Political marginals. Marginal - who is it in simple words

Today we will define one interesting concept that is found even in colloquial speech people. So, who is the marginalized? The meaning of the word: marginal (from Latin margo - edge) is a person who is outside a social group, who does not fit into it because of his position in society, lifestyle, origin or worldview.

Who are the marginalized, and what is their role in society? Initially, the term “marginal” was used to designate notes in the margins. But the word had another meaning - “unprofitable, economically close to the limit.” This term was first used by the American sociologist and one of the founders of the Chicago school Robert Ezra Park in 1928. For Park, marginality meant the position of individuals who were on the border of two conflicting cultures. So first main problem marginality was a cultural conflict. But in the 1940s-1960s, the concept of marginality began to be actively developed in American sociology and was no longer limited to cultural and racial hybrids.

Social marginals

To understand who the marginalized are, you need to know what marginality is. Marginality is a state in the process of displacement of an individual or group, as well as a characteristic of social groups that are in an intermediate position of the social structure. Marginality also includes a break in social ties between society and the individual. According to sociologists, the reason for the emergence of social marginals is the transition of society from one socio-economic system to another. At the same time, due to the uncontrolled movement of a large mass of people, the stability of the previous social structure is destroyed. In this regard, there is a devaluation of traditional norms and a deterioration in the material standard of living. Thus, people who avoid or deny social principles are considered marginalized in society.

Modern marginalized people are individuals, social strata or groups that are outside the framework of the socio-cultural norms and traditions characteristic of a given society.

There are many marginalized groups in society, here are some of them:

ethnomarginals: national minorities;
sociomarginals: groups of people in the process of unfinished social displacement;
political marginals: such people are not satisfied with legitimate rules and legal opportunities for socio-political struggle;
biomarginals: their health ceases to be a matter of concern to society;
age marginals: formed when ties between generations are broken;

Currently, marginalization is not a progressive process, but it is worth paying attention to it in order to keep abreast of events in public life.

The word “marginal” came into the Russian language from German, there from French, and in, in turn, from. WITH Latin language this word can be translated as “on the edge.” Marginalized people are outcasts who find themselves outside their social group or at the intersection of two different groups. If we're talking about about one person, most likely he was expelled from one group and not accepted into another. Bright - people who were forced to flee their country and turned out to be apostates in the eyes of its citizens, but at the same time unable to accept the traditions of another state where they moved.

Such a socially borderline state is perceived very difficult. If we are talking about a group of people, most likely, the essence is in serious social, political, economic changes in society, which led to the collapse of the usual society. Something similar often happens as a result of revolutions.

The word “lumpen” was borrowed again from German, and in translation it means “rags”. Lumpen are people who find themselves in the lowest social strata and do not engage in any socially useful work. This is something that cannot be called a poor person who tries to earn money by the sweat of his brow, but achieves very modest results. Not at all - we are talking about criminals, vagabonds, beggars, those who trade in piracy and robbery.

Very often, non-working alcoholics and drug addicts, people who are supported by someone, although they may well be able to work and earn money, are also considered lumpen. This is also the name given to representatives of the lower social stratum who live off government benefits.

What is the difference between lumpen and marginalized

As a rule, lumpen people have almost no property: they either wander or live in other people's houses, and have only the most necessary things for life. Marginalized people, on the contrary, can even be wealthy people who are not recognized by society because for some reason they have lost their previous position.

Lumpen either take short, one-time jobs, or get money illegally, or live at the expense of loved ones or the state. Marginalized people can engage in socially useful work.

An additional meaning of the term "lumpen" is a person who has no moral principles of his own, does not obey the laws of morality and recklessly or cowardly obeys the group of people who have the most power at a particular historical moment. In such cases, marginalized people become victims rather than thoughtlessly acting force.

Sources:

Lumpens and outcasts

In every society, side by side with socially adapted citizens, there are people who have lost their social roots, to whom the moral code is alien, they understand only the language of brute physical force.

Lumpen

Typically, lumpen people are people who have no social roots, who also do not have any property, and who live off one-time earnings. But more often their source of existence is various types social and government benefits. In general, homeless people, as well as citizens like them, should be included in this category. To explain it more simply, a lumpen is a person who does not lead labor activity, he is begging, wandering, in other words, he is homeless.

Translated from German, the word “lumpen” means “rags.” These are a kind of ragamuffins who have sunk to the “bottom” of life and fallen out of their midst. The more lumpen people become in society, the greater the threat to society they pose. Their environment is a kind of stronghold for various extremist-minded individuals and organizations. Marxist theory even used the expression Lumpenproletariat, characterizing with this word vagabonds, criminals, beggars, as well as the dregs of human society in general. At Soviet power it was a dirty word.

The marginalized and the lumpen are not the same concept, although these groups of people have a lot in common. The very concept of “marginality” in sociology means a person who is between two different social groups, when a citizen has already broken away from one of them, but has not yet joined the second. These are the so-called bright representatives of the lower classes, or the social “bottom”. Such a social situation greatly affects the psyche, crippling it. Often the marginalized are people who went through war, immigrants who were unable to adapt to living conditions in their new homeland, who could not fit into the social conditions of their contemporary environment.

During the collectivization carried out in the USSR, in the 20-30s, rural residents migrated en masse to the cities, but urban environment accepted them reluctantly, and with the rural environment all roots and ties were severed. Their spiritual values were collapsing, their established social ties were being torn apart. And it was precisely these segments of the population that required a “firm hand”, an established order at the state level, and it was this fact that served social base anti-democratic regime.

As you can see, lumpen and marginalized are not identical concepts, although they have much in common. In modern reality, the word “lumpen” is practically not used, calling homeless people marginal. Although this word can also describe people who have housing but lead an asocial lifestyle.

Sources:

Marginals and lumpen

IN modern culture you can meet not only individual individuals, but even entire groups of people who do not fit into the established social structure society. These are not always representatives of the social “bottom”; they may have a high level of education and an appropriate status. The difference between such marginalized people and other people is special world values. Who are the marginalized?

Marginality as a social phenomenon

Wikipedia calls someone who finds themselves on the border of opposing social groups or cultures marginal. Such people experience mutual influence various systems values that often contradict each other. In times past, a synonym for “marginal” was “declassed element.” This was often the name given to people who had slipped to the very bottom of the social hierarchy. But the understanding of marginality should be considered one-sided and not entirely correct.

The concept of “marginality” is also found in. Here it denotes intermediateness social status, in which it turns out. The first mentions of marginalized individuals and groups appeared in American sociology, which described the adaptation of immigrants to social conditions and orders that were unusual for them, characteristic of life in a foreign land.

Marginalized people deny the values of the group from which they came and establish new norms and rules of behavior.

Beyond normal life

Marginality in society increases when disasters begin. If a society is regularly in a fever, its structure loses strength. Completely new social groups and segments of the population are appearing, with their own way of life. Not every person in such conditions is able to adapt and land on a certain shore.

The transition to a new social group is often associated with the need to rebuild behavior and accept new system values, which almost always becomes a source of stress.

Having left his usual social environment, a person often faces a situation where the new group does not accept him. This is how marginalized people appear. Here is one example of such a social transition. An ordinary engineer who leaves his job and decides to go into business fails. He understands that he did not turn out to be a businessman, and that it is no longer possible to return to his old way of life. To this may be added financial and other material losses, as a result of which a person finds himself left behind in life.

But marginality is not always associated with the loss of a fairly high former social status. Often the marginalized are considered completely successful people, whose views, habits and value system do not fit into established ideas of “normality”. The marginalized may well be quite wealthy people who have achieved success in their field of activity. It’s just that their views on life turn out to be so unusual for the average person in the street that such people are simply not taken seriously or are pushed out of the social community.

Video on the topic

The concept of marginality is a sociological term that emerged in science in the 1920s. But the marginalized people themselves - people who make up a special social group - existed long before scientists introduced this term. These are people who, for some reason, do not fit into the socio-cultural system of society. Large groups of marginalized people began to form at the beginning of the twentieth century. But, probably, the first marginal appeared in the primitive era.

The term “marginality” was introduced by American sociologists to characterize the social phenomenon they observed: the creation of closed communities by immigrants due to their inability to immediately fit into the American way of life. The Latin word marginalis was chosen for the new term, which means “on the edge.” Thus, immigrant communities were characterized as groups that were torn out of their native cultural layer and did not take root in the new soil.

A marginal group is characterized by its own special culture, which often conflicts with the dominant cultural attitudes in society. A typical example is Italian mafia in America. Don Corleone and his family are marginal elements to American society.

So, in the strict sense of the social term, the first marginalized people appeared at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries in the seething cauldron of American immigration. These were people of two cultures, simultaneously belonging to two worlds. Not only in the USA, of course, similar phenomena were observed: for example, Brazil around the same time invited Italian immigrants to the plantations, who did not immediately fit into the existing society on equal terms with the descendants of the Portuguese, and were often perceived as “white”.

Marginalized groups can also emerge as a result of major social upheavals. For example, the revolution in Russia led to the emergence large number marginals - people pulled out of the framework of their class and having difficulty finding a place for themselves in the new society. For example, street children of the 20s are a typical marginal group.

Gradually, the concept of marginality in science expanded. The concept of “individual marginality” appeared. It is broader than marginality as a social phenomenon. I.V. Malyshev in his book “Marginal Art” characterizes marginality as “unsystematic.” The marginalized may be people who preserve the past; ahead of their time; simply “lost” and not finding a place for themselves in society and its culture.

In this sense, Sakharov, Thomas Mann, and even Christ can be called marginal, according to Viktor Shenderovich.

So, the first marginal most likely appeared at the dawn of humanity. Perhaps the first homosapiens were just marginalized!

Since society is wary of the marginalized, the life of “outside the system” people throughout human history has been difficult and, alas, usually short. Some of them became social lumpen, outcast pariahs, but many managed to move culture forward and outline new guidelines for the development of society.

Outrageous artists, for example, were often marginalized. They boldly rejected traditional values, creating their own. For example, Diogenes was marginal. The decadents were the marginalized. Soviet dudes were marginal.

At the end of XX - beginning of XXI centuries there were many more marginalized people than in any other historical era. Various informal movements are, as a rule, marginal. Tolerance modern society allows representatives of marginalized groups to live in their own frame of reference more freely than before.

Origin of the term

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Marginalized people (examples)

They say that when Alexander the Great came to Attica, he naturally wanted to meet the famous “outcast” Diogenes. Alexander found him in Crania (in a gymnasium near Corinth) while he was basking in the sun. Alexander approached him and said: “I - great king Alexander". “And I,” answered Diogenes, “the dog Diogenes.” “And why do they call you a dog?” “Whoever throws a piece, I wag, whoever doesn’t throw, I bark, whoever angry man- I bite.” “Are you afraid of me?” - asked Alexander. “What are you,” asked Diogenes, “evil or good?” “Good,” he said. “And who is afraid of good?” Finally, Alexander said: “Ask me whatever you want.” “Move away, you are blocking the sun for me,” said Diogenes and continued to bask. They say that Alexander allegedly even remarked: “If I were not Alexander, I would like to become Diogenes.”

Writer Viktor Shenderovich, expressing his political position on refusing to participate in undemocratic elections, reacted this way to being called a “marginalist”:

There is nothing offensive in the word “marginal”<…>. “Notes in the margins”: a marginalized person is someone who is in the minority. Christ was a fringe, as we know, Sakharov was a fringe... Thomas Mann was a fringe. That is, we are in good company. And it has long been noted that the greatest danger for a decent person is to find himself in the majority. This means: something is wrong. Look around, look around, are you suddenly in the majority? Yes? Because “the worst are the majority everywhere,” as Epictetus said. But these are general considerations. Therefore - well, marginal and marginal, thank God. God forbid you get into this majority, they will call you to “Seliger”.

Derived concepts and examples of word usage

Marginality(Late Lat. marginali - located on the edge) - a sociological concept denoting the intermediate, “borderline” position of a person between any social groups and statuses, which leaves a certain imprint on his psyche. This concept appeared in American sociology in the 1920s to refer to the situation of immigrants’ failure to adapt to new social conditions.

Marginalized group of people- a group that rejects certain values and traditions of the culture in which this group is located and asserts its own system of norms and values.

Individual and group marginality

Individual marginality is characterized by the individual's incomplete inclusion in a group that does not fully accept him, and his alienation from the group of origin that rejects him as an apostate. The individual turns out to be a “cultural hybrid”, sharing the life and traditions of two or more different groups.

Group marginality arises as a result of changes in the social structure of society, the formation of new functional groups in economics and politics, displacing old groups, destabilizing their social position.

Consequences of marginalization

Marginalization does not always lead to “settling to the bottom.” Natural marginalization is associated primarily with horizontal or upward vertical mobility. If marginalization is associated with a radical change in the social structure (revolution, reform), partial or complete destruction of stable communities, then it often leads to a massive decrease in social status. However, marginal elements are making attempts to re-integrate into social system. This can lead to very intense mass mobility (coups and revolutions, uprisings and wars) or to the formation of new community groups, fighting with other groups for a place in social space. High level Entrepreneurship among representatives of ethnic minorities is explained precisely by their marginal position. For data people ethnic groups usual ways to achieve high statuses(through inheritance, state and military service, good grades at school, intellectual superiority, development of one’s own talents, etc.) are difficult, which contributes to an orientation towards the development of one’s own business (including a criminal or sexual one, for example, the notorious so-called “Blue Margins of the 20th century”) are found for themselves, thus effective channels of vertical mobility.

Notes

Who are the marginalized?

Marginals are people outside a social group, outcasts who differ from the majority in behavior, views on reality, and appearance. Latin word"marginalis" means "on the edge."

The marginal is an asocial subject, but not always dysfunctional, immoral or degenerate. The first marginalized were people freed from slavery who came from familiar environment, but they were not able to become full-fledged members of society right away. In the first third of the twentieth century in America, rural residents who found themselves in cities and could not find employment became marginalized; People, long time not working; emigrants who went to the USA for happiness.

For various reasons, a person falls out of his usual environment and cannot join new group. The marginalized are stressed psychological stress, are experiencing an identity crisis. They are also characterized by a hostile attitude towards others, increased sensitivity, and unsatisfied ambitions.

Examples of this condition are often found in Russia. The difficult situation in the country has led to a drop in income and an increase in unemployment. A person is forced to change his place of work, and his social status. Suppose he worked in science, and now he is forced to abruptly change the field of activity in which he feels discomfort.

In Europe, the number of marginalized people is increasing. Society does not accept these people, as a result of which they cannot socialize and even start riots.

Signs of marginality:

rupture of economic, social and spiritual ties of “pre-marginal” life;
mobility that occurs in the absence of housing or attachments;
mental problems that arise due to the inability to find a “place in the sun”;
development of one’s own values, sometimes hostility towards the existing society;
involvement in illegal activities.

Types of marginalized people

There are political, ethnic, religious, social, economic and biological marginalized people.

Political marginals– these are people who are not satisfied with the political regime in the country, the laws. They often become refugees or emigrants. There are many political fringes in Cuba, Syria, Turkey and other countries.

Ethnic marginalized come from interethnic marriages. As a result, a person does not identify himself with any of the nationalities of his parents - in this case, he is not accepted anywhere. Also, ethnic marginals are national minorities, representatives of extremely small nationalities living among other nationalities.

They are not representatives of any existing religion or consider themselves to be fictitious denominations: for example, the “Church of Bacon”. Among such marginalized people there are false prophets who create their own religious movements.

Social marginals they lose their usual place and cannot find it in another society. Appear during an unstable state of society, revolutions, cataclysms. For example, in Russia, after the revolution of 1917, representatives of the noble class became social marginals.

Economic marginalized These are either very poor or very rich people. Both are cut off from society. The former cannot afford basic things, saving on the essentials; the latter bask in luxury, not noticing the problems.

Biological marginals fall into this category as a result of illness, age, birth defects. Society is not ready to accept HIV-infected, disabled, terminally ill people who become outcasts.

Marginality happens natural And artificial. There is a “bottom” in society in the form of ruined and dejected people, as well as antisocial elements - those whom society itself rejects.

An example of mass artificial marginalization - in the middle of the last century, carried out Nazi Germany. Artificial marginalization acquired catastrophic proportions during the era of Stalinism. Family members of “enemies of the people”, special settlers, etc. have become marginalized.

Synonyms

Words and expressions that are close in meaning are “freak”, “declassed element”, “nihilist”, “outcast”, “informal”.

The concepts of “lumpen” and “marginal” are not complete synonyms, although they are similar. The difference is in the shades of meaning. Lumpen is a person who “strayed from his own people” and stopped working. These are tramps, beggars, beggars. The marginalized who quit or lost their jobs became lumpen.

If events develop favorably, a person’s period of marginality does not last long: he adapts, joins society, finds work, friends, and ceases to be a marginalized person. However, this “status” can be imposed on a person by society because of his unusualness, originality, difference from others, or illness. This “stigma” is placed in schools, work groups, even in the family. Someone sinks to the social bottom and can no longer get out, while someone decides not to return to a “normal”, ordinary life, and proudly bears the title “marginal”.

When reading paper or online publications, you can often come across words whose meaning is unclear. Embargo, mainstream, gender, collapse, gadget, pattern, retail, headliner, trend, fake... You can guess what some of them mean by general sense text, but this is not always easy. The task is simplified when a word is currently used by the media so often that it is firmly remembered, and the reader has no choice but to find out or guess the meaning of a particular term.

"Unclear Concepts"

The most difficult situation is with words that are not used daily in the speech of a large number of journalists. These include, for example, “offer” or “marginal”. The meaning of a word is sometimes difficult to guess by its sound. And if the word is foreign, then the task becomes almost impossible. We have to turn to explanatory dictionaries to establish the origin of a term that is unfamiliar to the ear.

Who is the marginalized? The meaning of the word is particularly difficult to ascertain for several reasons. Firstly, not all explanatory dictionaries provide the full number of meanings. Secondly, the very meaning of this word has undergone several dramatic changes, which has made it rather blurred and unclear. Only by tracing the entire history can one understand this issue.

First of all, marginal is not a mathematical concept, not a plant, or a piece of clothing. This is a man. But what kind of a person is, what distinguishes him from everyone else and why he received a separate status - all these questions are the subject of a detailed conversation.

Margins of the early 20th century

The term itself was formulated in 1928 by the American sociologist Robert Park, and has since undergone significant changes in its meaning. Initially, R. Park, the founder of the psychology of urban lifestyle, believed that the marginal is someone who is in an uncertain position between a rural resident and an urbanized one. His usual culture was destroyed, and he did not fit into the new one. Such a person can be called a savage concrete jungle, his behavior is so unacceptable in the social environment of the city.

The term was derived from the Latin margo - “edge”. Thus, marginalized are people who live on the border of various social elements, but do not fit into the norms of any of them.

Marginal personality according to Robert Park

The meaning of the word was quite negative from the very beginning. How best to answer the question? Professor R. Park himself defined the main character traits of such a person as follows: anxiety, aggressiveness, ambition, resentment and self-centeredness. Usually this was the name given to various kinds of asocial elements: the poorest migrants, tramps, homeless people, drunkards, drug addicts, criminals. In general, representatives of the social bottom. The borderline state in which these people find themselves leaves an imprint on their psyche.

Any society has its own written and unwritten rules, foundations, and traditions. The marginalized person rejects all this, not feeling his duty towards society, not sharing the norms accepted in it. According to R. Park, such individuals experience a strong need for solitude and a secluded lifestyle.

Classification

According to modern sociological classification, there are several groups of people who, based on a number of unifying features, can be called marginal.

These groups include:

ethnic marginals (descendants of mixed marriages, migrants);
biological marginals (people with limited physical or mental capabilities, deprived of the attention and care of society);
age marginals (a generation whose connection with the majority of society has been severed);
social marginals (people who do not fit into one or another social structure due to their lifestyle, worldview, profession, etc.);
economic marginals (the unemployed and the poorest segments of the population);
political marginals (those who use methods of political struggle that are not accepted in a given society);
religious marginals (believers who do not adhere to a particular denomination);
criminal marginals (criminals, by the standards of a given society).

In modern society

Due to such a broad classification and the gradual expansion of the meaning of the concept of “marginal,” examples can be found in various areas of life:

a tramp who has neither housing nor work;
a person who left to seek the meaning of life in India or Tibet;
a hippie who denies social hierarchy;
a world traveler living on the road;
drug addict;
hermit, antisocial person;
freelancer and any “free artist” not bound by corporate conventions;
a bank robber who breaks laws and is forced to go into hiding;
a multimillionaire whose lifestyle is significantly different from the vast majority of society.

In a word, everyone who does not fit into the so-called “correct” social behavior, can be called marginals. Over time, the meaning of this term has changed significantly.

From social bottom to special group

By the end of the 20th century. the term has lost its original, sharply negative meaning. In print, television and online media, phrases such as “marginal literature”, “marginal topic”, “marginal culture”, “marginal movement”, “marginal worldview” began to appear. These, at first glance, very strange semantic combinations reveal the altered meaning of the word.

Now, in many cases, a marginalized person is a person whose lifestyle differs from the generally accepted one. Moreover, this can be either a difference with a minus sign (homeless, drunkard) or with a plus sign (hermit monk, billionaire).

It has also become common to use this word in the following meanings: “belonging to a minority”, “little known”, “little influential”, “incomprehensible, not close to the majority of society.”

Due to the transformation of the meaning of this term, it is becoming increasingly difficult to give a clear answer to the question of who is a marginalized person. This word is gradually losing its original, unambiguously negative connotation, approaching a neutral sound. Marginal is someone who (whether by choice or not) does not fit into the traditional structure of their social environment.

Marginal properties of objects

Apart from the meaning relating to the human person or social groups, this term expresses certain properties of the material world. For example, in explanatory dictionaries The following meanings of the adjective “marginal” are described:

insignificant, secondary;
minor, minor;
written in the margins (of a book, manuscript, etc.).

Foreign words with unclear meanings surround us everywhere, but they help us understand them modern dictionaries. So it is with the concept “marginal”, the meaning of which is varied and often changes depending on the situation of use.