Evolution of Alienation

Devorah Kalekin-Fishman is a senior researcher at the University of Haifa in Israel. Currently a member of the Executive of the International Sociological Association, she is past president of the ISA committee for Alienation Research and Theory. Dr. Kalekin-Fishman is the editor of the International Sociology Review of Books and serves on the editorial boards of Current Sociology, Intercultural Education, and the Mediterranean Journal of Educational Studies. Recent publications include a critical analysis of Ideology, Policy, and Practice: Education for Immigrants and Minorities in Israel (Kluwer) and an edited volume, Designs for Alienation: Exploring Diverse Realities (Finland: SoPhi Press). Lauren Langman is a professor of sociology at Loyola University of Chicago. He is past chairman of the Marxist Sociology of American Sociological Association and current President of Alienation Research and Theory, of the International Sociological Association. His recent publications include a special issue of American Behavioral Politics devoted to the presidency in a television age, the social psychology of nationalism for the Handbook of Nationalism, and alternative globalization movements in Sociological Theory.

The Evolution of Alienation takes account of the postmodern debate and the rejection in recent years of the concept of alienation, critiques that rejection, and makes a strong argument for the relevance for today of a broader, more cultural concept of alienation. This is a strong collection, broad in nature and with scholarly depth, that should appeal to a wide audience while also finding use in undergraduate and graduate courses in theory, social problems, and other core areas of sociology.

• Chapter 1 IntroductionChapter 2 Does Alienation Have a Future? Recapturing the Core of Critical TheoryChapter 3 New Technologies and Alienation: Some Critical ReflectionsChapter 4 Embodiment and Communication: Alienation, Genetics, and Computing. What Does It Mean to Be Human?Chapter 5 Authority Fetishism and the Manichaean Vision: Stigma, Stereotyping, and Charisma as Keys to Pseudo-Orientation in an Estranged SocietyChapter 6 When Alienation Turns Right: Populist Conspiracism, the Apocalyptic Style, and Neo-Fascist MovementsChapter 7 Lonely Privilege in Despair: Aiming for Unfeigned HopeChapter 8 Globalization, Alienation, and Identity: A Critical ApproachChapter 9 Alienation Incorporated: "F—- the Mainstream Music" in the MainstreamChapter 10 The Final Indignity: The Commodification of AlienationChapter 11 Alienation and the CosmosChapter 12 Alienated Communities: Between Aloneness and ConnectednessChapter 13 Loving Alienation: The Contradictions of Domestic WorkChapter 14 "Plain Talk": Producing and Reproducing Alienation