Marginality - what is it, examples, classification, reasons

What is marginality?

Marginality (from the Latin word marginalis - located on the edge) is a term in sociology that denotes the intermediate position of a person between certain social groups.
This term appeared in the 1920s, arose thanks to the scientific works of sociologist R. Park from the USA. Marginal people were considered to be people who were outside the social and cultural context due to the loss of connection with the normal environment and society. In those days, they included villagers who came to the city, emigrants. Subsequently, the category of “marginality” acquired a broader meaning—asocial people who did not recognize social conditions and lived by their own rules began to be called marginal.

As a rule, marginalized individuals are highly susceptible to psychological crises, loneliness, fear about their future, and are subject to aggression from other people. Such people usually belong to certain social groups that are temporary and situational in nature.

What are the marginalized? Examples of social marginality

The term “marginalized” was coined by American sociologist Robert Park in the 1920s. Park studied marginality using the example of emigrants. People brought up in one culture, but forced to live in another, occupy an “intermediate” position in the new country, the sociologist explained.

Immigrants arrive in America. Drawing around 1900.

People become marginalized as a result of social upheavals - reforms, revolutions, crises. For example, urbanization - the mass relocation of rural residents to cities - turns yesterday's peasants into urban outcasts.

An economic downturn can make even wealthy people unemployed. And the development of technology is turning representatives of an “outdated” profession into unclaimed marginals.

Political fringes can be those who express political views that differ from the generally accepted ones - not necessarily extremist ones.

Religious fringes are people who stand outside traditional confessions.

A person can become marginalized absolutely voluntarily. For example, representatives of the counterculture and a number of youth subcultures deliberately oppose themselves to society.

Moscow punks. 1995 Photo: RIA Novosti / Ilya Pitalev

Examples of marginality

The most common example of marginality is migrants who came in search of a better life. They do not know the language of the country, belong to a different cultural environment, and cannot be fully included in the modern semantic space. One of the most numerous groups of such marginalized people are migrants from the former USSR. They come to get money, lead an unstable lifestyle, choose random work, which can be criminal.

In many cases, the term “marginality” has negative associations, since the lower social strata or even criminal groups are considered marginal. However, such a definition cannot be called correct. Successful people who do not belong to specific social groups can also be marginalized. An example is Leo Tolstoy, who rejected the established values ​​of his time.

In addition, refugees often become marginalized, and sometimes, for example, former military personnel who, after being discharged, have not yet had time to adapt to society. Often, after a break with a past life and lack of contact with a new one, a person is able to sink to the “bottom” of life.

Varieties of marginality

Individual marginality is characterized by the individual’s partial inclusion in a group that does not fully accept him and by alienation from the group of origin that rejects him as an apostate. In this case, the individual turns out to be a “cultural hybrid”, included in the life and traditions of two (or several) groups.

Group marginality arises as a result of changes in the social structure of society, the creation of new functional groups in politics and economics, which displace old groups and destabilize their social position.

Modern sociology of marginality includes three sections:

1. Structural marginality. Socio-economic study of exclusion, unemployment, study of the negative connotation of marginality, “advanced urban poor”, when the marginalized people of large cities are considered as a result of the advancement and diversification of the city.
2. Cultural marginality. An interdisciplinary field of study of cultural marginality, including anthropology, psychology, exploring the origins of xenophobia, nationalism, considering cosmopolitanism as a form of socio-cultural communication.
3. Sociology of identity. Contradictory personalities are explored. When the boundaries of identity are fluid, the concepts of “ambivalent identity,” “ambiguous,” and “labile identity” are used.

The main social factor that forms the marginal layer is the border in motion.

The marginalized can act as a more civilized being, predisposed and receptive to change, to everything new. Or as a conservative defending the old, former borders on which his identity depends. He does not want to be included in new boundaries, to identify himself with new formations.

There are various groups of marginality:

• ethnomarginality – groups of people united as a result of migrations or grown up as a result of mixed marriages, belonging to a national minority;
• sociomarginality – groups in the process of incomplete social displacement, loss of social prestige, stigmatization, declassification of marginal groups;
• political marginality – unites groups that oppose the legitimate rules of socio-political life and legal opportunities, deprivation of the right to choose, withdrawal from participation in political activities, from access to political influence;
• economic marginality – exclusion from activity and consumption, includes the unemployed and the “new poor”;
• biomarginality – includes groups of people and individuals whose health is indifferent to society (disabled people, the seriously ill, the elderly);
• age marginality – unites groups formed when ties between generations are broken;
• religious marginality – groups outside of confessions;
• criminal marginality – includes criminal elements.

Reasons for marginality

The process of marginalization can be forced and deliberate. A person is able, in a certain form, to stop connecting himself with the cultural and social environment, to break spiritual, social and economic ties.

The main reasons for marginality include:

• forced relocation, loss of normal environment, difficulties in getting used to other conditions, environment, new language, culture;
• loss of property, property, source of income;
• change in the political regime in the country;
• the formation of a new way of life, other habits, changing the existing worldview;
• choosing a new religion;
• loss of ability to work, disability.

Marginal personality according to Robert Park

American sociologist Robert Park considered the following to be the main character traits and personality traits of marginalized people:

• anxiety;
• aggressiveness;
• ambition;
• touchiness;
• selfishness;
• categorical views;
• negativism;
• unsatisfied ambition;
• anxiety states and phobias.

In society, marginalized individuals were people with an asocial lifestyle (poor refugees, homeless people, beggars, tramps, people with various kinds of addictions, lawbreakers), who can be classified as representatives of the social bottom. Their living conditions have a significant negative impact on their mental state. Any civilized society lives according to its own established rules, customs and norms. R. Park believed that a marginal personality:

1. Rejects any norms and traditions accepted in society.
2. Has no sense of duty towards the society in which he lives.
3. Experiences a strong need to be alone and avoids the company of people.

Important! Most sociological experts and practicing psychologists believe that the margins are a source of cultural growth. He can objectively, without external influence, evaluate any phenomenon and situation, because he is not involved in it, as if isolated. It fills a social group with new ideas, views, introduces new trends, helps members of society to develop, broaden their horizons, look at problems from a different perspective, and instills tolerance.

Types of marginality

There are several types of marginals. Their classification is quite simple. It is based on the reasons for the development of this particular way of life. The following types of marginality can be distinguished:

• Economic. It implies that people, for specific reasons, lose their jobs, the opportunity to earn an income, and their own housing. This type also includes very rich people who, due to their high income, completely lose connections with work colleagues, friends, and relatives. As a result, the economic type of marginality is usually classified as oligarchs and beggars.
• Ethnic. This type of marginality is associated with a change of place of residence, as a result of which a person has to live in the same society with representatives of other races, cultures, and nationalities. It is not possible to adapt to a foreign religion, language, culture, or traditions in every case. Representatives of ethnic marginality can be called emigrants.
• Criminal. We are talking about a situation when a person ceases to comply with the moral norms and laws established in society. This leads to him committing crimes and violating existing legal provisions.
• Social. It implies a change in economic systems, which negatively affects the process of people’s adaptation to new living conditions.
• Political. We are talking about rapid changes in the country's political regime, revolutions, turning points in historical events at the level of the state and the whole world.
• Age. Implies conflict between the older and younger generations.
• Biological. It implies difficulties in social adaptation of people who are ill and have limited mental abilities. Individuals who suffer from Down syndrome, HIV-infected people and others become outcasts.

Who is the marginalized?

This term was first used in psychology in 1928 by Robert Park to mean a person occupying an intermediate position between rural and urban residents. This is someone who previously lived in a village, village, and then moved to the city, while his cultural values ​​acquired while living in the countryside did not fit into the requirements and foundations of urban civilization. His behavior and habits turned out to be unacceptable for the urban social environment. Today, not only people who do not fit into the urban environment are called marginalized.

This term has become quite widespread. Sociological science classifies a person as marginal whose behavior goes beyond the generally accepted norms and rules of any social group. He is between two conflicting groups. This leads to a person's internal conflict. The marginal is part of two different social groups, but does not accept either of them (does not live by their laws and is not guided by the norms and values ​​accepted in them). From a psychological point of view, a marginalized person physically belongs to one or another social group, but psychologically, morally, and emotionally is outside its boundaries.

Marginality in the modern world

The concept of “marginal” from the very beginning had a negative context, but in the modern world it can also have a positive connotation. Now it is even considered prestigious to stand out among others.

Marginalized people have higher social mobility than ordinary people. Moving to a more economically prosperous area, finding a job that brings more income, changing professions is not a problem for them;

In addition, the lack of similarity with other members of society helps such people create a certain business. The reason is that marginalized people often do not have permanent employment, which means they are open to new ideas and initiatives.

The meaning of the word "Marginal"

Marginal (from the Latin “marginalis” - extreme or “margo” - edge) is a person who lives in a social environment, but does not accept the worldview, principles, norms, values, moral ideals, and way of life imposed by it. We can say that he is on the edge of the system, outside the laws and orders imposed by the social structure. In the modern Russian language there are many synonyms for the word “marginal”: outcast, black sheep, informal, individual, asocial, nihilist. Example: homeless person, hippie, goth, hermit monk, ascetic.

Also, Karl Marx designated people from the lower strata of society with the term “Lumpen”. In modern times, the two concepts of marginal and lumpen are intertwined with each other.

Signs of marginality:

• disruption of important connections for a person (biosocial, cultural, spiritual, economic) that existed in a previous life;
• constant movement due to lack of attachment to anything;
• internal psychological conflict due to the inability to find oneself and the emergence of mental problems on this basis;
• due to non-compliance with law and order, the ease of becoming an unlawful member of society (offender);
• representatives of the lowest strata of society (homeless people, alcoholics, drug addicts, etc.);
• the formation of one’s own values ​​and norms, which very often contradict and are hostile to the values ​​of the social group to which the marginalized person belongs.

At first glance, the word “marginal” has only negative connotations. Actually this is not true. Like any phenomenon, marginality has, in addition to negative aspects, also positive ones, which include the following:

• a different way of thinking and worldview is a source of progressive, innovative activity;
• due to high mobility, the marginalized have a better chance of starting life over, getting a different education, finding a better job, moving to a more prosperous area of ​​the city, or changing their country of residence to a more economically developed one;
• Due to their uniqueness and dissimilarity with others, marginalized people have the opportunity to find an untapped niche in the market for goods and services and engage in a profitable business (open their own business related to the sale of ethnic goods, souvenirs from their previous place of residence). For this reason, marginalized people very often become billionaires.

Types of marginalized people

As a rule, the status of “marginal” is temporary. A person adapts to new living conditions, finds a job, “grows” with connections and “joins” society, and ceases to be a marginalized person.

The intermediate position in the social structure is prolonged among the forced marginalized or those who consciously chose this status. The forced marginalized include refugees, and the “conscious” include extremists, sectarians, and downshifters.

In sociology, the following types of marginalized people are distinguished:

• political,
• religious,
• ethnic,
• economic,
• social,
• biological.

Political marginals

Political crises, a decline in civic consciousness, and distrust of the current government lead to the emergence of this type of marginalized people. The marginalized consciously oppose themselves to society and its political system. For example, people are psychologically “stuck” in the USSR era.

Religious fringes

Society can be divided into those who profess the religions accepted in it or those who do not believe in God at all. Persons who claim that they are not representatives of any religion, but at the same time believe in a higher power, become religious marginals. They are the ones who found sects and extremist religious groups. A person who professes, for example, Christianity in a Muslim country or vice versa can also be called a marginalized person of this type. Religious minorities will be marginalized for society as a whole (Christians in Kosovo).

Ethnic marginalized

The marginalized of this type include migrants and refugees who had to leave their familiar environment. Intercultural and religious differences can become insurmountable obstacles for ethnically marginalized people. This type includes children born from representatives of different nationalities. This will be true in the case where the child does not identify himself with either the father’s nation or the mother’s nation and therefore is not accepted into either of them.

Economic marginalized

Loss of a job, inability or unwillingness to find a new one, loss of property or usual sources of income lead to economic marginality. In especially difficult cases, people who find themselves in this situation become embittered and deliberately avoid their usual social circle; some fundamentally begin to live off others or government benefits. The loss of a job or property can lead a person to the social “bottom”, his lumpenization.

An example of the emergence of a large number of economic marginals in our country is the 90s of the 20th century. The closure of enterprises, scientific institutions and a general decrease in wages have left a large number of people without their usual jobs and unable to find a new one.

Nowadays, multimillionaires can also be considered economically marginalized, since their financial status and capabilities separate them from the majority of society

Social marginals

The emergence of marginalized people of this type is facilitated by social upheavals (catastrophes) in society, when the usual structure collapses. An example is the revolution of 1917, when a huge number of people were forced to flee the country.

Another reason that a person has become a marginalized person of this type may be the desire to improve his social status (find a better paid job, get married profitably). This is true if the attempts are unsuccessful. The individual has lost old social connections, but has not established new ones or has also lost them.

Biological marginals

In an ideal society, treatment of a person should not be based on his state of health and appearance. Unfortunately, disability, congenital deformities, old age or diseases such as HIV or autism spectrum disorders in children, Down syndrome make a person an “outcast”, a biological marginal.

Is marginality good or bad?

The term marginal is sociological, denoting only the intermediateness between different groups of society. Therefore, it would not be entirely correct to consider this term negative.

Throughout the history of mankind, there have been people who have been excluded from society. Of all the well-known ones, we can highlight such writers as Sakharov and Tolstoy or Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugacheve. And the most striking example of marginality, perhaps, will be Jesus Christ (half God, half man in Christian culture). From the moment of his birth, starting from the non-standard place of birth (in a stable) and throughout his entire life, Jesus lives, as it were, in his own world and does not at all try to “merge” into the society in which he finds himself. On the contrary, by preaching, he seems to be contributing to the destruction of the society into which he came. And at the same time, he became known and revered not only in Christian culture, but also in Islam (Prophet Isa), as well as in secular culture.

And Leo Tolstoy, for example, liked life in the village and he denied most of the privileges of the noble class. He created revolutionary publications on paper. And despite the fact that Tolstoy interpreted Christian concepts in the same way, the Orthodox Church expelled him.

Nevertheless, it is not always that a marginal person is ready to come to terms with his uncertain status and makes every effort to become part of the new society. By the way, based on the observations of sociologists, it was noticed that it is in connection with this factor that some emigrants or visitors achieve great heights in business and science.

But like any life situation, we can consider the concept of “marginal”, both from a positive and negative side.

The positive ones include:

1. Individuality. These people differ from society and, in their internal concepts and beliefs, go beyond the herd instinct. Often such people become famous scientists or artists.
2. A non-standard view of familiar things also helps them in creating something new, for example, a new business, the idea of ​​which no one else has thought of.
3. Marginalized people are very flexible, which helps them achieve their goals and easily move to another city or country for work, for example.

On the negative side, perhaps:

1. It is often difficult for a marginalized person to satisfy his basic needs on his own.
2. In many cases, marginality arises due to unfavorable living conditions, revolutions or wars in the country.
3. The majority eventually develops a craving for illegal activities, and then the marginalized become dangerous to society.

Marginals and lumpen

Many people consider the concepts of marginalized people and lumpen to be synonymous, but this is a mistaken opinion.

Lumpen is a person who consciously leads an antisocial lifestyle and does not strive to improve it. These are morally degraded, degraded people who are constantly sinking lower and lower. This man refuses to work and leads a vicious lifestyle.

The following are considered to be lumpen:

• Persons without a fixed place of residence;
• Drug addicts;
• Alcoholics;
• Known dependents;
• Working class with income below the subsistence level;
• Criminals, both in prison and those returning from prison.

All lumpen people, as a rule, lack motivation to act. They have no goals or desire to change their financial situation or improve their social status. Typically, lumpen people communicate only with their own kind, without perceiving other people, which is often mutual.

In some cases, the marginalized can be lumpen. But still, marginalized people are people who could not fit into the established society, who have their own philosophy and lead a non-standard and, perhaps, incomprehensible way of life for society.

Lumpen people tend to beg for money in order to provide themselves with alcohol or at least some food.

But you need to understand that marginality is not synonymous with words such as “ragamuffin,” “tramp,” “homeless,” “alcoholic,” or “drug addict.” And the word lumpen is more suitable for defining these concepts.

When synonyms for the marginal can be “informal”, “freak”, “outcast”, “nihilist” or “déclasse element”.

From this we can conclude that the marginalized and the lumpen have nothing in common.