ARCHIVES OF THE

RESEARCH COMMITTEE ON ALIENATION THEORY AND RESEARCH (RC36) OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (ISA):

A short history of the Research Committee:

The forerunner of the Research Committee, the Ad Hoc Group on Alienation Theory and Research, was founded by Felix Geyer (SISWO, Amsterdam, retired since October, 1998) and David Schweitzer (Dept. of Sociology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver) in the early 1970s. Felix Geyer became interested in the subject soon after starting his work at SISWO in 1968, and started preparing a bibliography on the subject, asking several authors for reprints of their articles. In 1972 this brought him in contact with David Schweitzer. Together they decided to form an Ad Hoc Group for the 1974 Toronto World Congress of Sociology, which organized several sessions at this congress, where over 50 papers were presented. This Ad Hoc Group became officially recognized as a Research Committee in 1979 by the ISA Executive Committee. Subsequently, sessions were also organized at all following World Congress of Sociology: Uppsala 1978, Mexico City 1982, New Delhi 1986, Madrid 1990, Bielefeld 1994 and Montreal 1998.

Felix Geyer, whose archives you will find here, was secretary from the beginning until 1983, when he became executive secretary of the International Sociological Association itself and was responsible for the ISA secretariat, which moved from Montreal to Amsterdam. He obviously stepped down then as RC36 secretary in order to prevent possible conflicts of interest and Alan Whitehorn took over. When Geyer's tour of duty was finished in 1987, he again resumed his work as RC36 secretary, and was elected RC36 president in 1988, as a successor to David Schweitzer, who was president from the beginning until then. At the 1994 Bielefeld World Congress, a new board was elected, and Geyer was then succeeded by Devorah Kalekin-Kaufman, , whose archives will most probably become available at a later stage at the Institute.

Usefulness of these archives for specific interest groups:

These archives contain interesting materials for researchers and Ph.D. students planning to write a book or doctoral thesis in fields like the history of ideas, historical sociology, theoretical sociology, cultural sociology, science studies and citation analysis, etc. as they contain detailed materials about the rapid rise and further development of the concept of alienation in the last quarter of the twentieth century, as well as concrete information about the development of an international and highly interdisciplinary network which consisted of some 250 researchers.

Contents of the archives:

Concretely, the archives contain the following materials:

1. Alfabetically arranged correspondence, 1970-1998, with members of the RC on Alienation Theory and Research and with persons interested in its activities (see list of contents below); in 21 yellow folders, numbered 1-21; with altogether 663 persons, including Irving Horowitz and David Schweitzer (see below); correspondence with these two persons is in separate red folders, nubered 22 for Horowitz, and 23-27 for Schweitzer. The early correspondence, 1970-1973, was largely from the pre-Ad Hoc Group stage, and took place mainly within the framework of preparing a bibliography on alienation: asking authors for reprints of their articles, etc.
2. A voluminous correspondence with publisher Irving Louis Horowitz, 1972-1997 (red folder 22) and with co-founder David Schweitzer, 1972-1998 (5 red folders, numbered 23-27);
3. Outgoing circular letters, 1970-1996, to RC36 members or subgroups within RC36 (board members, session organizers, authors of books, members interested in certain conferences, etc.); in 2 yellow folders, numbered 28-29;
4. Miscellaneous materials (addresses of members, activity reports to the ISA, book proposals for publishers, Newsletters, and Research Committee statutes); in one yellow folder, numbered 30;
5. Contacts with the ISA secretariat, als in view of preparation for ISA World Congresses. Some of this correspondence is with individuals also mentioned in the alfabetical correspondence, e.g. Jonassohn and Saint-Pierre. In one red fodler numbered 31.
6. Unrealized projects: (1) A KNAW/NATO/Open Society Colloquium on "Recent Trends in Alienation Theory and Research: The Development of De-alienating Strategies: (2) A Multidisciplinary Journal on Alienation; (3) Continuation of the 1980 Biliography Alienation. . Some of this correspondence is with individuals also mentioned in the alfabetical correspondence, e.g. Avineri, Hajda, Schaff, Whitehorn and others. In one red folder, numbered 32.
7. Papers presented at different World Congresses of Sociology, especially Toronto (1974), Uppsala (1978), and Mexico City (1982); in 6 different cardboard archive boxes, marked "Toronto". "Uppsala" and "Mexico City" respectively.
8. Different questionnaires to members, 1973-19.., re participation in World Congresses, travel grants, publications, abstracts, etc.); in two cardboard archive boxes, marked "Questionnaires";
9. Xeroxed copies of articles on alienation; these copies are largely in slim black plastic folders, and partly in a box. The numbers on these copies refer to the numbers in the Bibliography Alienation (Amsterdam, SISWO, 1980), also available in the archives.
10. Bibliography Alienation; this bibliography contains some 7000 references to articles, books, dissertations and papers on the subject of alienation; many of these can be found in the archives.

Availability of these archives:

The archives are in principle available for all bona fide researchers in the Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis (International Institute of Social History), Cruquiusweg 31, 1019 AT Amsterdam, The Netherlands (phone: 31 20 668 5866, fax: 31 20 665 4181). The institute is the keeper of the famous Karl Marx archives, and the undoubtedly somewhat less famous archives of our parent association, the ISA (International Sociological Association).

The alienation archives can be consulted during normal office hours, 09.00-17.00. However, before visiting the institute, it is advisable to first contact the head of Research Services, Co Seegers, cse@iisg.nl, or Felix Geyer, geyer@xs4all.nl. Though Felix Geyer is not involved actively anymore with RC36, the group is still very much alive: an RC36 webpage is maintained by the ISA secretariat in Madrid and is located at: http://www.ucm.es/info/isa/rc36.htm.