Topic
Alienation
About: Alienation is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5522 publications have been published within this topic receiving 81460 citations.
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TL;DR: In this article, five alternative meanings of alienation are identified: powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, isolation, and self-estrangement, and the derivation of these meanings from traditional sociological analysis is sketched and the necessity for making the indicated distinctions is specified.
Abstract: The problem of alienation is a pervasive theme in the classics of sociology, and the concept has a prominent place in contemporary work. This paper seeks to accomplish two tasks: to present an organized view of the uses that have been made of this concept; and to provide an approach that ties the historical interest in alienation to the modern empirical effort. Five alternative meanings of alienation are identified: powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, isolation, and self-estrangement. The derivation of these meanings from traditional sociological analysis is sketched, and the necessity for making the indicated distinctions is specified. In each case, an effort is made to provide a viable research formulation of these five alternatives.
1,807 citations
Book•
13 Dec 2016
TL;DR: The authors The Miraculous status of consumption, the Vicious circle of growth, and the social logic of consumption towards a theory of consumption personalization or the Smallest Marginal Difference (SMD).
Abstract: THE FORMAL LITURGY OF THE OBJECT Preface - George Ritzer The Miraculous Status of Consumption The Vicious Circle of Growth THE THEORY OF CONSUMPTION The Social Logic of Consumption Towards a Theory of Consumption Personalization or the Smallest Marginal Difference (SMD) MASS MEDIA, SEX AND LEISURE Mass-Media Culture The Finest Consumer Object The Body The Drama of Leisure or the Impossibility of Wasting One's Time The Mystique of Solicitude Anomie in the Affluent Society CONCLUSION On Contemporary Alienation or the End of the Pact with the Devil
1,530 citations
Book•
21 Aug 1997
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that rather than creating a society where machines rule man, the technology of cyberspace will have a humanizing influence on us, and foster the emergence of a "collective intelligence" - a meeting of minds on the Internet - that will validate the contributions of the individual.
Abstract: From the Publisher:
The number of travelers along the information superhighway is increasing at a rate of ten percent a month. How will this communications revolution affect our culture and society? Though awed by their potential, we've feared computers as agents of the further alienation of modern man: they take away our jobs, minimize direct human contact, even shake our faith in the unique power of the human brain. Pierre Levy believes, however, that rather than creating a society where machines rule man, the technology of cyberspace will have a humanizing influence on us, and foster the emergence of a "collective intelligence" - a meeting of minds on the Internet - that will validate the contributions of the individual.
1,354 citations
TL;DR: For example, the authors argues that the contemporary experience of things technological has repeatedly confounded our vision, our expectations, and our capacity to make intelligent judgments, and as long as we lack the ability to make our situation intelligible, all of the ''data'' in the world will make no difference.
Abstract: The truth of the matter is that our deficiency does not lie in the want of well-verified \"facts.\" What we lack is our bearings. The contemporary experience of things technological has repeatedly confounded our vision, our expectations, and our capacity to make intelligent judgments. Categories, arguments, conclusions, and choices that would have been entirely obvious in earlier times are obvious no longer. Patterns of perceptive thinking that were entirely reliable in the past now lead us systematically astray. Many of our standard conceptions of technology reveal a disorientation that borders on dissociation from reality. And as long as we lack the ability to make our situation intelligible, all of the \"data\" in the world will make no difference.;From the Introduction
1,141 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1960
TL;DR: Laing as mentioned in this paper presented case studies of schizophrenic patients and made the process of going mad comprehensible, and also offered an existential analysis of personal alienation, which is a common theme in psychotherapy.
Abstract: Presenting case studies of schizophrenic patients, Laing aims to make madness and the process of going mad comprehensible. He also offers an existential analysis of personal alienation.
795 citations