The Department of Sociology presents:

Tom Scheff

On the Meaning of Alienation

Alienation between persons and within groups is a central idea in the social sciences and humanities. But what does it mean? It may be helpful to assume that it's the opposite of solidarity. But then what is solidarity? Marx, for example, made clear what he meant by alienation from the means of production, but not from the other and the self. Nor did he define solidarity, a crucial part of his and many other theories. This talk will explore the meaning of alienation/solidarity and show how it might be applied directly to research and scholarship.

Thomas J. Scheff is Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Goffman Unbound!; Being Mentally Ill; Microsociology: Discourse, Emotion, and Social Structure; Emotions and Violence: Shame and Rage in Destructive Conflicts (with Suzanne Retzinger); and Bloody Revenge: Emotions, Nationalism, and War, among other books and articles. He is a former Chair of the American Sociological Association Section on the Sociology of Emotions, and former President of the Pacific Sociological Association.

Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008

12:00 noon

Ellison Hall 2824

Cosponsored by the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center