Recentering the world: the quest for ‘elective’centers in a secularized universe

Erik Cohen*, Nachman Ben‐Yehuda, Janet Aviad

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)320-346
Number of pages27
JournalSociological Review
Volume35
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1987

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