461
Alienation through the Prism of the Covid-19 Pandemic
Abstract Submissions Closed
RC36 Alienation Theory and Research (host committee)
Language: English
Session Type: Oral
The papers in this session discuss various aspects and forms of alienation that emerged as prominent themes in the research concerning the Covid-19 pandemic conducted by groups of RC36 members located in South America, East Asia, the European Union, and the Middle East during the spring and summer of 2020. This large-scale international and interdisciplinary scholarly collaboration was based upon a survey that was prepared by RC36 board members in conjunction with members of the board of the European Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction and the Institute of Population and Human Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Science. It was translated into several languages and circulated primarily among members of the academic communities in selected countries.
One of the main aims of this session is to provide the possibility to present various results of this study in a common forum so that comparisons and generalizations may not only cast light upon the unusual complexity of the 2020 pandemic as a social phenomenon, including its effects upon individuals and society, but also trigger new theoretical developments and enrich the methodological and empirical foundations of alienation theory and research. This research, carried out in the new social circumstances produced during an international public health crisis that has challenged the very fabric of modern societies, is moving forward on the basis of the rich empirical and theoretical material that the study has generated to date.