Alienation, Knowledge, and Cultural Responses In Contemporary Societies
Alienation, Knowledge, and Cultural Responses In Contemporary Societies
Abstract Submissions Closed
RC36 Alienation Theory and Research (host committee)
Language: English and French
Session Type: Oral
Contemporary societies are increasingly marked by experiences of fragmentation, inequality, social disconnection, and different forms of alienation. Processes such as globalization, digital transformations, economic insecurity, and changing social relations often create feelings of isolation and estrangement from communities, institutions, and even from oneself. Aside from that, these conditions also give rise to new ways through which people seek belonging, recognition, and collective meaning. Building on discussions developed within Talking Elias and broader debates in social theory, this session aims to explore how individuals and groups create cultural and social responses to experiences of alienation. Rather than understanding people as passive subjects shaped only by structures of domination, we are interested in the creative and collective ways through which social actors build spaces of resistance, identity, and connection. The session seeks to open discussions on different forms of cultural and social expression, including youth cultures, sport, cinema, art, digital communities, social movements, and other emerging practices through which people respond to inequality and exclusion. These experiences may simultaneously challenge dominant structures and create new forms of belonging and solidarity, while also revealing tensions between resistance and commodification, individual expression and collective action. We welcome theoretical and empirical contributions that investigate how new cultural practices and forms of social organization reshape social life and create possibilities for overcoming or confronting alienation in contemporary societies.
keywords: De-alienation; cultural transformation, sociabilization, culture, and youth
Session Organizers: