A Critical Reexamination of Alienation

This article will examine the concept of alienation and reconsider its usefulness in sociology and in the social sciences. This concept once occupied center stage in sociological theory, but in recent times it has declined in significance. However, a review of the sociofile database reveals that alienation has and will continue to play a major role in sociological theory. The questions discussed in this article include the following: How has the concept of alienation fared during the last twenty years? What uses have been made of it in the literature of the social sciences? What role will alienation play in future investigations of the sociology of labor and other human endeavors? This article explores the various meanings associated with alienation and is based on secondary data gathered from journal articles and books published between 1974 and 1994.