Page 38 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

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Alienation: Critique and

Alternative Futures

Lauren Langman and Devorah Kalekin-Fishman

The burden of this chapter is to show how, shows its enduring value for sociological
despite a multiplicity of interpretations and a inquiry.
great number of conceptual critiques, alien-
ation theory remains a valuable analytical
tool in the social sciences. By looking at
social reality in the twenty-first century with INTRODUCTION
the theoretical apparatus derived from analy-
ses of alienation, we commit ourselves at the Derived from the Latin word for ‘other,’ the
outset to grasping the world as a site of con- concept of alienation has been applied to
flict, oppression, and exploitation which con- various domains of living in order to describe
textualizes social life and is likely to foster different types of conditions and situations.
alienation. More recently, however, many In Roman law the concept has been deployed
researchers are concluding that a dialectical to refer to the transfer of property and giving
analysis of social processes and social struc- up all claims upon sale. In the Middle Ages,
tures reveals that alienation can also give rise it was used by the early psychiatrists, the
to moments of competition and even of alienists, to mean the loss of normal mental
cooperation. Alienation has been, is and will competence. More recent meanings have
remain a central concept for sociologists included the surrender of personal privilege
insofar as it reveals how life within the frag- for the good of the collective, or the Hegelian
mented communities of meaning of modern, notion of estrangement of the world from
technologically advanced, hierarchical soci- transcendental spirit (cf. Israel, 1971;
eties inform the nature of deviant and crimi- Meszaròs, 1970; Smith, 2005). In the
nal behavior, community, and personal life. nineteenth century the term alienation was
Alienation can be seen as a way the social adapted to explaining the unsettling struc-
thwarts the freedom and fulfillment of the tural dysfunctions that were making radical
personal. In this chapter we discuss how changes in the world people knew. Social
insight into the diverse workings of alienation theorists were confronted with the upheavals