‘I am a man, and nothing human is alien to me’

Alienation is perhaps the emblematic condition of the organized society. Industrialization forced physical, mental and spiritual dislocation; a process whereby identities, communities and work practices were relentlessly detached from the natural and metaphysical essentials that had long provided stability. This was man’s (and of course it was male) work. The growing efficacy of his rational techniques gave him confidence in his capacity to impose his will upon those forces that were once seen as unchallengeable. Modernity was about making them yield.