459
Alienation, Disalienation and Selfhood
Alienation, Disalienation and Selfhood
Abstract Submissions Closed
Thursday, 25 February 2021: 10:45-12:15
Location:
RC36 Alienation Theory and Research (host committee)
Language: Spanish and English
Session Type: Oral
Although classical theories of alienation largely ignored the gendered and racialized aspects of social and individual malaise (there was, on the other hand, an early romantic current in social discourse which perceived human estrangement from "nature") , we are now at a point where complex perspectives on our current societal impasse are urgent, necessary and possible. This roundtable invites work that moves such a perspective forward, asking questions regarding capitalist modernity's particular forms of estrangement between humans and the other living species of the planet, about hierarchical notions of human exceptionalism and superiority that have served to justify colonialist, imperialist and patriarchal power and consequently resulted in attitudes and practices that impede humans from fulfilling what Marx referred to as our “species being”, and so forth. If we understand the concept in terms of creative and cooperative human potential that forms of exploitation/oppression corrupt or deny, does this not demand that we also think in terms of connection to, rather than detachment from, other species and living systems of the planet? Can we not argue that less alienated forms of "species being" must now be thought of as containing elements of an “inter-species being” which, when negated, produces fragmentation and loss of possibilities for creating meaning, social bonds, or a full embodied/ aesthetic relationships to the world? This session welcomes theoretical and empirical papers that dialogue with eco-feminist, environmentalist and human-animal studies attempts to think and act on these issues and themes
Session Organizer: