Social Alienation

Social Alienation

Alienation is essentially a sociological concept developed by several classical and contemporary theorists (esp., Emile Durkheim, 1951, 1984; Eric Fromm, 1941, 1955; Karl Marx, 1846, 1867; Georg Simmel, 1950, 1971; Melvin Seeman, 1959; and Kalekin-Fishman, 1998) and is "a condition in social relationships reflected by a low degree of integration or common values and a high degree of distance or isolation between individuals, or between an individual and a group of people in a community or work environment." The concept has many discipline-specific uses, and can refer both to a personal psychological state (subjectively) and to a type of social relationship (objectively).

Read more about Social Alienation:  History, Powerlessness, Meaninglessness, Normlessness, Political Alienation, Social Isolation, Relationships, Self-estrangement, Mental Disturbance, Disability, In Art, See Also

Famous quotes containing the words social and/or alienation:

    “Utopias are presented for our inspection as a critique of the human state. If they are to be treated as anything but trivial exercises of the imagination. I suggest there is a simple test we can apply.... We must forget the whole paraphernalia of social description, demonstration, expostulation, approbation, condemnation. We have to say to ourselves, “How would I myself live in this proposed society? How long would it be before I went stark staring mad?””
    —William Golding (b. 1911)

    “There is only one way left to escape the alienation of present day society: to retreat ahead of it.”
    —Roland Barthes (1915–1980)