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First ISA Forum of Sociology
Sociological Research and Public Debate
Barcelona, Spain
September 5 - 8, 2008


Research Committee on
Alienation Theory and Research RC36

Main theme
Alienation in a global age


Programme Coordinator
Lauren Langman, Loyola University, USA, llang944@aol.com

Venue of RC36 sessions:

Faculty of Philology
University of Barcelona
Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 585
08007 Barcelona, Spain, map

Session 1: Migration and alienation: Who? Where? When? Why? How?

Part I
Saturday, September 6, 2008, 09:00-11:00

Part II
Saturday, September 6, 2008, 11:30-13:30

Part III
Saturday, September 6, 2008, 15:30-17:30
Organizers: Devorah Kalekin-Fishman, University of Haifa, Israel, dkalekin@construct.haifa.ac.il and Catherine Wihtol de Wenden,
CERI, Paris, France, dewenden@ceri-sciences-po.org
The phenomenon of constantly growing rates of transnational migration has become a commonplace since the second half of the last century. Yet, statistics in the many receiving countries show that immigrants are likely to have to cope with exclusion and to undergo processes of alienation both in the country of origin and in the country to which they have migrated. For this session we invite researchers to present data on experiences of different groups of migrants, the situations they have to deal with, and variations in the acceptance of migrants in and from different countries, in light of the alienating consequences of migration. The final section of the session will be devoted to a discussion of how sociology can point the way to overcoming the problems that arise both for the migrants and for the relevant host countries.

Session 2: The body as a social icon

Part I
Sunday, September 7, 2008, 09:00-11:00

Part II
Sunday, September 7, 2008, 11:30-13:30

Part III
Sunday, September 7, 2008, 15:30-17:30
Joint Session of RC36 Alienation Theory and Research and WG03 The Body in the Social Sciences
Organisers: Lauren Langman, Loyola University, Chicago, USA, llang944@aol.com and Bianca Maria Pirani, University of Roma La Sapienza, Italy, biancamaria.piran@alice.it
One of major legacies of the work of Foucault and Bryan Turner has been to ‘bring the body back in’. This session will explore the many new meanings of the body, representations of the body and the embodied.

Session 3: New directions in alienation theory

Part I
Saturday, September 6, 2008, 09:00-11:00

Part II
Saturday, September 6, 2008, 11:30-13:30

Part III
Saturday, September 6, 2008, 15:30-17:30

Part IV
Sunday, September 7, 2008, 09:00-11:00
Organisers: Pirkkoliisa Ahponen, Joensuu University, Finland, Pirkkoliisa.Ahponen@joensuu.fi and Warren Goldstein, University of Central Florida, USA, wgoldste@mail.ucf.edu
Despite the passage of time since Hegel and Marx wrote about alienation, it has not only remained a vital concept, but we have seen a number of new ways of theorizing about alienation.

Session 4: Overcoming alienation; democratic mobilizations in a global age

Part I
Sunday, September 7, 2008, 11:30-13:30

Part II
Sunday, September 7, 2008, 15:30-17:30
Joint session of RC10 Participation, Organizational Democracy and Self-Management, RC48 Social Movements, Collective Action and Social Change and RC36 Alienation Theory and Research
Organiser: Knud Jensen, Danish University of Education, Denmark, knud@dpu.dk
Alienation is typically located within a matrix of domination and exploitation, but at the same time, more recent thinking about alienation has looked at ways that it acts to foster democratic kind of mobilization and/or mobilize social change

Session 5: Nationalism in a global world: Alienation or empowerment

Part I
Sunday, September 7, 2008, 11:30-13:30

Part II
Sunday, September 7, 2008, 15:30-17:30
Organiser: Lauren Langman, Loyola University, Chicago, USA, llang944@aol.com
One of the moments of “received wisdom” of globalization claims that Nation-State was an obsolete political formation with little impact in the world. But au contraire, the current world is plagued by resurgent nationalisms and ethno-religions nationalisms from the USA to the Middle East and/or the Far East. To what extent do reactionary nationalisms today, like earlier forms in the 1930’s, represent a response to alienation?

Session 6: Alienation and the subaltern: Race, class and gender in a globalized economy

Part I
Saturday, September 6, 2008, 09:00-11:00

Part II
Saturday, September 6, 2008, 11:30-13:30
Organisers: Ligaya McGovern, Indiana University, USA, Ligayako29@aol.com and Gerhard Schutte, USA, agschutte@rcn.com
In the contemporary world, alienation can be seen a result of many factors beyond class, but never apart from class. This session will explore some of the sources and sites of alienation within the global economy.

Session 7: From the workplace to cyberspace: Situating alienation in the 21st century

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 15:30-17:30
Organiser: Matt David, University of Liverpool, UK, mdavid@liverpool.ac.uk
For Marx, the primary sight of alienation was the 19th C. factory, the “satanic mills” that exploited, dehumanized and denigrated workers. But today, the issues are more complex, in many ways, modern technologies of production and communication foster new kinds of alienation, but at the same time, these same technologies allow new ways of overcoming alienation.