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ON THE ADEQUACY OF THE CONCEPT OF ALIENATION IN EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
Author(s) -
ZWETKOFF CATHERINE
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1977.tb00799.x
Subject(s) - alienation , normative , empirical research , epistemology , sociology , positive economics , position (finance) , social science , political science , economics , law , philosophy , finance
The alienation concept has been severely criticized on the grounds of its unspecificity and its uselessness in empirical social research. This paper aims to call into question these arguments and to show through a brief overview of the alienation literature that, whatever epistemological position one takes about its normative content, the concept is useful to promote empirical research related to existant theories, to bring significant modifications to these theories and to elaborate and test new theoretical paradigms.