EXPLORING HUMAN DIVERSITY: A DOSSIER DEVOTED TO DISABILITY HISTORY / EXPLORANDO LA DIVERSIDAD HUMANA: UN DOSSIER DEDICADO A LA HISTORIA DE LA DISCAPACIDAD

CONSUMED WORKERS – DISABLED BODIES. HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE FORMATION AFTER THE CULTURAL TURN

Anne Klein

University of Cologne. Faculty of Human Sciences. Germany

anne.klein@uni-koeln.de

TRABAJADORES CONSUMIDOS - CUERPOS DISCAPACITADOS: LA FORMACIÓN DEL CONOCIMIENTO HISTÓRICO TRAS EL GIRO CULTURAL

CONTENTS

“Today, disability has the same meaning for the individual as a conflict had in the first half of the 20th century.”


(Alain Ehrenberg)

Since the UNESCO-Salamanca Declaration of 1994, supported by the PISA-Studies since 2000 as well as by the UN-Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (enacted in Germany in 2009), inclusive education has become an explicit topic of global human rights policies. This positive development in education contrasts to the development of working conditions under neoliberal governance with their high level of segregation, flexibility, insecurity and social inequality. The pursuit of inclusion under the conditions of economic precarisation (Marchart, 2013aMarchart, Oliver (2013a), Die Prekarisierungsgesellschaft. Politik und Ökonomie im Zeichen der Prekarisierung, Bielefeld, Transcript.; Marchart, 2013bMarchart, Oliver (ed.) (2013b), Facetten der Prekarisierungsgesellschaft. Prekäre Verhältnisse. Sozialwissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf die Prekarisierung von Arbeit und Leben, Bielefeld, Transcript.; Castel and Dörre, 2009Castel, Robert and Dörre, Klaus (eds.) (2009), Prekarität, Abstieg, Ausgrenzung. Die soziale Frage am Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts, Frankfurt a. M./New York, Campus., pp.11-18) stimulates new questions in the field of historical research and history education. The need to arrange inclusive learning processes arises not least from contradictory experiences of people in their actual living environments. As some might see insecurity as a positiv challenge, the credo of success out of individual effort has widely been questioned. Especially the fact that exhausting working conditions affect individual health and well-being is critically observed. Sociologists like Richard Sennett, Luc Boltanski, Ève Chiapello, Robert Castel and Ulrich Bröckling — to stick to the French, American and German context — have questioned the subjective effects of neo-capitalist working conditions. Arguing with Albert O. Hirschmann (1970Hirschmann, Albert O. (1970), Exit, Voice, Loyalty. Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States, Cambridge/Ma., Harvard University Press.; Offe, 2007Offe, Claus (2007), "Exit, Voice, and Loyalty". In: Kaesler, Dirk; Vogt, Ludgera (eds.), Hauptwerke der Soziologie, Stuttgart, Alfred Kroener, pp. 197-200., pp. 197-200), people react to stress at work either by withdrawal (exit), efforts to improve (loyalty) or political opposition (voice). Whereas loyalty mostly passes unperceived, exit and voice indicate fissures and fractures in the process of subjectivation. The Burn out-syndrome as a reaction in the field of health mostly expresses unperceivable for outsiders and even for the people affected it is difficult to become aware of their situation. Although in counseling contexts or in medical or psychological treatment it is widely consensual to work with psychosomatic or systemic approaches, the scope of analyses is rarely extended to a neoliberal achievement society (Neckel and Wagner 2013Neckel, Sighard and Wagner, Greta (2013), Leistung und Erschöpfung. Burnout in der Wettbewerbsgesellschaft, Frankfurt a.M., Suhrkamp.).

In German-speaking historiography, Jürgen Kocka (1990Kocka, Jürgen (1990), Arbeitsverhältnisse und Arbeiterexistenzen. Grundlagen der Klassenbildung im 19. Jahrhundert, Bonn, Dietz, (Geschichte der Arbeiter und der Arbeiterbewegung in Deutschland seit dem Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts, vol. 2).; 2013Kocka, Jürgen (2013), Geschichte des Kapitalismus, München, C. H. Beck.), Marcel van der Linden (2012Linden, Marcel van der and Lucassen, Leo (eds.) (2012), Working on Labor. Essays in Honor of Jan Lucassen, Leiden, Brill.; 2008Linden, Marcel van der (2008), Workers of the World. Essays toward a Global Labor History, Leiden, Brill, (Studies in global social history, vol. 1).), Rüdiger Hachtmann and Adelheid van Saldern (2013Hachtmann, Rüdiger and von Saldern, Adelheid (2013), "Gesellschaft am Fließband. Fordistische Produktion und Herrschaftspraxis in Deutschand", Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in conetemporary history, 3, [online], available at: http://www.zeithistorische-forschungen.de/site/40208932/Default.aspx#pgfId-1036930[retrieved on 13/02/2016].) as well as Klaus Dörre (2015Dörre, Klaus (2015), "Wir für mehr. Ausgangspunkt für eine transformative Industriepolitik". In: Lemb, Wolfgang (ed.), Welche Industrie wollen wir? Nachhaltig produzieren - zukunftsorientiert wachsen, Frankfurt a. M./New York, Campus, pp. 231-250., pp. 231-250) are well-known for their analysis of the capitalist development in the 20th century. Their approach was lastly completed by the studies of younger scholars like Timo Luks (2010Luks, Timo (2010), Der Betrieb als Ort der Moderne. Zur Geschichte von Industriearbeit, Ordnungsdenken und Social Engineering im 20. Jahrhundert, Bielefeld, Transcript.), Thomas Etzemüller (2009Etzemüller, Thomas (ed.) (2009), Die Ordnung der Moderne. Social Engineering im 20. Jahrhundert, Bielefeld, Transcript.), Lars Bluma and Karsten Uhl (2012Bluma, Lars and Uhl, Karsten (eds.) (2012), Kontrollierte Arbeit – Disziplinierte Körper. Zur Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte der Industriearbeit im 19./20. Jahrhundert, Bielefeld, Transcript.) who work with a posttructuralist, Foucauldian approach which allows them to grasp the subtle qualitative changes of the postmodern working cultures more precisely. As a representative example of a discoursive approach in European historiography, the historical study of José Martínez Pérez and Mercedes Del Cura (2013Martínez Pérez, Jose and Del Cura, Mercedes (2013), "Work injuries, scientific management and the production of disabled bodies in Spain, 1920-1936". In: Barsch, Sebastian; Klein, Anne; Verstraete, Pieter (eds.), The Imperfect Historian. Disability Histories in Europe, Frankfurt a.M./Berlin/Bruxelles, Peter Lang, pp. 191-211., pp.191-211) on disabling the working bodies in Spain at the beginning of the 20th century has to be mentioned. Subjectivation — which in this context means being socialised by way of disciplining the working body and internalising a mechanical (digitalised) rationality — is at the heart of this paradigmatic shift of research in contemporary history (Luks, 2012Luks, Timo (2012), "Kanalisierte Dynamik, angeordnete Körper. Bewegungsmetaphern, Gesellschaftsordnung und und der Industriebetrieb (1920-1960)". In: Bluma, Lars; Uhl, Karsten (eds.), Kontrollierte Arbeit – Disziplinierte Körper. Zur Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte der Industriearbeit im 19./20. Jahrhundert, Bielefeld, Transcript, pp. 251-282., pp. 251-282). This methodological transformation also affects the curricula of historical learning towards an inclusive society.

Insofar, a didactics of history usually poses problems as laypeople often do not feel capable of asking adequate questions and are not familiar with historical theories and methodologies. To bridge this gap between historical science and history learning, practices are helpful that start with cultural artefacts and enlarge skills and expertise by self-directed research and contextualization (Biggs and Tang, 2011Biggs, John and Tang, Catherine C. (2011), Teaching for Quality Learning at University, Maidenhead, McGraw-Hill, Open University Press.; Biggs, 2003Biggs, John (2003), Aligning Teaching and Assessment to Curriculum Objectives, (Imaginative Curriculum Project), LTSN Generic Centre, [online], available at: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/resources/id477_aligning_teaching_for_constructing_learning.pdf [retrieved on 15/2/2016].). Usually, subjects enlarge their knowledge by connecting new information — in one way or the other — to subjective experiences, including media socialisation. A kind of learning defined as the acquisition of competences aims at enlarging the subject’s capacity to act mindful in social and political responsibility. The integration of unknown knowledge fragments into the existing mindset broadens the understanding of past and present as well as it enables to interconnect personal experiences and political frames of living conditions. This mind-mapping-network-procedure supports historical knowledge formation, although at first sight it might run risk of not adequately historicizing phenomena, actors and events. Insofar, first interpretations always have to be deepened by the reflection of historical background knowledge in a spiral learning arrangement.

Studying working conditions as we find them represented in our cultural imagination is a good starting point for knowledge acquisition, at the same time allowing for perceiving ourselves as historical subjects. It enables the bearers of knowledge to present history in a coherently understandable way and to participate actively in present day political contexts. The ability of narration, as Swiss history educator Peter Gautschi (2013Gautschi, Peter (ed.) (2013), Narrationen, Schwalbach/Ts., Wochenschau Verlag.; 2011Gautschi, Peter (2011), Geschichte lehren: Lernwege und Lernsituationen für Jugendliche, Bern, Schulverlag.) underlines, is one of the main competences we need for orientation in past and present political realms, from every day practices via social relations to political commitment, from personal morality via value-setting to cosmological insights (Bruner, 1996Bruner, Jerome (1996), The Culture of Education, Cambridge/Mass., Harvard University Press.). A methodology and didactics that enables learners to prove their constructions of knowledge is especially relevant for inclusive learning processes (Barsch, 2014Barsch, Sebastian (2014), "Narrative der Vielfalt: Sonderpädagogische Potenziale für das historische Lernen Politische Bildung für eine inklusive Gesellschaft". In: Barsch, Sebastian; Hasberg, Wolfgang (eds.), Inklusiv-Exklusiv. Historisches Lernen für alle, Schwalbach/Ts., Wochenschau, pp. 40-58.).

Disability History as a rather young historiographical discipline supports inclusion by investigating the contingency of historical constructions of disability. Starting with the assumption that our understanding of disability is coined by medical and social practices as well as by dicoursive representations, a historically informed academic movement was found useful to provide cultural tools for decoding the disabling power structures of past and present societies (Bösl, Klein and Waldschmidt, 2010Bösl, Elsbeth; Klein, Anne; Waldschmidt, Anne (eds.) (2010), Disability History. Konstruktionen von Behinderung in der Geschichte, Bielefeld, Transcript.). The corresponding learning practices aim at transforming mental habitus and institutional traditions. Such learning arrangements should base upon meta-cognitive strategies that are knowledge-informed, power-critical, self-reflexive and theoretically grounded. With the help of the toolset of cultural studies, historical knowledge becomes accessible to everybody. An inclusive didactics has to work on a popular, minimalist, decisive and multimodular basis. Informed by the idea of heterogenous learner groups, practices have to be very sensual and learner-oriented by addressing special needs, imaginations and experiences. The reduction of barriers and an interaction on an eye-to-eye-level are the necessary implications of such inclusive educational settings (Ackermann, 2014Ackermann, Karl-Ernst (2014), "Politische Bildung für eine inklusive Gesellschaft", Inklusiv politisch bilden, Dossier der Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 12.3.2014, [online], available at: http://www.bpb.de/lernen/projekte/inklusiv-politisch-bilden/180603/politische-bildung-fuer-eine-inklusive-gesellschaft-[retrieved on 14/2/2016].).

This article is meant as a contribution to the field of Disability History with the focus on inclusive learning processes following two questions: What can we learn about work-induced disabilities by studying the interrelatedness of work and health? How can we make the cultural turns fruitful for research and learning about disability at work? The guiding thesis of the article is also twofold: On the one hand, I want to prove that actual conflicts at work are experienced as expressions of individual non-functioning and weakness, whereas historical examples show that work-induced disability can also be interpreted as a political statement. On the other hand, I want to show that the cultural turns provide an appropriate methodology to access the construction of disability at work in a historical perspective. Chapter 1 of the article presents a survey on empirical health data, interpreted from the perspective of Disability History. Chapter 2 follows the theoretical frame of the study based on an existentialist/phenomenological/poststructuralist view of subjectivation. In Chapter 3, the empirical and theoretical insights are applied to a learning example based on two film-sequences of the popluar Chaplin movie “Modern times” (USA 1936) and the anarchist cult movie “Themroc” (France 1972). The epistemic potential of the visual turn (Chapter 3.1.) is fathomed by direct references to the film scenes. The spatial turn (Chapter 3.2.) helps to explain why the working place — besides its socialising effects — also has to be denoted as a non-lieu. By help of the linguistic turn (Chapter 3.3.), the speechlessness of the film protagonists is interpreted as an apathetic powerlessness that directs our attention to the ephemere expressions of body language. The conclusion (Chapter 4) evaluates the study as an inclusive learning unit that can contribute to the democratic transformation of society towards an acknowledgement of disabled subjects, their will to know and their right to participate.

1. A DISABLED SOCIETY? STUDIES IN WORK-LIFE-BALANCE Top

According to data of the Federal Statistical Office of 2014, half of the German population is at work.[1] On average, male persons retire at the age of 61, women at the age of 62.5.[2] It can be thouroughly stated that German people are spending most of their lifetime with paid work. Aditionally, one can find indicators for the thesis that since the 1970s and especially, since the neoliberal globalization in the 1990s, working conditions have continuously been deteriorating. Between 2002 and 2012, the rate of the unemployed has dropped from 9.8 to 6.8 per cent.[3] But in the same period of time the number of employees in atypical working conditions — which means subcontracted labour, part-time work or fixed-term contracts — has increased to 30.5 per cent.[4] Mostly young people at the age of 15 to 24 are affected; with a rate of 39.2 per cent, more often than other age groups they work under atypical working conditions.[5] When asked for the reasons for the assignment of part-time work, 77 per cent of the employers indicate the possibility to cancel the contracts whenever they want.[6]Hence, the social security of employees is fundamentally threatened.

Insecurity as well as a general increase in stress and strain heightens the vulnerability of the working population and negatively affects their health and well-being (Jackson, 2013Jackson, Mark (2013), The Age of Stress: Science and the Search for Stability, Oxford, Oxford University Press.). More than one third (35.9 per cent) of all sick-reported employees are chronically ill. Of 865.000 chronically ill employees in 2004, nearly 60 per cent were registrated as sick for one year or longer. Besides elderly people, industrial workers as well as women and low-paid workers are worst affected; in comparison to white-collar workers, they show a higher-than-average illness rate. Most stress effects are not visible on first sight because workers are no longer physically impaired or handicapped, as we know it from the time-period of industrial revolution.[7] But the body was brought back into disability discourse as representing a power matrix of society that mirrors the structural pressure of work on the individual (Hughes and Patterson, 1997Hughes, Bill and Paterson, Kevin (1997), "The Social Model of Disability and the Disappearing Body: Towards a sociology of impairment", Disability & Society, 12 (3), pp. 325-340, [online], available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09687599727209[retrieved on 13/02/2016].; Tremain, 2005Tremain, Shelley (2005), "Governmentality, and Critical Disability Theory: An Introduction". In: Tremain, Shelley (ed.), Foucault and the Government of Disability, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, pp. 1-26., pp.1-26). Bodies are performing indicating implicitely or expressing explicitely the inner world of the subject (Tichkovsky and Michalko, 2012Tichkovsky, Tanya and Michalko, Rod (2012), "The Body and the Problem of Individuality. A Phenomenological Disability Studies approach". In: Goodley, Dan (ed.), Disability and social theory. New developments and directions, Basingstoke, Hamp., Palgrave Mcmillan, pp. 127-142., pp. 127-142). Bodies offer a chance to read and understand subjective perceptions, sensations and emotions. As Disability Studies-researcher Dan Goodley (2009Goodley, Dan (2009), "Bringing the Psyche Back into Disability Studies: The Case of the Body with/out Organs", Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, 3 (3), pp. 257-272.) underlines, bodies also bring the psyche back into the discourse. Without thinking, they react directly to an outer stimulus like a “strategy without stragist” (Foucault, 1978Foucault, Michel (1978), Dispositive der Macht. Über Sexualität, Wissen und Wahrheit, Berlin, Merve., p. 132). Bodies are innervated, enlivened, enspirited and influenced by their environment. Gender and ethnographic studies have shown that the formation of bodies depends on working experiences and cultural habitualisations (Butler, 1993Butler, Judith (1993), Bodies that matter, New York, Routledge.; Thomas and Ahmed, 2003Thomas, Helen and Ahmed, Jamilah (eds.) (2003), Cultural Bodies: Ethnography and Theory, Hoboken/ NJ, Wiley-Blackwell.). In a deductive reasoning, bodies adjust themselves to postfordist working conditions by producing visible and non-visible states of disability (Bänziger, 2013Bänziger, Peter-Paul (2013), "Fordistische Körper in der Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts – eine Skizze", Body Politics, 1 (1), pp. 11-40.).

According to the statistics of the German pension scheme of 2008, the number of early retirements because of anxiety disorders, depression or stress consequently increased between 1993 and 2006. In 2009, thus justified retirements made up to 30 per cent and are thus number one of stated illness reasons.[8] Statistics from other sectors underline that the pressure felt by individuals does not appear in form of a clear-cut symptomatology. In 2009, seven million people were approved as “schwerbehindert (severely disabled)”[9] in Germany, two million more than in 1985. Six million of them suffer from unspecific illnesses.[10] The second most indicated diagnosis is an unclear symptomatology without medical label; more than 760.000 persons are affected. Only around 250.000 (of seven million) disabled people are legally acknowledged because of severe illnesses that can be described in clear-cut clinical patterns.

The mentioned statistical data provide an insight into the “new politics of disablement” (Oliver and Barnes 2012Oliver, Michael and Barnes, Colin (2012), The New Politics of Disablement (2nd ed.), Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.). Western people live in a society with a relatively high living standard but they are under strain at their workplace. Applying the definition of the World Health Organisation (WHO), health means even more than the pure absence of illness. The International Classifications of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) of 2001 is based on an understanding of health as a relational multidimensional concept that integrates individual, institutional and social dimensions in curtailing personal functioning and well-being (Bickenbach, 2012Bickenbach, Jerome E. (2012), "The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health and its relationshipto disability studies". In: Watson, Nick; Roulstone, Alan; Thomas, Carol (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Disability Studies, London/New York, Routledge, pp. 51-66.).[11] This broad definition of health has to be understood in the context of the capability-approach which lies at the core of a justice concept referring to ressources “that a person has that is the substantive freedom he or she enjoys to lead the kind of life he or she has reason to value.” (Nussbaum and Sen 1993Nussbaum, Martha; Sen, Amartya (eds.) (1993), The quality of life. A study for the World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) of the United Nations, Oxford, Oxford University Press., p. 87). The medical statement is no longer crucial for diagnosis, but rather the individual’s narrative of well-being or malaise. As the international expertise shows, this qualitative evaluation shifts the demarcation line in the definition of “health” and “illness”. The insight that every-day states of deviance and non-functioning cannot be defined by the expertise of the medical model corresponds to theory-led conceptualisation of the cultural model of disability that is comprehensively discussed in the context of Disability Studies/History (Waldschmidt, 2005Waldschmidt, Anne (2005), "Disability Studies:individuelles,soziales und/oder kulturellesModellvon Behinderung?", Psychologie und Gesellschaftskritik, 29 (1), pp. 9-31, [online], available at: http://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/1877/ssoar-psychges-2005-1-waldschmidt-disability_studies_individuelles.pdf?sequence=1 (retrieved on 31/01/2016).).

A good example of a transboundary, diffuse symptomatology is the Burn out-syndrome that reflects a state of exhaustion, a subjective feeling of senselessness, often also diagnosed as prostration, dementia or depression. The German sociologists Sighard Neckel and Greta Wagner (2013Neckel, Sighard and Wagner, Greta (2013), Leistung und Erschöpfung. Burnout in der Wettbewerbsgesellschaft, Frankfurt a.M., Suhrkamp.) have analysed this phenomenon in the context of the expansion and destabilization of working conditions. Their observation underlines that the actual transformation from Fordism to Postfordism leads to an amalgamation of work and privacy, together with new digital strain on private communication and social life (Christopher and Ash, 1994Christopher, Susan and Amin, Ash (eds.) (1994), Post-Fordism: A reader, Oxford, Oxford University Press.). The internalization of the “entrepreneurial self” (Bröckling, 2007Bröckling, Ulrich (2007), Das unternehmerische Selbst. Soziologie einer Subjektivierungsform, Frankfurt a. M., Suhrkamp.; Bröckling, 2013Bröckling, Ulrich (2013), "Prekäres Regieren. Methodologische Probleme von Protestanalysen und eine Fallstudie zu Superhelden in Aktion". In: Marchardt, Oliver (ed.), Facetten der Prekarisierungsgesellschaft, Bielefeld, Transcript, pp. 155-172.) generates a functional habitus which means a lack of personal commitment, a negative irritation of cooperation among workmates and hierarchies and a general feeling of bleakness and dissatisfaction. The sociologist Richard Sennett (2012Sennett, Richard (2012), Together. The rituals, pleasures and politics of cooperation, London/New York, Allen Lane Penguin.) observed such an erosion of social relations in his interviews with white-collar workers and managers from the finance sector. The interviewees could well remember that over a long period prior to the banking crises in 2008 a transition in working networks had taken place. The fading responsibility of authorities as well as the loss of confidence and solidarity between workmates had become obvious, contributing — so the argument of the interviewees — if not to the crisis itself but to the foreboding of its approach.

In historical perspective, Stefan Kury (2012Kury, Patrick (2012), Der überforderte Mensch: Eine Wissensgeschichte vom Stress zum Burnout, Frankfurt a.M., Campus.; 2013Kury, Patrick (2013), "Vom physiologischen Stress zum Prinzip 'Lebensqualität'. Lennart Levi und der Wandel des Stresskonzepts um 1970", Body Politics, 1 (1), pp. 119-137.) has observed the emergence of a Burn out-discourse in the context of work since the 1970s. This evidence of an individualized reaction to labour stress corresponds to the voices of trade unionists who deplore the lacking readiness to analyse problems at work as social phenomena that demand solidarity and cooperation. It is stated, that trade unions have an unrealistic idea of working conditions and that their political analysis has become anachronistic. Sure enough, potential members seem to be hardly motivated to support the organization of workers’ interests. The German sociologist Robert Lorenz (2013Lorenz, Robert (2013), Gewerkschaftsdämmerung. Geschichte und Perspektiven deutscher Gewerkschaften, Bielefeld, Transcript., p. 54, p 168) observed a lack of “reliable organizational loyalty” and “steadfast social morality” essential for collective action.[12] Although trade unions have different positions in Western democratic nation states, this tendency can be generalised. To take France as an example — a country that after World War II was wellknown for its militant workers actions — , since the mid-1990s the percentage of trade union members has dropped to eight per cent and nowadays is the lowest rate in all OECD-states.[13] One might argue that anyway it is a long way from workingplace-cooperation to political organisation, but research in civil engagement and democratic citizenship shows that social interaction and political consciousness are closely interlinked and that paid work is essential for political participation (Bartels, 2008Bartels, Larry M. (2008), Unequal Democracy. The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age, New York, Princeton University Press.; Bödeker, 2012Bödeker, Sebastian (2012), "Soziale Ungleichheit und politische Partizipation in Deutschland. Grenzen politischer Gleichheit in der Bürgergesellschaft?", Arbeitspapier der Otto Brenner Stiftung, Frankfurt a.M., Selbstverlag, [online], available at: https://www.otto-brenner-shop.de/publikationen/obs-arbeitspapiere/shop/obs-arbeitspapier-nr-1-soziale-ungleichheit-und-politische-partizipation-in-deutschland.html [retrieved at 13.5.2015].; Schäfer, 2010Schäfer, Armin (2010), "Die Folgen sozialer Ungleichheit für die Demokratie in Westeuropa", Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft, 4 (1), pp. 131-156., pp. 131–156).[14]

2. SUBJECTIVATION Top

In his founding documents of existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre (1938Sartre, Jean Paul (1938), La nausée, Paris, Gallimard.; 1943Sartre, Jean Paul (1943), L’ être et le néant. Essai d’ontologie phénoménologique, Paris, Gallimard.) presented an impressive psychological analysis of the prevailing fascist mentality in Europe. Based on an observation of intimate feelings, he formulated a subtle but radical social criticism. According to Sartre’s implicite message, totalitarian cultures try to undermine the development of individual personality in binding deep emotions like fear, love or shame to their ideologies. To create authentic encounters in a context of authoritarian hypocrisy, he claimed to acknowledge human beings by their freedom and self-will. Sartre was especially interested in working out the necessity to take into account the prereflexive cogito. A spontaneous gesture, a gaze or an avoidance, a cry or smile, an illness or suffering, a wrenching and stumbling, a paralysis or laughter — all these phenomena represent, according to Sartre, the truth more than verbal/rhetorical expressions.

This existentialist approach to subjectivity can be completed by an understanding of culture that Michel Foucault developed in the context of his governementality studies. His observation, that powerful knowledge orders and social practices historically generate specific forms of subjectivation underlines the potentiality of culture as initiating and promoting social change (Waldschmidt, Klein, Tamayo Korte and Dalman-Eken, 2007Waldschmidt, Anne; Klein, Anne; Tamayo Korte, Miguel and Dalman-Eken, Sibel (2007), "Diskurs im Alltag – Alltag im Diskurs: Ein Beitrag zu einer empirisch begründeten Methodologie sozialwissenschaftlicher Diskursforschung", Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 8 (2), Art. 15, [online], available at:http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/rt/printerFriendly/251/553[retrieved on 12/11/2015].; Bröckling, 2013Bröckling, Ulrich (2013), "Prekäres Regieren. Methodologische Probleme von Protestanalysen und eine Fallstudie zu Superhelden in Aktion". In: Marchardt, Oliver (ed.), Facetten der Prekarisierungsgesellschaft, Bielefeld, Transcript, pp. 155-172., pp. 155-172). Historical moments when event and discourse meet can produce irreparable irritations and erosions in until then stable power knowledge orders. Foucault places the birth of subjectivity in the center of these conflicts by asking which specific discoursive formations provoke which forms of subjectivation, how power articulates in its discrete and concrete forms and which truth emerges from specific historical constellations (Borgards, 2010Borgards, Roland (2010), "Kultur und Macht: Michel Foucault". In: Borgards, Roland (ed.), Texte zur Kulturtheorie und Kulturwissenschaft, Stuttgart, Reclam, pp. 173-186., p. 173). As a fist definition of critique, Foucault (1992Foucault, Michel (1992), Was ist Kritik?, Berlin, Merve., p. 12) suggests the art of not being entirely governed. Whereas criticism focusses on potentiality, resistance is more decisive and takes “life as a political object […] as face value and turned back against the system which that was bent at controlling it.” (Foucault, 1978Foucault, Michel (1978), The history of sexuality, vol. 1, translated from French by Robert Hurley, New York, Pantheon Books., p. 145). Foucault demonstrates that current political fights no longer aim at gaining rights. What now serves as an objective is “life, understood as the basic needs, man’s concrete essence, […] the ‘right’ to life, to one’s body, to health, to happiness, to the satisfaction of needs, and beyond all the oppressions or ‘alienations’, the ‘right’ to rediscover what one is and all that one can be.”

Similar to Sartre, but more implicite, also Foucault connects cultural change to existentialist subjective expressions. Other than loyal forms of subjectivation, authentic cultures irritate hegemonial knowledge orders. Thus, legitimity and credibility become powerful transmission belts of historical change. Whereas the Foucauldian toolbox is adequate for a theory-based analysis of culture, Sartre offers a better approach to the prereflexive cogito of subjects. At the heart of both theories, we find the idea of border-transgression and anti-essentialist ambiguity that is close to the deconstructivist impulse of the cultural model of disability (Mitchell and Snyder, 2006Mitchell, David T. and Snyder, Sharon L. (2006), Cultural Locations of Disability, Chicago/London, University of Chicago Press.). We can challenge this configuration of culture and subjectivity by adding the question of representation and visibility. Postmodern reflections on the body elaborated on the bases of Merleau-Pontys’ phenomenological theory transcend the Cartesian body/mind dualism. Locating consciousness in the body means to transgress the dichotomy of visibility and invisibility, thus exposing pain, fear or exhaustion by forms of embodiment to the eyes of the observer (Iwakuma, 2002Iwakuma, Miho (2002), "The Body as Embodiment: An Investigation of the Body by Merleau-Ponty". In: Corker, Mairian; Shakespeare, Tom (eds.), Disability/Postmodernity. Embodying disability theory, Lonndon/New York, Continuum, pp. 76-87.). Studys on bodies in technical and technological sourroundings show that materialist structures and practices become a second nature of human habitualisation (Meyer-Drawe, 2000Meyer-Drawe, Käte (2000), "Mein Leib als Schildwache. Merleau-Pontys Kritik am kybernetischen Mythos". In: Giuliani, Regula (ed.), Merleau-Ponty und die Kulturwissenschaften, München, Fink, pp. 227-242.). Seen as such, bodies can also become a prison of the soul as well as the soul can become a prison of the body (Montag, 1995Montag, Warren (1995), "‘The Soul is the Prison of the Body’: Althusser and Foucault, 1970-1975", Yale French Studies, 88, pp. 53-77, [online], available at: http://www.csun.edu/~snk1966/Warren%20Montag%20Althusser%20and%20Foucault%201970%20to%201975.pdf[retrieved on 13/02/2016].).

With the following learning modul, I want to prove that Burn out as a chronic work disability can be perceived by taking into account the structural complexities of subjectivation. In order to integrate the knowledge on work-caused disabilities (chap. 1) and on the casual signs of subjectivation (chap. 2), film scenes seem to be helpful. The modul is based on the cultural model of disability and works with the toolset of cultural turns. It facilitates theoretical reflection, historical contextualization and the practice of reading bodies as a source (Turner, 2000Turner, Bryan S. (2000), "Disability and the Sociology of the Body". In: Albrecht, Gary L.; Seelman, Katherine D.; Bury, Michael (eds.), Handbook of Disability Studies, Thousand Oaks/London/New Dehli, Sage Publications, pp. 252-266., pp. 252-266).

3. TEACHING ON DISABILITY AT WORK WITH THE TOOL-BOX OF CULTURAL TURNS Top

Film as a central medium of cultural representation offers a good learning opportunity to train knowledge deconstruction, background research and cultural orientation. Films stimulate the motivation of learners. Actors, encounters, emotions and conflicts on the screen represent celluloid “lived” experiences that can be deciphered, interpreted, contextualized and discussed. Didactic opportunities are diverse. Without being educational in themselves, even documentaries, motion pictures and artistic films provide learning opportunities for visual literacy (Stokes, 2002Stokes, Suzanne (2002), "Visual Literacy in Teaching and Learning: A Literature Perspective", Electronic Journal for the Integration of Technology in Education, 1 (1), pp. 10-19, [online], available at: http://ejite.isu.edu/Volume1No1/pdfs/stokes.pdf (retrieved on 31/01/2016).; Orgeron, Orgeron and Streible, 2012Orgeron, Devin; Orgeron, Marsha; Streible, Dan (eds.) (2012), Learning with the lights off: educational film in the United States, Oxford, Oxford University Press.). Films are especially important in history education because they open a window into the past thus addressing the impliciteness of historical imagination. The same parameter an be stated for education in the context of Disability Studies/History (Mitchell, 2012Mitchell, William J. T. (2012), Seeing Madness, Insanity, Media, and Visual Culture: 100 Notes, 100 Thoughts, Documenta Series 083 (100 Notes - 100 Thoughts: Documenta 13 / 100 Notizen - 100 Gedanken Documenta 13), Berlin/Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz.) that also aims at deciphering and analysing cultural representations of disability in a critical way (Mitchell and Snyder, 2001Mitchell, David T. and Snyder, Sharon L. (2001), Narrative Prothesis. Disability and Dependency of Discourse, Michigan, Michigan University Press.; Mitchell and Snyder, 2006Mitchell, David T. and Snyder, Sharon L. (2006), Cultural Locations of Disability, Chicago/London, University of Chicago Press.; Hall, 2013Hall, Stuart (ed.) (2013), Representation, Milton Keynes, Open University.; Longhurst, Smith, Bagnall, Crawford, Ogborn, Baldwin, McCracken, 2004Longhurst, Brian; Smith, Greg; Bagnall, Gaynor; Crawford, Garry; Ogborn, Miles; Baldwin, Elaine and McCracken, Scott (2004), Introducing Cultural Studies, Hartlow, Prentice Hall.).

In this chapter, film sequences are analysed through the lense of three cultural turns (visual, spatial, linguistic) with the aim of highlighting their potential for knowledge formation in the field of Disability History (Markotic and Chivers 2010Markotic, Nicole and Chivers, Sally (eds.) (2010), The Problem Body: Projecting Disability on Film, Columbus, The Ohio State University Press.). I have chosen the two films “Modern Times” (USA 1936) and “Themroc” (France 1972) for three reasons. First, their specific attraction lies in their use of image, sound and the plain, direct performance of the protagonists, easy to understand and therefore most suitable for inclusive learning processes. The theatric film language stimulates a distanced, self-reflexive problematisation on the side of the spectators. Dissatisfaction at work expresses in a metaphorical body language that has to be deciphered. The visual impression encourages the spectator to interprete affective reactions as providing information on yet unperceivable states of maladjustment at work. Second, the movie protagonists demonstrate an uneasiness and reluctance that appear through the lense of the cultural model of disability as a political expression. Thus, the film scenes can help to enlarge the spectators’ insight into their own individualized reactions to working pressure. Third, the scenes provide an historical insight through two time windows (1930 and 1970) into working situations in two different countries (USA and France), thus motivating the spectators to learn more about the social history of work, the disabilities of the working subjects and its global entanglements.

Media didactics understand film as a language that transports meaning and has to be and can be deciphered. The following discussion is based on a method developed by the French film historian Alain Bergala (2006Bergala, Alain (2006), Kino als Kunst, edited by Bettina Henzler and Winfried Pauleit, Bremen, Schüren., p. 10), called Fragments mis au rapport. This elaborated didactics works with selected film scenes that reduce the complexity of the film to some chosen aspects relevant for the plannend learning arrangement. Like in semiotics, specific passages — in our context subjective reactions to work in the 20th century — are of interest for interpretation and knowledge acquisition. In the following three sections, the toolbox of the visual, the spatial and the linguistic turn is used to explore possible ways of reading the chosen film scenes that well be presented only in a short outline within the scope of this article.

3.1. Film and Fordism

“Modern Times” (USA 1936) provides an insight into the assembly line system in a factory in the United States and its effects on the working subjects. The new way of production promised a reduction of work injuries and wage increases for unskilled and semi-skilled workers as well as career opportunities for new experts in scientific management. But most workers experienced the rationalisation effort as a huge additional burden for their senses and bodies. As the trade unions underlined, these strains aroused feelings of extreme pressure, powerlessness, meaninglessness, social-alienation and self-estrangement (Blauner, 1964Blauner, Robert (1964), Alienation and Freedom: The Factory Worker and His Industry, Chicago, University of Chicago Press.). During World War I, many workers went on strike so that their demand for industrial democracy had to be put on the political agenda. After a general inquiry in working conditions by the Commission on Industrial Relations (also known as the Walsh Commission), the so-called Hoxie-report of 1915 reflected an ambivalent image. Besides other criticism, one stated that the assembly line system deprived the workers to an alarming extent and also individualized them, destroyed solidarity and therefore was antidemocratic (Hoxie, 1916Hoxie, Robert Franklin (1916), Scientific management and labor, New York/London, Appleton., pp.16-18; Adams, 1971Adams Jr., Graham (1971), Age of Industrial Violence, 1910-15: The Activities and Findings of the United States Commission on Industrial Relations, New York, Columbia University Press.). Piecework-wage and stopwatches were forbidden to use in state owned factories until 1949, but this changed during World War II when the Fordist principle started to be extended with state support (Meyer, 1995Meyer, Stephen (1995), "Technology and Work: A Social and Historical Overview of U.S. Industrialization". In: Bills, David B. (ed.), The new modern times. Factors reshaping the world of work, New York, State University of New York Press, pp. 29-50., p. 41; Ebbinghaus, 1984Ebbinghaus, Angelika (1984), Arbeiter und Arbeitswissenschaft: Zur Entstehung der “wissenschaftlichen Betriebsführung", Opladen, Westdeutscher Verlag., p. 110). Twenty years later, Charlie Chaplin picked up the claims of the workers already documented in the Hoxie-report and produced the movie “Modern Times”.

In the film, the working people are portraied in form of a stereotype, a cliché. Only the main protagonist — i.e. Charlie Chaplin — has preserved his personal sensitivity and vivid manner of communication. That also means that he does not work fast enough to fullfill the requirements of the assembly line procedure. The production comes in default, because he chats with his collegues, chases a fly tickling his nose or starts daydreaming heavily. During an offical break, checked-out with a time card, he enjoys a cigarette on the toilet, but his boss observes him by a surveillance camera. As punishment for his misdoing, the worker has to try out an eating-machine that is supposed to accelerate the food-intake in order to shorten the breaktime. For the test person, the machine proves to be a tool of hell. The experiment leaves traumatic marks on Charlie Chaplin. Back at the assembly line, he does not function any more. He contorts his body in capricious gestures, laughs hysterically, rolls his eyes, and looks sheepish, without orientation. Acting out of a reflex, he screws the buttons off the secretary´s skirt. “He gets crazy”, the film says. Chaplin is taken to a hospital. After his dismissal, he runs through the streets looking for work. When a passing cargo looses the red flag attached because of overlength, Chaplin takes this flag. A manifestation of sydicalists is gathering led by Chaplin — with the red flag in his hand! — who is completely unaware of what is going on behind his back. Short time after, he is arrested as the leader of a workers’ manifestation.

“Themroc” (France 1972) is a provoking parabel from the 1970s that demands a statement from the spectator (Woitschig, 2008Woitschig, Britta Madeleine (2008), "Flic am Spieß", 3.8.2008, Textem. Texte und Rezensionen, [online], available at: http://www.textem.de/index.php?id=1554 (retrieved on 31/07/2012).). Around 40 years after “Modern times”, the private life of the main protagonist does no longer exist. Privacy seems to be as emotionally restricted as the working place. Agonized by his shiny-voiced, malicious mother, a bad-tempered worker takes his stuff for work and leaves his backyard flat in a Paris working quartier. Together with his neighbor, he rides the bike to the train station of the banlieue. The two collegues get lost in the masses using the public transport. In the factory, they again have to give up their individuality by wearing coloured overalls, organized in teams of higher value or less value. While changing clothes, the workers start a conflict and then silently paint the bleak office building. Through an office window, the main protagonist (Michel Piccoli) is able to observe how a leading employee is flirting with his secretary. When the man perceives the observation, he denounces the worker who is dismissed shortly after. On his way home, the degraded Michel Piccoli animalises — in the true sense of the word — by creeping on the subway tracks. From a building site, he steals stones and cement, and walls himself in the living room. Then he takes a sledgehammer and smashes the outside wall of this flat. The neighbours react with a mixture of horror and admiration to this provoking intimacy; some get attracted to this libidinous happening. The protest spreads, until the roaring of Themroc resounds from more and more flats over the roofs of the banlieue.

The movie does not show industrial disputes as they were usually happening in France in the 1970s (Vigna, 2007Vigna, Xavier (2007), L’insubordination ouvrière dans les années 68. Essai d’histoire politique des usines, Rennes, University Press.). Themroc is not interested in the political improvement of his situation but rebels for personal liberation. He feels himself bereaved in his personality and is not willing to submit to the hypocrisy of the management. The power is clearly distributed. The workers in the postfordist service society are no longer bound to the assembly line but feel impelled to accept total control, monotonous work and the silent subjugation of their individuality. Although the white-collar worker behaves morally corrupt, he cannot be denunciated in public. Instead, Themroc gets sacked on the spot, thus also destined to remain silent and to incorporate the suffered degradation. Other than “Modern Times” forty years before, the totalitarian effect of work on subjectivation becomes visible. The innocent, romantic vision of privacy — as it was inscened by Chaplin in “Modern Times” — does no longer exist. Themroc’s protest reflects the fetish of the bourgeois habitus, but with the decisive difference that his ritualization is not soft and hypocrite but more anarchist, rough, excessive and violent. Both protagonists react to different sorts of working pressure with visible expressions of uneaseness and non-functioning. They cannot use their voice to organize collective protest. As identified sources of irritation, they feel isolated, stigmatized and disabled, thus being excluded from the working sphere of a normalization society.

3.2. The work place as non-lieu

In classical management terminology, the working place is defined by its functionality. The procedure practices are expedient and supposed to be efficient. Space and time as well as the hierarchy of social contacts serve as a normative reference frame. Work settings in factories as well as in bureaus or department stores are structured by explicite and implicite rules. In correspondence to these assumptions, we can define the workplace as an “organisational unit where an employer alone or with his employees continuously pursues certain work-technological purposes by help of technical or immaterial means”.[15] The workplace as a whole is not defined as a social place. Socially defined is only the common room for recreation that is obligatory if there are five persons working in a given factory or bureau. But this definition can no longer claim validity in the flexibilized and digitalized working worlds. Nowadays, a workplace can be everywhere, also in a private single appartment.

This changing demarcation line of work and privacy can be analysed with the help of postmodern theories that relocate subjectivity and social relations in the context of space and time (Bachmann-Medick, 2006Bachmann-Medick, Doris (2006), Cultural Turns. Neuorientierungen in den Kulturwissenschaften, Reinbek b. Hamburg, Rowohlt., p. 307). The French cultural scientis Marc Augé (1994Augé, Marc (1994), Orte und Nicht-Orte. Vorüberlegungen zu einer Ethnologie der Einsamkeit, Frankfurt a.M., Fischer., p. 92) unterlines that only by the agency of people places get a spatial perspective thus becoming “anthropological spaces” that provide information about individual and collective identities, relationships and narratives. In contrast to these places, the non-lieu is rarely created by human beings; in such a place, people generate “no special identity and no special relation, but solitude and similarity” (Augé, 1994Augé, Marc (1994), Orte und Nicht-Orte. Vorüberlegungen zu einer Ethnologie der Einsamkeit, Frankfurt a.M., Fischer., p. 121).[16] Following this approach, the workplaces in the film scences of “Modern times” and “Themroc” dominate the forms of subjectivation. Human behavior is defined by routine and uniformity; the protagonists are socially unrelated and degraded, although in different ways. The historical transformation in the supervision of the working subjects can be described with Gilles Deleuze (1993Deleuze, Gilles (1993), Unterhandlungen 1972–1990, Frankfurt a.M., Suhrkamp., pp. 254-262) as the transformation from an (outer) rationalization/disciplinatory dispositive to an internalized control dispositive. It has often be stated, that the norms of the workplace extent into social norms. The vanishing point for authenticity and coherence — as privacy is connotated in “Modern Times” — does no longer exist in “Themroc”. Deleuze (1993Deleuze, Gilles (1993), Unterhandlungen 1972–1990, Frankfurt a.M., Suhrkamp., p. 257) describes this transformation in the following words: “In the discipline society people never stop to begin (from school into the barracks, from the barracks to the working places), whereas in the control society nothing can be finished: enterprise, further qualification, service […]”.[17]

In 1972, Themroc has not yet been adapted to the parameters of the postmodern control society. He does not look for his personal improvement but becomes an outsider. To argue with Albert Hirschman, he prefers exit to loyalty. He demonstrates violence in order to unmask the bourgeous fetish. Interesting for our interpretation is that both protagonists (acted respectively by Charlie Chaplin and Michel Piccoli) do not find a spoken word to perform their concerns in a social communication or in the political realm. Instead, they express their needs and desires by way of a symbolic embodiment. The body and facial language of the workers can be read as visible ciphers that express their affective responses and expose disability as a form of inner resistance to extrinsic pressure.

3.3. Apathetic Subjects

At the end of the 1970s, German social historian Alf Lüdtke (1979Lüdtke, Alf (1979), "Erfahrung von Industriearbeitern. Thesen zu einer vernachlässigten Dimension der Arbeitergeschichte". In: Conze, Werner; Engelhardt, Ulrich (eds.), Arbeiter im Industrialisierungsprozeß. Herkunft, Lage und Verhalten, Industrielle Welt, Schriftenreihe des Arbeitskreises für moderne Sozialgeschichte, vol. 28, Stuttgart, Klett-Cotta, pp. 494-512., p. 497) directed the attention of researchers towards a new type of question that might be adequate to study the living conditions of the working population. In his view, the subtle character of change in the field of work as a central marker of contemporary culture had to be made accessible for historical research. Lüdtke (1979Lüdtke, Alf (1979), "Erfahrung von Industriearbeitern. Thesen zu einer vernachlässigten Dimension der Arbeitergeschichte". In: Conze, Werner; Engelhardt, Ulrich (eds.), Arbeiter im Industrialisierungsprozeß. Herkunft, Lage und Verhalten, Industrielle Welt, Schriftenreihe des Arbeitskreises für moderne Sozialgeschichte, vol. 28, Stuttgart, Klett-Cotta, pp. 494-512., p. 500) argued against the idea of a homogenous class with a one-dimensional, confrontative consciousness; instead, he proposed to reconceptualise working subjects as “contradictorily acting individuals”. The non-conformity of daily life expressions — Lüdtke mentioned feasts, rituals, plays etc.— as well as of discrete human articulations should act as indicators of “obstinacy” (Lüdtke, 1993Lüdtke, Alf (1993), Eigen-Sinn. Fabrikalltag, Arbeitererfahrungen und Politik vom Kaiserreich bis in den Faschismus, Hamburg, Ergebnisse Verlag.; Lüdtke, 1994Lüdtke, Alf (1994), "Geschichte und Eigensinn". In: Berliner Geschichtswerkstatt (eds.), Alltagskultur, Subjektivität und Geschichte. Zur Theorie und Praxis von Alltagsgeschichte, Münster, Westfälisches Dampfboot, pp. 139-153., pp.139-153; Lüdtke, 2002Lüdtke, Alf (2002), "From ties that bind to ties that relieve. Eigensinn and Bindung among industrial workers in 20th century Germany". In: Elkana, Yehuda; Krastev, Ivan; Macamo, Elisio; Randeria, Shalini (eds.), Unraveling ties. From social cohesion to cartographies of connnectedness, Frankfurt a. M./New York, Campus Verlag, pp. 179-198., pp. 179-198). A historiography of work that integrates working culture as well as subjective experiences and expressions into social analyses might be more adequate to give an idea of the complexity and the historical latency of change. These indicators provide the possibility to conceptualize human beings as subjects who are unconscious, ambiguous and even contradictory. Like the protagonists in the movie scenes, they might show their uneasiness and vulnerability in the apathetic forms of embodied dissent. As Monica Cowart (without date) underlines, “embodied cognition theorists favor a relational analysis that views the organism, the action it performs, and the environment in which it performs it as inextricably linked.”[18] The dynamics of power build barriers against speaking up in public. Emotions like anger and despair are chanelled into affects of physical expressions that can be understood by those who are educated to perceive subtle signs of maladjustment (Koch, 1995Koch, Gertrud (ed.) (1995), Auge und Affekt. Wahrnehmung und Interaktion, Frankfurt a.M., Fischer.).

On the level of media communication, both movies work with a similar composition of image and sound. Verbal language is rare and left to the “power”-protagonists. Both leading actors perform with a theatralic mimic; the minimalist dialogues appear subtitled. Because of this specific image-sound relation, the movies are especially attractive for heterogeneous learner-groups in the context of special needs education.[19] The embodied protest against working pressure can simply be recognized as a coded opposition. On the one hand, we seee the quick reactions of Charlie Chaplin outmatching his mechanically acting assembly-line collegues. On the other hand, we discover this emotional surplus also in observing Themroc, but he performs in a completely different way. Michel Piccoli displays a homic, libidinal masculinity in the mode of Living Theatre; he cries out, moans and babbels (Heilmeyer 1971Heilmeyer, Jens (1971), Now! Theater der Erfahrung. Material zur neuen amerikanischen Theaterbewegung, Köln, DuMont Schauberg.). In both movies, the protagonists of the working class get crazy. Their ‘animalized’ behavior seems to express a disabled deviation that is taken as a legitimation to ostracize them as “parasitic elements” (Zylinska, 2005Zylinska, Joanna (2005), The Ethics of Cultural Studies, New York/London, Continuum., p. 86) from their workplaces.

Which cultural change displays the French film of the 1970s in contrast to the American film of the 1930s? In the 1970s, also the private live of the workers is dominated by discipline and control. A general bleakness characterizes privacy; already on his way to work, the individual immerses into the mass of commuters. In the 1970s, the workplace is no longer a factory but an office building. Workers do no longer work at the assembly line but are grouped in gangs. Analysed on the structural level, the similarities between the two time-periods are striking. None of the two movies shows a narrative of solidarity. The individual reactions demonstrate the perceived powerlessness. The workers do not utter their discontent in a clear-cut act of resistance but in form of a passive deviation from the norm. They feel uneasy, alienated, they do not feel comfortable. Estranged from their bodies they try to inhabit it again.

With reference to Alf Lüdtke (1991Lüdtke, Alf (ed.) (1991), Herrschaft als soziale Praxis, Göttingen, Vandenhoek & Ruprecht.) it can be stated that a culturally informed historical research can help to dig out these implicit forms of refusal and discontent in the field of work. Paul E. Willis (1981Willis, Paul E. (1981), Learning to Labor: How working class kids get working class jobs, London, Morningside Books.), Paul Clarke and others (1979Clarke, John; Honneth, Axel; Lindner, Ralf; Paris, Rainer (eds.) (1979), Jugendkultur als Widerstand: Milieus, Rituale, Provokationen, Frankfurt a. M., Syndikat.), who at the end of the 1970s critically researched a male working culture, shared Lüdtkes basic scepticism towards a historical analysis that sticks to spoken words, written certificates and official documents. In their opinion, research designs should aim at exposing the complex processes of consciousness-formation. The cultural model as the preferred heuristics in the field of Disability History (Klein, 2010Klein, Anne (2010), "Wie betreibt man Disability History? Methoden in Bewegung". In: Bösl, Elsbeth; Klein, Anne; Waldschmidt, Anne (eds.), Disability History. Konstruktionen von Behinderung in der Geschichte, Bielefeld, Transcript, pp. 45-66., pp. 45-66) allows to decipher these ephemere signs and discoursive codings. Daydreaming, intimate desires, idleness and the little pleasures of every day life are of important as well as, for example, nonconformity, indulgence, obstinacy and silent protest. A research interest formulated by the parameters of Disability History focusses especially on the paradoxies, ambivalences and contradictions of subjectivation. Workers are seen as sensitive human beings reacting to pressure with disabled bodies and embodied dissent. The underlying hypothesis is no longer that because of their shared dependent working situation workers develop a common class-consiousness. Work as a power technology affects the bodies of subjectivation by its microphysics (Foucault, 1976Foucault, Michel (1976), Mikrophysik der Macht. Über Strafjustiz, Psychiatrie und Medizin, Berlin, Merve.) and produces totalization and individualization at the same time. Understanding subjectivation in a historical perspective means to deconstruct this intrapsychic change from the “I must” to the “I want” (Frötscher, 2010Frötscher, Christine (2010), "Vom müssen zum wollen. Qualitätsmanagement im Dienst individualisierender Disziplinen". soz.mag - Onlineportal der Soziologie in der Schweiz, [online], available at: http://soziologie.ch/sozmag/sozmag-5/vom-mussen-zum-wollen [retrieved on 13/05/2015].) that lies at the basis of the arrangement of bodies at work (Heindl, 2008Heindl, Gabu (ed.) (2008), Arbeit Zeit Raum. Bilder und Bauten der Arbeit im Postfordismus, Wien, Turia+Kant.).

CONCLUSION Top

A historical research agenda informed by the parameters of the cultural model of Disability History offers a new interpretation of the contingent conflicts of the working subject. It has been argued, that strain-caused discontents and indispositions at work rarely appear in the form of political protest but are usually expressed as feelings of unwillingness, suffering, pain and distortion. Thus it becomes obvious, that bodies are heavily structured by production technologies and their space- and time-arrangements. For making the embodied effects of work visible, an interpretation of film sources by the toolset of the cultural turns seems to provide an adequate learning approach. As the interpretation of film scenes from “Modern times” and “Themroc” has shown, that the formation of historical knowledge can also be helpful to identify actual work burdens. The popularity of the medium supports the educational message. In addition, research and teaching the history of work out of a Disability History-perspective generates also new knowledge on disability as an unstable category (Davis, 2013Davis, Lennard J. (2013), "The End of Identity Politics: On Disability as an Unstable Category". In: Davis, Lennard J. (ed.), The Disability Studies Reader, 4th ed., New York/London, Routledge, pp. 263-277.). Until now, this is a desideratum in research and education: On the one side, studies on work that use the tool set of cultural studies rarely exist. On the other side, in the field of Disability History there is a lack of research on unclear health reactions of working subjects.

French social historian Robert Castel (2000Castel, Robert (2000), "Die Fallstricke des Exklusionsbegriffs", Mittelweg, 36 (3), pp. 11-25., p. 13) has introduced the term “social vulnerability” into the debate on postfordist working conditions to bring into focus the sujective consequences of economic pressure, precarisation and social inequality. Castel also speaks of negative discrimination (Castel, 2007Castel, Robert (2007), La Discrimination negative, Paris, Seuil.), negative individualism and individual fragility (Castel, 2008Castel, Robert (2008), Die Metamorphosen der sozialen Frage, Konstanz, UVK., p. 401). He suggests to differentiate between the zone of inclusion, the zone of risk or vulnerability and the zone of exclusion. Even subjects who work in the zone of inclusion are not secure. This perceived dependency evokes fear and anger on the subjects; the lack of souvereignty weakens the individuals and make them feel powerless, maladjusted and ill. The hope for a better future is easily abandoned and let individuals fall into anger and depression, as qualitative interview studies have shown (Sutter, 2013Sutter, Ove (2013), Erzählte Prekarität. Autobiographische Verhandlungen von Arbeit und Leben im Postfordismus, Frankfurt a.M., Campus.). At the same time, the working subjects feel bereft of the possibility to take their lives in their own hands. For the sociologist Alain Ehrenberg the social paradoxies of present capitalism can be conceived by this incapacitation at work (after a historical phase of emancipation!) with its severe mental and somatic effecs that remind of a collective Burn out-syndrome (Ehrenberg, 1998Ehrenberg, Alain (1998), La Fatigue d’être soi – dépression et société, Paris, Odile Jacob.; Ehrenberg, 2010Ehrenberg, Alain (2010), La Société du malaise, Paris, Odile Jacob.).

The aim of this study was to contribute to the field of Disability History by highlightening the ways of historical knowledge formation on working conditions and disabled subjectivation by deconstructing cultural icons of impairment and discrimination. This knowledge-oriented approach (Schützeichel, 2007Schützeichel, Rainer (ed.) (2007), Handbuch Wissenssoziologie und Wissensforschung, Konstanz, UVK.) works on the basis of cultural artefacts like film scenes that seem especially adequate for competence oriented learning processes in inclusive settings, for example with members of the deaf community or people with learning difficulties. Epistemological inquiries, critique of sources as well as processes of interpretation and definition play a crucial role for this empowerment-oriented, educational strategy. With a strong focus on the analysis of cultural representations of disability, such a historical research and learning process is supposed to fullfill the requirements of democratic partipication.

The article also showed how the cultural turns can be rendered fruitful for research and didactics in the context of Disability History. Such a poststructuralist approach analyses the body as a power matrix. Doubting essentialist categories of normativity and normalization, it sympathises with disability and imperfection (Deutsches Hygiene Museum Dresden, 2001Deutsches Hygiene Museum Dresden (ed.) (2001), Der imperfekte Mensch. Vom Recht auf Unvollkommenheit, Ausstellungskatalog, Dresden, Hatje Cantz.; Barsch, Klein and Verstraete, 2013Barsch, Sebastian; Klein, Anne; Verstraete, Pieter (eds.) (2013), The Imperfect Historian. Disability Histories in Europe, Frankfurt a.M./Berlin/Bruxelles, Peter Lang.). Studying modern narratives of subjectivity, Alain Ehrenberg (2010Ehrenberg, Alain (2010), La Société du malaise, Paris, Odile Jacob.) has observed that affects as ephemere signs of the body/mind-centering play a decisive role in analysing the postfordist transformation. The Burn out-syndrome as a nearly unperceivable social pathology transgresses the diagnostic possibilities of the medical and the social model of disability. Research and education on the basis of the cultural model of disability focusses on these pitfalls of Western working culture. Representations of body and space, visuality and linguistics have to be concisely perceived, analysed and deconstructed in order to write Disability Histories on work and subjectivation in the 21st century.

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