TY - JOUR
T1 - Recentering the world
T2 - the quest for ‘elective’centers in a secularized universe
AU - Cohen, Erik
AU - Ben‐Yehuda, Nachman
AU - Aviad, Janet
PY - 1987/5
Y1 - 1987/5
N2 - The various ‘quests for meaning’of the ‘decentralized’contemporary Western youths are interpreted as so many attempts to ‘recenter the world’around new ‘elective centers’. Rather than being centers of the contemporary world into which the individual is born, such centers are located outside it, and freely chosen by the seekers. Four such elective centers are discussed: (1) traditional religious conversion, (2) the occult, (3) science fiction, and (4) tourism. Each of these elective centers is first briefly described and then analysed in a comparative framework, focused on six principal questions: (a) the social and cultural conditions which engender the contemporary ‘quest for a center’, (b) the nature of elective centers, (c) mechanisms of election and rejection of alternative elective centers, (d) extent of involvement with elective centers, (e) elective centers and the wider social framework, (f) the institution‐building potential of the elective centers.
AB - The various ‘quests for meaning’of the ‘decentralized’contemporary Western youths are interpreted as so many attempts to ‘recenter the world’around new ‘elective centers’. Rather than being centers of the contemporary world into which the individual is born, such centers are located outside it, and freely chosen by the seekers. Four such elective centers are discussed: (1) traditional religious conversion, (2) the occult, (3) science fiction, and (4) tourism. Each of these elective centers is first briefly described and then analysed in a comparative framework, focused on six principal questions: (a) the social and cultural conditions which engender the contemporary ‘quest for a center’, (b) the nature of elective centers, (c) mechanisms of election and rejection of alternative elective centers, (d) extent of involvement with elective centers, (e) elective centers and the wider social framework, (f) the institution‐building potential of the elective centers.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84977361384&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-954X.1987.tb00012.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1467-954X.1987.tb00012.x
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AN - SCOPUS:84977361384
SN - 0038-0261
VL - 35
SP - 320
EP - 346
JO - Sociological Review
JF - Sociological Review
IS - 2
ER -