“Asociality”

The Construction of an Underclass Through the Concept of “Work”

Abstract

This article explores the correlation between “asociality” and “work”, beginning with nineteenth- century Germany and Austria and then focusing on the twentieth century. The article’s central thesis is that the nature of work determines the social classes within a society. Those who were deemed to be “asocials” were relegated to the most arduous and unwholesome tasks, with the argument that they needed to learn to do “proper” work. The article explains this through the historical contexts and semantics of “asociality” and “work” by exploring the impact of enemy images. The semantics of “asociality” led to the establishment of hostilities despite the absence of any enemies, while the semantics of “work” resulted in the formation of “people of disorder”, excluding their real-life circumstances. By reflecting on the category “asocial” during the period of National Socialism, and on the case of three generations of a family of Holocaust survivors in the German Democratic Republic who were stigmatised as “workshy”, this article demonstrates the long tradition and relevance of conceptualising “asociality”.