Georg Lukács (1885-1971) and the Critique of Reification: On the Dialectical Genesis of the Great Acceleration

This chapter situates Lukács\u27 critique of reification (1923) in relation to the emergence of the Great Acceleration. We develop Lukács\u27 critique through the issue of the increasing rationalization of industrial and administrative work in the early twentieth century. In do so, we show how Lukács is able to relocate the continued relevance of Marx\u27s insights with respect to the deeper structure of capitalist society in his consideration of the differential manner in which proletariat and bourgeois class consciousness approach the problem of social contradictions. We then discuss how, for Lukács, the overcoming of reification (or the failure to do so) has profound implications for how society comes to regard history and the possibility of freedom. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the significance of Lukács\u27 critique for our understanding of the Great Acceleration