubles in commodity production. They sold their labour power for a longer period. They embedded themselves deeper in commodity production with the hope that the market would recover, and business contracts would come back. Particularly for the managers who developed quite stable additional jobs, which will probably not be dismissed even when the factory recovers. Therefore, they planned to expand their commitment to commodity production alongside selling their labour power to the factory in which they are managers. For owners, they expanded the activities related to commodity production in order to gain what they have lost in the troubles. In this research, the interviewed owner concentrated all his efforts, time, money and other things to drive his Corporation to overcome the troubles. This adaptation required him to participate more actively in commodity production.

Meanwhile, the adaptation of workers varied, so that the direction of commodification was not clear. Some were willing to work 2 hours extra (females) and 4–5 hours (with males). However, interestingly, some workers who had limited skills actually disengaged from commodification to some extent because they were marginalised from the market exchange.

In addition, their individual situations did not allow them to work in other regions. Other employees chose to stay in the company during hard times to self-produce at home. This situation provides a key point (although it is not proved clearly and strongly) that if self-production is effective enough to ensure life security, people could attain human development without commodity production – the root of alienation and commodity fetishism. This cannot be a practical solution for millions of workers who are living in apartment blocks with no possibility of engaging in self-production. However, this finding sparks a way to get out of alienation and commodity fetishism.

All these discussions point out that human development is influenced strongly by alienation and commodity fetishism that are inevitable and have a tendency to expand regardless of expansion or contraction of production. Hence, human development itself is not enough to evaluate the real development of human beings. Additionally, the negative impact of economic crises on human living indicates that human development as capability expansion (envisioned by UNDP and capability approach) needs to be evaluated in the long term, not at a specific moment. Human development is meaningless if commodity production collapses in the future despite its considerable achievement in the past. Difficult adaptation of highly educated and wealthy people, as that of the owner reveals, owing to alienation and commodity fetishism, achievement in human development is limited regardless of how human beings work for that goal. In other words, it is impossible to achieve full human development under conditions of commodity production that generates alienation and commodity fetishism.

Critique of human development based on capability approach

The interaction between alienation, commodity fetishism and human development in the two case studies has several lessons for understanding human development based on the capability approach.

First, in the capability approach, commodities are primarily viewed as use values, and they are not considered as objects exchangeable for money. Sen sees the commodity as a thing with a use rather than a thing with a use and as containing value. According to Marx’s theory of value, each commodity has a use value and exchange value. As an embodiment of alienated labour, the commodity is created for exchanging, not for the satisfaction of the producer. The absence of reflection on exchange value in the capability approach means the neglect of alienated labour. As envisioned by UNDP, and built on the capability approach, the idea of human development does not capture how alienation and commodity fetishism determine human living conditions. However, as the case studies show, troubles relating to commodities create troubles in human life. It is impossible to improve and sustain capabilities without taking into consideration exchange value in commodity production.

Second, the current concept of human development seems to focus mainly on the time outside working time. It does not account for difficulties and pressure at work – the most important human activity. The capability approach has overlooked working time in which people are alienated. For example, during troubled times, the owner of ANCO Corporation still had income (lower than before but still higher than normal people’s wages), high education and good health. Nevertheless, he was busy, anxious and tired as he tried to rescue his corporation. According to the UNDP view, he developed thanks to his rich capabilities. However, even a person as developed as this one, he was still imprisoned in anxiety and tiredness during his working time that makes up 12–14 hours/day. In other words, there are several social–psychological dimensions that cannot be quantified and, therefore, cannot be counted in current theory of human development. Discourse of human development does not take alienation and commodity fetishism in working life into account.

Third, the capability approach praises freedom to choose what people value, but it ignores alienation that affects the way people value something. What they value and what they choose are evaluated by alienated minds. In the persistence of alienation and commodity fetishism, people appreciate the power of value, gold, money and other valuable things. In the case studies at the two factories, workers, managers and owners became upset and stressed after losing income, wages and property. Such alienated minds are not free minds. Hence, even when people achieve freedom to choose what they value, they are still locked in the society with dominance of valuables and alienated labour.

Fourth, the capability approach disregards alienation and commodity fetishism as a context for realisation of human development. There is no way to achieve full human development when human life depends on commodity production and exchange, when people are circumscribed in the most important activities – working. There is no way for people to be developed comprehensively when their working has the same function as that of the hunting of animals. Briefly, human development cannot be achieved if people are being dominated by current circumstances (commodity production, alienation and commodity fetishism). Hence, human development viewed by UNDP and from the capability approach needs to accept Marx’s concept of human emancipation, so that human development is a process ‘… replacing the domination of circumstances and of chance over individuals by the domination of individuals over chance and circumstances’ (McLellan & Marx 1977: 190). With this understanding, human development requires not only freedom that individuals choose what they value (capability approach) but also freedom ‘over chance and circumstances’. When the domination of individuals over circumstances is achieved, human beings would not have been alienated by influence of circumstances. They could also escape influence of the commodity. In that sense, freedom overcoming such circumstances, as Marx mentioned, is broader than freedom within such circumstances, as Sen advocated (Bagchi 2000: 4416).

Some Marxist implications for human development discourse

First, human development needs to be maintained and evaluated not only in the present but also in the future. As discussed above, human development is hardly sustained under the influence of alienation and commodity fetishism. Therefore, evaluating human development at a specific moment is not sufficient. Without such sustainability, human development is meaningless. All workers, managers and owners want security for their lives at all times. Employees in the two factories complained not only about the reduction of wages but worried also about the instability of production. The latter directly affects health, psyche in working, total monthly wage, personal timetable, additional works, home caring and so on. Hence, maintenance of human development depends on the stability of commodity production.

Second, linking developmental visions from Marx (a classical epistemologist) and Sen (a contemporary thinker) to achieve full human development in the long term, it is suggested that alienation and commodity fetishism must be eradicated. Of course, this implication does not suggest that we simply stop running commodity production, which creates alienation and commodity fetishism. In the 20th century, Socialist Soviet Union, Eastern European countries, China and Vietnam all failed when they attempted to substitute central planning for commodity production. As a common consequence, all such countries had fallen into critical economic crises since the late 1970s to early 1990s. Alienation and commodity fetishism are products of commodity production, not its core parts. To sustain human development, it is necessary to remove alienation and commodity fetishism without eliminating commodity production. This is a difficult challenge because, currently, alienation and commodity fetishism persist sturdily in capitalist commodity production. However, they are human-made issues. It is possible that they can be resolved by the will and creativity of human beings too.

Actually, Marx mentioned alienation and commodity fetishism in the manner of labour alienation. In which, labouring is the way of existence rather than the method to live. Only under conditions were people are ensured a basic living may their labour not be compulsory. Instead, they may work voluntarily as if it is their hobbies. In these cases, people would be released entirely and their potential may contribute to the wealth of society. Perhaps, the state could play an important role in supporting a foundation for basic living through social services, such as social insurance, health care and education. This would be helpful for people when they fall into economic troubles as discussed in the two case studies. Hence, the state is essential to sustain human development for longer periods. This suggestion should not recall past Communist models or the current model of Cuban society, where public services are provided freely, but the economy is not productive enough to sustain those services. The proposed model needs a balance between provision of social services and commodity production.

Third, non-market relations (family relations, friendships) are good indicators for evaluating human development. Group discussions show that these relations are effective in absorbing the consequences of troubles in commodity production. With support from family members, people have more capability to do what they value. In emergent cases, workers usually ask for help from their families. Even owners who had many capabilities also got help from the family. These non-market relations help to increase capability without using more commodity production and requiring more alienated labour. Hence, non-market relations could help to ensure human development without boosting alienation and commodity fetishism. Those relations involved in culture and ethics. Thus, it is suggested that cultural and ethical dimensions be added, together with the dimensions of alienation and commodity fetishism, to better understand human development.