alienation cultural definition

A feeling of separation or isolation. In social science, alienation is associated with the problems caused by rapid social change, such as industrialization and urbanization (see Industrial Revolution), which has broken down traditional relationships among individuals and groups and the goods and services they produce.

• Alienation is most often associated with minorities, the poor, the unemployed, and other groups who have limited power to bring about changes in society.
• Marxism holds that workers in capitalist nations are alienated because they have no claim to ownership of the products they make.