on the topic: “Marginality in modern society”
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….3
1.Theory of marginality………………………………………………………...….6
1.1. Concept of marginality………………………………………………………………8
1.2.Two waves of marginalization in Russia…………………………………..12
1.3 Society’s reaction to the presence of marginalized people………………….…………15
2. Crime and marginality in modern society……………16
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………....19
References………………………………………………………..21
Introduction
Relevance The topic is due to the fact that at the present stage of development of Russian society, the marginal concept is becoming one of the recognized theoretical research models that can be used in such areas of development of domestic sociology that are most promising for the study of social dynamics, social structure, and social processes. Analysis of modern society from the point of view of the theory of marginality leads to interesting observations and results.
At all times and in all countries, people who for some reason fell out of social structures were characterized by increased mobility and settled in outlying territories. Therefore, the phenomenon of marginality is mainly acute on the outskirts of countries, despite the fact that it has captured society as a whole.
In addition, since the problem of marginality is poorly studied and debatable, its further study is also relevant for the development of science itself.
So, it can be argued that the marginal concept at the present stage is a popular theoretical model for analyzing the state of Russian society and can play an important role in the study of its social structure.
Degree of knowledge.
The study of the problem of marginality has a fairly long tradition, history and is characterized by a variety of approaches. The founders of the marginal concept are considered to be American sociologists R. Park and E. Stonequist; the processes of marginalization themselves were also considered earlier in the works of G. Simmel, K. Marx, E. Durkheim, W. Turner. Thus, K. Marx showed the mechanism of formation of excess work force in capitalist society and the formation of declassed layers. G. Simmel touched upon the consequences of interaction between two cultures in his studies and described the social type of a stranger. E. Durkheim studied the instability and inconsistency of an individual’s value-normative attitudes in the context of a social system of norms and values. These authors did not identify marginality as a separate sociological category, but at the same time they described in detail the social processes that result in the state of marginality.
In modern foreign sociology, two main approaches to understanding the phenomenon of marginality have emerged.
In American sociology, the problem of marginality is considered from the perspective of a cultural approach, in which it is defined as the state of individuals or groups of people placed on the edge of two cultures, participating in the interaction of these cultures, but not completely adjacent to either of them. Representatives: R. Park, E. Stonequist, A. Antonovski, M. Goldberg, D. Golovenski, N. Dickey-Clark, A. Kerkhoff, I. Krauss, J. Mancini, R. Merton, E. Hughes, T. Shibutani, T. Wittermans.
In European sociology, the problem of marginality is studied from the position of a structural approach, which considers it in the context of changes occurring in the social structure of society as a result of various socio-political and economic processes. Representatives: A. Farge, A. Touraine, J. Lévy-Strange, J. Sztumski, A. Prost, V. Bertini.
In domestic science, the phenomenon of marginality is currently being studied from the point of view of different approaches. In sociology, the problem of marginality is analyzed by most authors from the point of view of the transformation of the socio-economic system and the social structure of society, within the framework of the stratification model of the social system. In this direction, the problem is being studied by Z. Golenkova, A. Zavorin, S. Kagermazova, Z. Galimullina, I. Popova, N. Frolova, S. Krasnodemskaya.
Goal of the work:
Identify the significance of the problem of marginality in the social structure of modern society.
To achieve this goal, the following were set: tasks:
1. Study the theory of marginality.
2. Identify and systematize the main modern theoretical approaches to the problem of marginality.
3. Determine the relationship between crime and marginality in modern society.
Object of study:
Marginality as a social phenomenon in modern society.
Subject of study:
Sociological characteristics of marginality, its features in the social structure of modern society.
Work structure:
The work contains an introduction, a main part, where the basics of the theory of marginality are examined, the works of famous sociologists are studied, the concept of marginality is presented, as well as a conclusion, which contains a conclusion on this topic.
1.Theory of marginality
Marginality is a special sociological term to designate a borderline, transitional, structurally uncertain social state
subject. People who, for various reasons, fall out of their usual social environment and are unable to join new communities (often for reasons of cultural incongruity) experience great psychological stress and experience a kind of crisis of self-awareness.
The theory of marginals and marginal communities was put forward in the first quarter of the 20th century. one of the founders of the Chicago sociological school (USA) R. E. Park, and its socio-psychological aspects were developed in the 30-40s. E. Stonequist. But K. Marx also considered the problems of social declassing and its consequences, and M. Weber directly concluded that the movement of society begins when marginal strata are organized into a certain social force (community) and give impetus to social changes - revolutions or reforms.
The name of Weber is associated with a deeper interpretation of marginality, which made it possible to explain the formation of new professional, status, religious and similar communities, which, of course, could not in all cases arise from “social waste” - individuals forcibly knocked out of their communities or asocial according to your chosen lifestyle.
On the one hand, sociologists have always recognized the unconditional connection between the emergence of a mass of people excluded from the system of habitual (normal, i.e. accepted in society) social connections and the process of the formation of new communities: negentropic tendencies in human communities operate according to the principle “there must be chaos” somehow ordered."
On the other hand, the emergence of new classes, strata and groups in practice is almost never associated with the organized activity of beggars and homeless people; rather, it can be seen as the construction of “parallel social structures” by people whose social life until the last moment of “transition” (which often looks as a “leap” to a new, pre-prepared structural position) was quite orderly.
There are two main approaches to considering marginality. Marginality as a contradiction, an uncertain state in the process of mobility of a group or individual (change of status); marginality as a characteristic of a special marginal (outlying, intermediate, isolated) position of groups and individuals in the social structure.
Among the marginalized may be ethnomarginals, formed by migrations to a foreign environment or grew up as a result of mixed marriages; biomarginals, whose health ceases to be a matter of concern for society; sociomarginals, such as groups in the process of incomplete social displacement; age marginals, formed when ties between generations are broken; political fringes: they are not satisfied with the legal possibilities and legitimate rules of socio-political struggle; economic marginals traditional (unemployed) and new type - the so-called “new poor”; religious fringes- those who are outside the confessions or who do not dare to choose between them; and finally criminal outcasts; and perhaps also simply those whose status in the social structure is not defined.
The emergence of new marginal groups is associated with structural changes in post-industrial societies and mass downward socialization. the mobility of heterogeneous groups of specialists losing their jobs, professional positions, status, and living conditions.
1.1.The concept of marginality
The basis of the classical concept of marginality was laid by the study of the characteristics of an individual located on the border of different cultures. The research was conducted by the Chicago School of Sociology. In 1928, its head, R. Park, first used the concept of “marginal person.” R. Park associated the concept of a marginal person not with a personality type, but with a social process. Marginality is the result of intensive processes of social mobility. At the same time, the transition from one social position to another appears to the individual as a crisis. Hence the association of marginality with the state of “intermediality”, “outskirts”, “borderliness”. R. Park noted that periods of transition and crisis in the lives of most people are comparable to those experienced by an immigrant when he leaves his homeland to seek happiness in a foreign country. True, unlike migration experiences, the marginal crisis is chronic and continuous, as a result it tends to turn into a personality type.
In general, marginality is understood as:
1) states in the process of moving a group or individual (change of status),
2) characteristics of social groups that are in a special marginal (marginal, intermediate, isolated) position in the social structure.
One of the first major works by Russian authors on marginality was published in 1987 and examined this problem using the example of Western European countries. Subsequently, marginality is recognized as a social phenomenon characteristic of our reality. E. Starikov considers Russian marginality as a phenomenon of a blurred, uncertain state of the social structure of society. The author comes to the conclusion that “nowadays the concept of “marginalization” covers almost our entire society, including its “elite groups.” Marginality in modern Russia is caused by massive downward social mobility and leads to an increase in social entropy in society. He views the process of marginalization at the present stage as a process of declassification.
The reasons for the emergence of marginal groups, according to Russian sociologists, are: the transition of society from one socio-economic system to another, uncontrolled movements of large masses of people due to the destruction of a stable social structure, deterioration in the material standard of living of the population, devaluation of traditional norms and values.
The fundamental changes occurring in the social structure as a result of the crisis and economic reforms caused the emergence of so-called new marginal groups (strata). Unlike the traditional, so-called lumpen proletarians, the new marginalized are victims of the structural restructuring of production and the employment crisis.
The criteria for marginality in this case may be: profound changes in the social position of socio-professional groups, occurring mainly forcedly, under the influence of external circumstances: complete or partial loss of work, change of profession, position, conditions and remuneration as a result of the liquidation of an enterprise, reduction in production , general decline in living standards, etc.
The source of replenishment of the ranks of new marginalized people, who are characterized by high education, developed needs, high social expectations and political activity, is the downward social movement of groups that have not yet been rejected from society, but are gradually losing their previous social positions, status, prestige and living conditions. Among them are social groups that have lost their previous social status and failed to acquire an adequate new one.
Studying the new marginalized people, I. P. Popova determined their social topology, that is, she identified zones of marginality - those spheres of society, sectors of the national economy, segments of the labor market, as well as social groups where the highest level of socio-professional marginality is observed:
Light and food industry, mechanical engineering;
Budgetary organizations of science, culture, education; military-industrial complex enterprises; army;
Small business;
Labor surplus and depressed regions;
Middle-aged and elderly people; graduates of schools and universities; single-parent and large families.
The composition of the new marginal groups is very heterogeneous. It can be divided into at least three categories. The first and most numerous are the so-called “post-specialists” - persons with a high level of education, most often engineers who received training at Soviet universities and then completed internships at Soviet enterprises. Their knowledge in the new market conditions turned out to be unclaimed and largely outdated. These include workers in unpromising industries. Their appearance is caused by common reasons: structural changes in the economy and the crisis of individual industries; regional disparities in economic development; changes in the professional and qualification structure of the economically active and employed population. The social consequences of these processes are the aggravation of employment problems and the complication of the unemployment structure; development of the informal employment sector; deprofessionalization and deskilling.”
The second group of new marginals is called “new agents”. These include representatives of small businesses and the self-employed population. Entrepreneurs, as agents of emerging market relations, are in a borderline situation between legal and illegal business.
The third group includes “migrants” - refugees and forced migrants from other regions of Russia and from “near abroad” countries.
The marginal status of the forced migrant is complicated by a number of factors. Among the external factors: the double loss of the homeland (the inability to live in the former homeland and the difficulty of adapting to the historical homeland), difficulties in obtaining status; loans, housing, the attitude of the local population, etc. Internal factors are associated with the experience of being “ another Russian."
When comparatively measuring the degree of marginality in socio-professional movements, sociologists distinguish two groups of indicators: objective - forced by external circumstances, duration, immutability of the situation, its “fatality” (lack of opportunities to change it or its components in a positive direction); subjective - possibilities and measure of adaptability, self-assessment of compulsion or voluntariness, social distance in changing social status, increasing or decreasing one’s socio-professional status, the predominance of pessimism or optimism in assessing prospects.
For Russia, the problem of marginality is that the marginal population, that is, predominantly that part of society that migrated from the rural environment to the city, acts as a bearer of group ideals and, having found itself in a completely alien urban industrial-urban environment, being not in ability to adapt, is constantly in a situation of shock, which is associated with multidirectional processes of human socialization in the city and rural areas.
1.2.Two waves of marginalization in Russia
Russia has experienced at least two major waves of marginalization. The first came after the revolution of 1917. Two classes were forcibly knocked out of the social structure - the nobility and the bourgeoisie, which were part of the elite of society. A new proletarian elite began to form from the lower classes. Workers and peasants became Red directors and ministers overnight. Bypassing the usual trajectory of social ascent through the middle class for a stable society, they skipped one step and got to where they could not get before and would not get to in the future (Fig. 1).
Essentially, they turned out to be what can be called rising marginals. They broke away from one class, but did not become full-fledged, as is required in a civilized society, representatives of a new, higher class. The proletarians retained the same behavior, values, language, and cultural customs characteristic of the lower classes of society, although they sincerely tried to join the artistic values of high culture, learned to read and write, went on cultural trips, visited theaters and propaganda studios.
The path “from rags to riches” persisted until the early 70s, when Soviet sociologists first established that all classes and strata of our society are now reproducing on their own basis, that is, only at the expense of representatives of their class. This lasted only two decades, which can be considered a period of stabilization of Soviet society and the absence of mass marginalization.
The second wave occurred in the early 90s and also as a result of qualitative changes in the social structure of Russian society.
The return movement of society from socialism to capitalism led to radical changes in the social structure (Fig. 2). The elite of society was formed from three additions: criminals, nomenklatura and “raznochintsy”. A certain part of the elite was replenished from representatives of the lower class: shaven-headed servants of the Russian mafiosi, numerous racketeers and organized criminals were often former members of the petty class and dropouts. The era of primitive accumulation, the early phase of capitalism, gave rise to ferment in all strata of society. The path to enrichment during this period, as a rule, lies outside the legal space. Among the first, those who did not have a high education or high morality, but who fully personified “wild capitalism,” began to get rich.
The elite included, in addition to representatives of the lower classes, “raznochintsy”, i.e. people from different groups of the Soviet middle class and intelligentsia, as well as the nomenklatura, which right time found herself in the right place, namely at the levers of power, when it was necessary to divide public property. On the contrary, the predominant part of the middle class has undergone downward mobility and joined the ranks of the poor. Unlike the old poor (declassed elements: chronic alcoholics, beggars, homeless people, drug addicts, prostitutes) existing in any society, this part is called the “new poor”. They represent a specific feature of Russia. This category of poor does not exist either in Brazil, or in the USA, or in any other country in the world. The first distinguishing feature is a high level of education. Teachers, lecturers, engineers, doctors and other categories of public sector employees were among the poor only by the economic criterion of income. But they are not so according to other, more important criteria related to education, culture and standard of living. Unlike the old, chronic poor, the “new poor” are a temporary category. With any change in the economic situation in the country for the better, they are ready to immediately return to the middle class. And they try to give their children a higher education, to instill the values of the elite of society, and not the “social bottom”.
Thus, radical changes in the social structure of Russian society in the 90s are associated with the polarization of the middle class, its stratification into two poles, which replenished the upper and lower classes of society. As a result, the number of this class has decreased significantly.
Having fallen into the stratum of the “new poor,” the Russian intelligentsia found itself in a marginal situation: it did not want and could not give up old cultural values and habits, and did not want to accept new ones. Thus, in terms of their economic status, these layers belong to the lower class, and in terms of lifestyle and culture - to the middle class. In the same way, representatives of the lower class who joined the ranks of the “new Russians” found themselves in a marginal situation. They are characterized by the old “rags to riches” model: the inability to behave and speak decently, to communicate in the way required by the new economic status. On the contrary, the downward model characterizing the movement of state employees could be called “from riches to rags.”
1.3.Society’s reaction to the presence of marginalized people
Marginal status (imposed or acquired) does not in itself mean a situation of social exclusion or isolation. It legitimizes these procedures, being the basis for the use of the “conceptual machinery of maintaining the universe” - therapy and exclusion. Therapy involves the use of conceptual mechanisms to keep actual and potential deviants within the institutionalized definition of reality. They are quite diverse - from pastoral care to personal counseling programs. Therapy is activated when the marginal definition of reality is psychologically disruptive for other members of society; Thus, the goal of counter-propaganda is to prevent “ferment of minds” under the influence of “foreign” media or charismatic personalities in one’s society. The exclusion of strangers – carriers of other definitions – is carried out in two directions:
1) Limiting contacts with “outsiders”; 2) Negative legitimation.
The second seems to us to be most closely related to the marginal status of individuals and groups. Negative legitimation means belittling the status and possibility of influence of marginalized people on the community. It is carried out through “annihilation” - the conceptual elimination of everything that is outside the universe. “Annihilation denies the reality of any phenomenon and its interpretation that does not fit this universe.” It is carried out either by attributing a lower ontological status to all definitions existing outside the symbolic universe, or by attempting to explain all deviating definitions on the basis of concepts of its own universe. Let us once again pay attention to the different reactions of society to deviance and marginality.
2. Crime and marginality in modern society
Currently, the scale of crime has reached proportions that threaten public safety as a whole. There is undoubtedly a great influence of the marginal environment here. Confirmation of the above is that the deterioration in the qualitative characteristics of the criminological situation is manifested in the intensive expansion of the criminogenic social base due to an increase in the marginal layer of lumpen population groups (the unemployed, homeless and other categories of people whose standard of living is below the poverty line), especially among young people, as well as among minors. In 1998, of the total number of crimes investigated, 10.3% were committed by minors and with their complicity, 32.9% - by persons who had previously committed crimes, 20.4% - in a group. The proportion of crimes committed while under the influence of drugs and toxic substances, which is typical for youth, is 1.0%.
Marginality acts as a favorable environment for the development of crime. Sadly, the forecast of crime in the world, in its individual regions and countries by the beginning of the third millennium raises only fair concerns. The overall resulting crime rate in the world will continue to go up in the near future. Its average increase can be in the range of 2-5% per year. This version of the forecast is led by extrapolation of existing trends, and expert assessments of the possible criminological situation in the world, and modeling of the causal basis of future crime, and a systematic analysis of the entire set of criminologically significant information of the past, present and possible future. If we talk about Russia, then the forecast estimates of crime in the present and future are characterized as very unfavorable.
From the point of view of criminological analysis of the degree of criminogenicity of marginality, it seems important to take into account the fact that the marginal environment is far from homogeneous. The multi-level nature of marginality is expressed primarily in the following:
1. Marginality as a phenomenon is characteristic of the Russian conditions of the “transition period”. This level is determined by the borderline state of society at the boundary of two social systems in conditions of crisis in the economy and socio-political formations, resulting in the destruction of various structures of society and the formation of new ones with a certain instability. The marginality of this level, due to a complex of factors of an external nature common to the entire country, determines the Marginality of a lower level, which characterizes the state of social subjects who find themselves in an intermediate state and is determined by factors not only of an objective, but also of a subjective nature. Generated by the indicated contradictions of the social structure, such marginalized people do not yet pose a criminogenic danger.
2. The marginal status of the next group is a source of neurotic symptoms, severe depression and ill-considered actions. Such groups are, in principle, the object of social control by social support institutions.
3. It is characteristic of some sections of the marginalized that they gradually develop a special system of values, which is often characterized by deep hostility to existing social institutions, extreme forms of social inadaptability and rejection of everything that exists. They, as a rule, are prone to simplistic maximalist solutions, exhibit extreme individualism and selfishness, deny any kind of organization and are close to anarchism in their orientations and actions. Such marginalized groups cannot yet be classified as criminal, although some prerequisites for this are already emerging.
4. Pre-criminal groups of marginalized people are characterized by instability of behavior and actions, as well as a nihilistic attitude towards law and order; they, as a rule, commit petty immoral acts and are distinguished by insolent behavior. Essentially, they form the “material” from which individuals and groups with a criminal orientation can be formed.
5. Persons with a stable criminal orientation. This kind of marginalized people have already fully formed stereotypes of illegal behavior and they often commit offenses, the extreme form of which is various types of crimes. Criminal jargon occupies a prominent place in their speech. Their actions are accompanied by special cynicism.
6. At the bottom level of the given classification of marginalized people are persons who have served a criminal sentence, who have lost socially useful connections among relatives, acquaintances, colleagues, etc. They encounter difficulties in finding a job and in the favorable attitude of family and loved ones towards them. They can rightfully be classified as “outcasts.” Providing real social protection in this case is difficult, although under certain conditions it is quite possible.
The approach to solving the problem of marginality in society should be based on the fact that marginality is considered primarily as an object of control and management at the national level. Its complete solution is associated with the country's recovery from the crisis and the stabilization of public life, the formation of stable, normally functioning structures, which actually makes this prospect remote. Nevertheless, public interests dictate the need for a socially acceptable solution to the problem of marginality through targeted management influence on various groups of factors that determine this phenomenon at specific, local levels.
Conclusion
A review of the history and development of the term “marginality” in Western sociology allows us to draw the following conclusions. Having emerged in the 1930s in the United States as a theoretical tool for studying the characteristics of a cultural conflict between two or more interacting ethnic groups, the concept of marginality took hold in the sociological literature and in the following decades, various approaches were identified. Marginality began to be understood not only as a result of intercultural ethnic contacts, but also as a consequence of socio-political processes. As a result, completely different angles of understanding marginality and the associated complexes of cause-and-effect processes emerged quite clearly. They can be designated by the keywords: “intermediality,” “outskirts,” “borderline,” which differently define the main emphasis in the study of marginality.
In general, two main approaches can be distinguished in the study of marginality:
The study of marginality as a process of movement of a group or individual from one state to another;
The study of marginality as a state of social groups that are in a special marginal (marginal, intermediate, isolated) position in the social structure as a consequence of this process.
The originality of approaches to the study of marginality and understanding of its essence is largely determined by the specifics of specific social reality and the forms that this phenomenon takes in it.
deprivation and social and spatial distance, insufficient organizational and conflict abilities as defining features of a marginal situation. Particularly emphasized is the fact that peripheral groups are legitimized as objects of official control and certain institutions. And although the existence of various types of marginality and various causal relationships is recognized, there is still unanimity that only in an insignificant part they are reducible to individual factors. Most types of marginality are formed from structural conditions associated with participation in the production process, income distribution, and spatial distribution. Many people on the margins are limited in their ability to live up to shared expectations and standards (eg, homeless people). There is also a definition of marginalization as a conservative method social policy.
Marginality in modern Russia is caused by massive downward social mobility and leads to an increase in social entropy in society. Marginalization becomes the main characteristic of the state of the modern social structure of Russian society, determining all other features of class genesis in Russia. Within the framework of the sociological approach itself, the problem of marginality was touched upon and studied most often in fragments. The sociological approach highlights in it, first of all, those aspects that are associated with changes in the socio-economic structure, with the transformation of subjects of social life into new ones.
To sum up the diversity of modern views on the problem, we can draw the following conclusions. In the early 90s, there was clearly a growing interest in this issue. At the same time, both the attitude towards it as a theory characteristic of Western sociology and the journalistic tradition had an impact.
By the second half of the 90s, the main features of the domestic model of the concept of marginality were emerging. Interesting and multidirectional efforts of various authors working enthusiastically in this direction have led to some consolidated characteristics in their views on this problem. The central point in the semantic definition of the concept becomes the image of transition, intermediality, which corresponds to the specifics of the Russian situation
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Introduction
Conclusion
Literature
Introduction
I chose the topic of my course work “Marginal groups of the population as a socio-political subject.” I chose this topic for several reasons. Firstly, studying this topic will expand my knowledge about marginalized populations, and secondly, this topic seemed interesting to me and I thought that studying it could help me in the future. And thirdly, the problem of marginality is quite relevant today.
The relevance of studying marginality is associated with a number of problems existing in society. Firstly, marginalized groups of the population are present in any society, although they are not represented by a large number of people in normal times. Secondly, in modern world the number of marginalized people has increased sharply due to the global economic crisis. Thirdly, the problem of marginality is relevant in Russia not only in connection with this crisis, but also in connection with the events of the late 20th century, namely the complete restructuring of the social, political and economic structure of society, which also led to the marginalization of the population in our country, the consequences which has not yet been overcome. And based on the previous reasons for its relevance that I mentioned, we can highlight the following. Since the number of marginalized people increases, there is a need to assess their socio-political activity and the direction in which it is directed.
The purpose of my work is to analyze marginalized groups of the population as a socio-political subject.
The tasks I set in this work are
) study of Western concepts of marginality that currently exist,
) studying the concepts of marginality that exist in our country,
marginal group totalitarian population
3) study of the connection between the marginalization of society and various radical movements
) study the relationship between the marginalization of society and the increase in crime in the country.
) study of the marginal population that exists in our country.
The problem of marginalization of society is, in my opinion, quite well developed. There is a large amount of research on this problem by European and American scientists. Also, this problem, starting around the mid-80s, begins to be actively developed in our country, and at the moment there are a number of its researchers. But it can be noted that I have not found a single comprehensive study devoted to marginalized people as socio-political subjects. There are only a few articles in which the authors examine only one or another aspect of the manifestation of the activity of a marginal group of the population.
Part 1. Basic concepts of marginality
§ 1. American and Western European schools of study of marginality
The term “marginality” itself has long been used to refer to notes and notes in the margins. But as a sociological term, it was first mentioned by the American sociologist Robert Ezra Park in his essay “Human Migration and the Marginal Man.”
For Park, the concept of marginality meant the position of individuals located on the border of two different, conflicting cultures, and served to study the consequences of the lack of adaptation of migrants, the peculiarities of the situation of mulattoes and other cultural hybrids.
Park's research positions are determined by the "classical" socio-ecological theory he created. In its light, society is presented as an organism and a “deeply biological phenomenon,” and the subject of sociology is patterns of collective behavior that are formed in the course of its evolution. In his theory, the marginalized person appears as an immigrant; a half-breed living simultaneously “in two worlds”; Christian convert in Asia or Africa. The main thing that determines the nature of a marginal person is a sense of moral dichotomy, division and conflict, when old habits are discarded and new ones have not yet been formed. This state is associated with a period of moving, transition, defined as a crisis. “No doubt,” Park notes, “the periods of transition and crisis in the lives of most of us are comparable to those experienced by the immigrant when he leaves his homeland to seek fortune in a foreign country. But in the case of the marginalized person, the period of crisis is relatively continuous. As a result, it tends to develop into a personality type."
In describing the “marginal person,” Park often resorts to psychological accents. American psychologist T. Shibutani drew attention to the complex of personality traits of a marginal person described by Park. It includes the following features:
· serious doubts about your personal worth,
· uncertainty of connections with friends and constant fear of being rejected,
· tendency to avoid uncertain situations so as not to risk humiliation,
· painful shyness in the presence of other people,
· loneliness and excessive daydreaming,
· excessive worry about the future and fear of any risky undertaking,
· inability to enjoy
· the belief that others are treating him unfairly.
At the same time, Park associates the concept of a marginal person not with a personality type, but with a social process. He views the marginalized person as a "by-product" of the process of acculturation in situations where people of different cultures and different races come together to continue a common life, and prefers to examine the process not from the point of view of the individual, but from the point of view of the society of which he is a part.
Park comes to the conclusion that a marginal personality embodies a new type of cultural relationships emerging at a new level of civilization as a result of global ethnosocial processes. "A marginalized person is a type of personality that appears at a time and place where new communities, peoples, and cultures begin to emerge from the conflict of races and cultures. Fate condemns these people to exist in two worlds at the same time; forces them to accept both worlds "the role of the cosmopolitan and the stranger. Such a person inevitably becomes (in comparison with his immediate cultural environment) an individual with a wider horizon, a more refined intellect, more independent and rational views. The marginal person is always a more civilized being."
Park's ideas were picked up, developed and revised by another American sociologist, Everett Stonequist, in the monographic study "Marginal Man" (1937).
Stonequist describes the marginal position of a subject participating in a cultural conflict, as if caught between two fires. Such an individual is on the edge of each of the cultures, but does not belong to any of them. The object of his attention is the typical features of the marginalized and the problems associated with his inadaptability, as well as social significance such a person.
Stonequist defines the marginalized person in terms of an individual or group who moves from one culture to another, or in some cases (for example, through marriage or education) connects with two cultures. He is in a psychological balancing act between two social worlds, one of which, as a rule, dominates the other. Stonequist writes that, in an effort to integrate into the dominant group in society, members of subordinate groups (for example, ethnic minorities) become accustomed to its cultural standards; Thus, cultural hybrids are formed, which inevitably find themselves in a marginal situation. They are never fully accepted by the dominant group, but they are also rejected as apostates by the origin group. Just like Park, focusing on describing the inner world of a marginalized person, Stonequist uses the following psychological characteristics that reflect the severity of the cultural conflict:
- disorganized, overwhelmed, unable to identify the source of the conflict;
- a feeling of an “impregnable wall”, inadequacy, failure;
- restlessness, anxiety, internal tension;
- isolation, alienation, non-involvement, constraint;
- disappointment, despair;
- destruction of the “life organization”, mental disorganization, meaninglessness of existence;
- self-centeredness, ambition and aggressiveness.
Stonequist believed that a marginal person can play both the role of a leader of socio-political, nationalist movements and eke out a miserable existence.
Stonequist believed that the process of adaptation of the marginalized could lead to the formation of a new personality, which, in his opinion, could take approximately 20 years. He identifies 3 phases of this evolution of the marginal:
.the individual does not realize that his own life is engulfed in cultural conflict, he only absorbs the dominant culture;
2.the conflict is experienced consciously - it is at this stage that a person becomes marginal;
.successful and unsuccessful attempts to adapt to a conflict situation.
Thus, the concept of marginality is initially presented as the concept of a marginal person. R. Park and E. Stonequist, having described the inner world of the marginalized, became the founders of the tradition of psychological nominalism in understanding marginality in American sociology.
Subsequently, the study of marginality was picked up by a large number of sociologists, while the range of described cases of marginality expanded, and in connection with this, new approaches to this problem were developed.
The American tradition, following Park and Stonequist, focuses on the cultural side of the conflict, which becomes the reason for the formation of a marginal personality type. The study of such cultural marginality was continued by Antonovsky, Glass, Gordon, Woods, Herrick, Harman and other sociologists. At the same time, other approaches were being formed. For example, Hughes drew attention to the difficulties that women and blacks faced in mastering professions typically associated with men or whites. He used these observations to show that marginality exists not only as a product of racial and cultural change, but also as a product of social mobility. In fact, it can be said that Hughes expanded the concept of marginality to include all situations where an individual is identified with two statuses or social groups, but is nowhere fully accepted.
Marginality from the point of view of social psychology was also developed in sufficient detail by T. Shibutani. In my work" Social Psychology"he considers marginality in the context of the socialization of the individual in a changing society. The individual finds himself faced with several standard groups with different and sometimes contradictory demands, the satisfaction of which is simultaneously impossible. This is the main difference between a changing society and a stable one, where standard groups reinforce each other. The absence of this reinforcement is the source of marginality.
Shibutani defines a marginal person as: “Marginal people are those who are on the border between two or more social worlds, but are not accepted by either of them as full participants.” At the same time, he highlights the concept of marginal status as key in understanding marginality. Shibutani notes that marginal status is a position where the contradictions of the structure of society are embodied. This approach allows Shibutani to move away from the traditional emphasis on socio-psychological characteristics since the time of the Park. Shibutani writes that the complex of psychological traits described by Park and Stonequist is not characteristic of all marginalized people, but only part of them. In fact, there is no mandatory relationship between marginal status and personality disorders. Neurotic symptoms develop most often only in those who try to identify themselves with a higher stratum and rebel when they are rejected.
Although, as he believes, marginal status is potentially a source nervous tension, depression and stress, the manifestation of various neurotic syndromes that can lead to depersonalization. In severe cases, a person becomes extremely sensitive to his negative qualities, and this creates a terrible image of himself in the person himself. And this can lead to a suicide attempt. He considers an increase in creative activity to be a positive development option for a marginal personality. And Shibutani notes that "in any culture, the greatest achievements are usually made during times of rapid social change, and many of the great contributions have been made by marginalized people."
Along with studies of marginality, in the tradition of American subjectivist-psychological nominalism, an approach to the study of marginality in connection with objective social conditions, with a strong emphasis on the study of these conditions themselves and the social causes of marginality, asserts itself.
The European tradition should be understood as a wide range of different clarifications of the concept of “marginality”. The European tradition is distinguished by the fact that it focuses its attention on outlying groups. Also, its difference is that the subject of its research is not the concept of marginality itself, since it was adopted in its current form. In its most general form, marginality is associated with the exclusion of individuals from social groups and the system of social relations. In the work of domestic authors “On the Fractures of the Social Structure,” which examines the problems of marginality in Western Europe, the statement is made that the marginal part refers to the part of the population that “does not participate in the production process, does not perform social functions, does not have social status and exists on those funds that are either obtained in circumvention of generally accepted regulations, or are provided from public funds - in the name of political stability - by the propertied classes." The reasons leading to the emergence of this mass of the population are hidden in deep structural changes in society. They are associated with economic crises, wars, revolutions and demographic factors.
The originality of approaches and understanding of the essence of marginality largely depends on the existing social reality and the forms that this phenomenon takes.
In French studies, a new type of marginalized person appears, created by the corresponding social atmosphere. It embodied marginal forms of protest, voluntary departure from traditional society, and peculiar defensive reactions of predominantly youth subcultures in conditions of crisis and mass unemployment. Among the traditional marginal groups, marginal intellectuals are emerging. The problem of marginalized political consciousness comes to the fore. One of the theorists of marginalism, J. Lévy-Stranger, wrote: “In this new situation, the influence of subversive ideas of those for whom leaving is an individual theoretical choice, a means to prevent the development of a society unable to extricate itself from its contradictions, may increase from interaction with the economic marginalization of the unemployed. "A real marginal environment is being formed. Those who cannot withstand economic pressure are pushed to the periphery of society, and volunteers, rebels, and utopians find themselves in this same environment. The mixture can turn out to be explosive."
In France, the view of marginality as the result of a conflict with generally accepted norms and “the product of the collapse of a society struck by crisis” has established itself. The main reasons Arlet Farge cite as "two completely different routes" into marginality are:
· “or breaking all traditional ties and creating your own, completely different world;
· or gradual displacement (or violent ejection) beyond the limits of legality."
J. Clanfer, on the contrary, notes that the exclusion of its members by a national society is possible, regardless of whether value attitudes and behavior correspond or not to universal norms. Clanfer believes that the main reason for exclusion is poverty, which is closely related to unemployment.
Quite interesting, in my opinion, is the development of attitudes towards the marginalized in France shown by Farge, and what image society has of the marginalized. He writes that 1656 marked the beginning of a new practice that affects the perception of any deviations. Marginalized people are shunned and sometimes persecuted. The life of the marginalized is, as it were, taken outside, and therefore deprived, “takes place in close contact of all its members, with complete clarity of all actions and rituals.”
At the end of the 17th century, as Farge writes, a project of isolating the marginalized as a dangerous and harmful phenomenon emerged. Raids begin on the insane, the poor, the unemployed and prostitutes. Such actions provoke resistance from opponents of the expansion of punitive sanctions.
Further, according to the author, in the 19th century the situation was finally established, “in which with an increase in the number of cases classified by law as illegal behavior, the number of persons declared dangerous and subject to ostracism also increases.”
The end of the 20th century was characterized by the romantic image of an outcast, close to nature, with a flower in his lips or on his gun. But soon it is replaced by another image, which corresponds to a completely different - changed situation: the image of the marginalized is now an African who came to work in France. He is branded by society as the personification of all evils and dangers. Now there is no question of voluntarily moving into marginality. Its cause is unemployment and crisis. Marginality is thus going through a very peculiar period: society continues to count all undesirable elements among its victims, but feels that its deep foundations, thoroughly shaken by economic processes, are being undermined. The marginalized now include not only strangers, but also our own - those “who are affected by the cancer that has settled in our society.” Now the marginalized do not become such of their own free will, but are imperceptibly pushed into such a state. And thus, A. Farge concludes that the marginal from now on, “is similar to everyone, identical to them, and at the same time he is a cripple among the likes - a man with his roots cut off, cut into pieces in the very heart of his native culture, his native environment.”
In German sociological literature, marginality is perceived as a social position characterized by a large distance from the dominant culture of mainstream society. In other words, marginalized people are those people who are at the lowest rung of the social hierarchy. The distinctive features of the marginalized are poor contacts, disappointment, pessimism, apathy, aggression, deviant behavior, etc. In the German motsiological school, there is noticeable ambiguity in the meaning of the concept of marginality. To define it, German sociologists propose various theoretical justifications. Among them, the following are considered: low level of recognition of generally binding values and norms, low level of participation in their implementation in social life; in addition, they emphasize relative deprivation and social and spatial distance, insufficient organizational and conflict abilities as defining features of the marginal situation.
Despite the recognition of the existence of various types of marginality and various causal relationships, there is still consensus among German researchers that only in a small part they can be reduced to individual factors. Most types of marginality are formed from structural conditions associated with participation in the production process, income distribution, spatial distribution (for example, the formation of ghettos).
Close to this approach are the positions summarized in the joint work of researchers from Germany and Great Britain “Marginalisierung im Sozialstaat: Beitr. aus Grossbritannien u. der Bundesrep”. He views marginality as the result of a process in which individuals gradually withdraw more and more from participation in public life and thus lose the opportunity to participate in it completely, and thus to control social relations and, consequently, their own living conditions. In this work, the status of marginality is defined through the figurative concept of the outlying environment. A marginalized person is an outsider or, in other words, a stranger in society.
· economic - marginalization as “relative deprivation”, exclusion from activity and consumption;
· political - loss of civil/political rights (de facto or de jure), deprivation of the right to vote; exclusion from participation in normal political activities and from access to formal political influence;
· social - marginalization as a loss of social prestige: declassing, stigmatization (“Verachtung”), etc. marginal groups.
There are a fairly large number of directions for interpreting marginality. Mancini classifies these interpretations into three types of marginality. Namely:
· Cultural marginality. This type is based on the relationship between two cultures in which the individual is included and the result of this is the ambiguity and uncertainty of his position. The classic description of cultural marginality comes from Park and Stonequist.
· Marginality of social role. This type of marginality results from failure to place oneself in a positive reference group; when acting in a role that lies between two located roles; This also includes those social groups that are on the outskirts of social life.
· Structural marginality. This is the result of political, social and economic inequality.
Thus, we can say that the main contribution of the American school to the study of the concept of marginalization is, firstly, the introduction of this term, and, secondly, the definition of the marginalized as an individual located at the intersection of two cultures. It is also important for American researchers to determine the socio-psychological traits of marginalized people.
And an analysis of the main directions of studying marginality in European sociology shows that it is described mainly as structural (social). And, despite the many differences that exist among European researchers, caused by the specificity and originality of social conditions, the concept of marginality in the European sociological tradition reflected some common features. European researchers emphasized that marginalization occurs not only as a result of the mixing of two cultures, but also as a result of various economic processes occurring in the country. Also, in my opinion, it should be noted that it was European researchers who first drew attention to the political consciousness of marginal groups.
§ 2. The theory of marginality in modern Russian science
In Soviet sociological literature, little attention was paid to the problem of marginality, and it was not developed. Interest in this problem grows noticeably only during the years of perestroika, due to the fact that crisis processes bring the problem of marginality to the surface of public life. As I.P. writes Popova about this period: “As a result of the crisis and reforms, previously stable economic, social, and spiritual structures were destroyed or transformed, and the elements forming each of the structures - institutions, social groups and individuals - found themselves in an intermediate, transitional state, as a result of which marginality became characteristics of complex social stratification processes in Russian society."
Addressing the topic of marginality begins with studying this phenomenon in line with generally accepted concepts and gradually moves on to understanding it in the context of modern Russian reality
It should be noted that the tradition of understanding and using the term itself in Russian science connects it precisely with structural marginality, i.e. a concept characteristic of Western Europe. It is noteworthy that one of the first major works by Russian authors, “At the Break in the Social Structure” (mentioned above), dedicated to marginality, was published in 1987 and examined this problem using the example of Western European countries.
The features of the modern process of marginalization in Western European countries were associated, first of all, with a deep structural restructuring of the production system in post-industrial societies, defined as the consequences of the scientific and technological revolution. In this regard, it is interesting to present conclusions about the characteristic features and trends of marginal processes in Western Europe, made in the above-mentioned work (also because they can guess the main contours of the current situation in our reality):
· the main reason for the development of marginal processes is the employment crisis of the late 70s - early 80s;
· marginalized people in Western Europe are a complex conglomerate of groups, which, along with the traditional ones (lumpen proletarians), includes new marginalized groups whose characteristic features are high education, a developed system of needs, high social expectations and political activity, as well as numerous transitional groups located on various stages of marginalization and new national (ethnic) minorities;
· the source of replenishment of the marginal layers is the downward social movement of groups that have not yet been cut off from society, but are constantly losing their previous social positions, status, prestige and living conditions;
· as a result of the development of marginal processes, a special system of values is developed, which, in particular, is characterized by deep hostility to existing social institutions, extreme forms of social impatience, a tendency to simplified maximalist solutions, denial of any type of organization, extreme individualism, etc.
· the value system characteristic of the marginalized also extends to wider public circles, fitting into various political models of radical (both left and right) trends,
· and thus marginalization entails significant shifts in the balance of social and political forces, and affects the political development of society.
Subsequently, there is an awareness of marginality precisely as a phenomenon characteristic of our state and the existing reality. Thus, E. Rashkovsky, in the joint Soviet-French work “50/50: Experience of a Dictionary of New Thinking,” writes that the active process of formation of informal social movements in the 70-80s is associated with the desire to express the interests of marginalized groups. Rashkovsky writes that if we proceed from the fact that “marginal status has become in the modern world not so much an exception as the norm of existence of millions and millions of people,” the concept of marginality becomes the key to the search for a paradigm of a pluralistic, tolerant society. Thus, the political aspect of the problem, which is “of fundamental importance for the fate of modern democracy,” is emphasized.
Rashkovsky, like Western researchers of marginality, believes that “a marginal situation arises at the boundaries of dissimilar forms of sociocultural experience,” and is always associated with tension and can be a source of neuroses, demoralization, individual and group forms of protest. But, according to the author, it can be a source of new perception and understanding of the surrounding world and society, non-trivial forms of intellectual, artistic and religious creativity. As if agreeing with Shibutani, he writes that many achievements of spiritual history, such as world religions, great philosophical systems and scientific concepts, new forms of artistic representation of the world largely owe their emergence to marginal individuals.
In the mid-90s, the study of marginality in Russian sociology took place in various directions. Thus, V. Shapinsky concludes that marginality in the proper sense of the word is a cultural phenomenon and the use of this concept in other areas of knowledge leads to an unproductive expansion of the scope of the concept. Characterizing the phenomenon of cultural marginality itself, the author focuses on “the inclusion of the subject (individual, group, community, etc.) in the social structure of society, in political institutions, economic mechanisms and his “location”, at the same time, in the borderland , a threshold state in relation to the cultural values of a given society." V. Shapinsky considers the main disadvantages of the sociological approach to be the reduction of the problem of marginality to the problem of the existence of an individual or group on the border of two or more social structures of a given society and the localization of the phenomenon of marginality within certain groups and subcultures. In his opinion, this impoverishes the essence of the concept of marginality, making it a characteristic of deviant behavior, and the object of analysis of marginality is certain social groups.
The author contrasts the “limitations” of the sociological approach with the cultural approach to marginality as a certain type of relationship, “which determines the mobility of the category, which therefore cannot be a “fixed” quality of a particular group.” It is also interesting to conclude that “we have every reason to consider the free space between structures as marginal space, and what exists in it as a marginal entity.” This provides a new "launching pad" for deepening the capabilities of the concept.
An attempt to show another facet - a look at a marginal personality - was made by N.O. Navdzhavonov. He views marginality as a problem of the individual in the context of social change. Marginal personality is a theoretical construct that reflects the process of pluralization of personality types as a result of the complication of social structure and increased social mobility.
He gives the following characteristics of a marginal personality:
· internalization by the individual of the values and norms of different social groups, sociocultural systems (normative-value pluralism);
· the behavior of an individual in a given social group (sociocultural system) based on the norms and values of other social groups, sociocultural systems;
· the impossibility of unambiguous self-identification of an individual;
· certain relationships “individual - social group” (“sociocultural system”) (i.e. exclusion, partial integration, ambivalence of the individual).
The author tries to expand the approach to defining marginality in its personal aspect, proposing to consider the problem “in the light of various aspects of the social definition of a person: a person as a transhistorical subject; as a personification of social relations of a certain era.” The marginal subject is presented as the result of the resolution of objective contradictions. “The vectors of further development of such entities will have different directions, including positive ones - as moments of the formation of new structures, active agents of innovation in various areas of public life.”
Interesting idea of A.I. Atoyan about isolating the entire complex of knowledge about marginality into a separate science - social marginalism. The author justifies his idea by the fact that “being a multidimensional phenomenon and, by its very definition, borderline, marginality as a subject of humanitarian research goes beyond the strict boundaries of a single discipline.”
Another important issue that the author pays attention to is demarginalization. Atoyan acknowledges the difficulty and futility of attempts to provide an exhaustive definition of the concept of “marginality.” Nevertheless, he gives his own definition of marginality, he defines it as “a gap social connection between the individual (or community) and a reality of a higher order, under the latter - society with its norms, taken as an objective whole." We can say that Atoyan is saying that it is not people themselves that are marginal, but their connections, the weakening or the absence of which causes the phenomenon of marginality. Based on this, the process of demarginalization is defined as a set of restorative tendencies and measures in relation to all types of social connections, the complexity of which gives stability to the social whole. The key point of demarginalization, the author calls the translation of sociocultural experience from culture to culture, from generation to generation, from the norms of “normals” to the marginalized, etc. As Atoyan points out, we should be talking about the transmission of social connection and the ability to deploy it.
In his other article, Atoyan points out that a violation of the transmission of social experience between the social whole and its parts, management structures and the governed also leads to the marginalization of law and the anomy of society. “Marginalization of law” means “a defective type of legal consciousness and legal behavior that embodies a transitional form of social consciousness.”
The marginalization of Soviet law is an inevitable consequence of changes in legal relations in the state. This causes a disruption in the translation of legal experience into legal norms. The transition to a new legal culture entails the emergence of transitional, mixed forms of legal relations, and they transform the existing law into marginal law. But restoring the normal transmission of legal experience is impossible due to the fact that in the social structure there is also a separation of a marginal group and its isolation.
Marginal law is an objective phenomenon of a marginal situation, but it can hinder the process of demarginalization, increasing marginalization and anomie. The way out of this impasse, as Atoyan writes, is “in a decisive attack on poverty, poverty, social inequality, and therefore on marginal rights.”
To summarize, we can say that the problem of marginality in our country began to be developed only in the late 80s and early 90s, due to its actualization as a result of the situation of the transition period and the crisis existing in our country at that time. The approach to this topic began with the study of this phenomenon in Western countries, and only then did it come to be understood as a Russian reality. Russian authors have studied this problem from various angles and there are several quite interesting concepts of marginality. Marginalization is recognized by our researchers as a large-scale process leading to various negative consequences for the country's population.
Part 2. Marginalized people as an active part of the population
§ 1. Marginality and radicalism. The connection between the marginalization of society and the formation of totalitarian regimes
Large social groups, including a large number of people, are one of the most real subjects of politics. Large social groups include social classes, social strata and layers of the population. These social groups differ significantly in their type of activity, which gives rise to their own psychological characteristics, social group consciousness, ideology and political behavior of a particular group.
Marginal segments of the population, as many researchers note, are different in their composition, and, consequently, in their psychological characteristics, ideology and political behavior. As mentioned above, Stonequist wrote that representatives of marginal groups can have two different paths of their behavior: either play the role of leaders of socio-political and nationalist movements, or eke out an existence as outcasts. Deviation, immorality, and aggressiveness are usually highlighted in political behavior. These qualities of marginalized people manifest themselves at the level of interpersonal and intergroup relations.
The process of marginalization invariably increases the politicization of public life and contributes to the growth of political instability. As Olshansky notes, marginal and especially lumpen segments of the population usually play a special conflict role in modern society. They are also a source of danger as a potential base for political radicalism. Marginal strata tend to create antisocial associations, often with an inverted (inverted) value system. In recent decades, special attention has been drawn to the attempts of some marginal strata to impose their will on large reference groups, subjugate them and turn their antisocial organization into a dominant one. Examples of this type include military juntas or small sectarian political groups seizing power over large numbers of people. Many researchers consider marginality as one of the serious sources of political radicalism.
As Dakhin V. notes in his article “The State and Marginalization,” the marginalized majority “is combustible material that sometimes gains critical mass for social explosions.” He also notes that it is the marginal masses that provide a favorable environment for any political manipulation; its individual parts can easily be pitted against each other or directed against any part of society or the political system. Dakhin also writes that such a mass, due to the unsatisfied need for self-identification and constant fermentation, can quickly move to action.
This is echoed by the opinion of the author of the textbook on political science, Solovyov, who points out that broad sections of the marginalized, whose numbers in times of crisis become very high, and whose dependence on the policies of the authorities are extremely strong, act as the main social sources of the formation of a totalitarian system of power. It is the marginalized and lumpenized strata that are the main source of the massive spread of egalitarian distribution relations, sentiments of disdain for wealth, and incitement of social hatred towards the wealthy, more fortunate segments of the population. Certain layers of intellectuals (intelligentsia) also played their role in the spread of such social standards and prejudices, who systematized these popular aspirations, turning them into a moral and ethical system that justified these mental traditions and gave them additional public resonance and significance.
Among the lumpen, whose appearance is a kind of “final stage of marginalization,” when the individual is already completely rejected by society, the attitude towards the state is not always clear. As the authors of the study “On the Fractures of the Social Structure” point out, on the one hand, the state acts hostile towards them, regulating their way of life and, punishing for breaking the law, and protecting the property that he would like to appropriate for himself. On the other hand, the state apparatus is a patron, since the bulk of social assistance is provided through state channels. It can be said that the attitude of the lumpen towards the state can vary from complete denial to apologetic support. But, as the authors of the work point out, anger is the most common. On the one hand, the lumpen’s isolation from society and his individualism push him towards detachment from the political process. But on the other hand, the deep hostility towards society among the lumpen leads to a potential readiness for destructive actions directed against society and its individual institutions.
Similar, but not as pronounced psychological condition from other marginal strata who have not yet descended to the level of the lumpen. Many radical movements rely and have relied on such people. An example is the so-called new left.
The "New Left" is a movement against bourgeois society, its socio-economic and political institutions, way of life, moral values and ideals. It is not distinguished by the integrity of ideological principles, practical programs and consists of various, variegated political orientations groups and organizations. The "new left" movement includes components of a spontaneous rebellion that expresses dissatisfaction with social reality, but does not have effective methods, methods and means for its practical change. Most representatives of the movement shared the general philosophy of “total denial” of existing institutions, authorities, and values of life.
As the authors of the study “on the fractures of the social structure” point out, “the ideological postulates formulated by the “new left” completely coincide with the values and attitudes formulated in the minds of people displaced from social structures, rejected by society and rejecting it.”
In support of their words, they cite the words of G. Marcuse, one of the ideologists of this movement, “underneath the conservative popular base lies a layer of outcasts and outsiders, exploited and persecuted, those who do not work and cannot have work. They exist outside the democratic process, their life is the most immediate and most real embodiment of the need to eliminate intolerant institutions. Thus, their opposition is revolutionary, even if their consciousness is not."
This recognition of Marcuse, of course, does not mean that the new left was oriented only towards the lumpen and segments of the population close to them. But, however, the marginalized easily recognized ideas close to themselves in the slogans of this movement. The fact that youth became the main driving force of the new left does not contradict the above for many reasons. The author “on the fractures of the social structure” identifies several: firstly, young people are characterized by a fascination with bright slogans that open up new paths, and secondly, it was the French youth who experienced the devaluation of social status and the prestige of intellectual professions. And thirdly, students are a fully formed group of the population, not included in the production process, and therefore do not have strong ties with the rest of the social structure.
A manifestation of the marginal nature of this movement is also its negative attitude towards the working class. Several points can be highlighted:
· A positive attitude towards work occupies an important place in the minds of workers. In the course of marginalization, such values in an individual are partially or completely repressed.
· the objective conditions of workers' existence encourage them to value collectivity and organization. The marginal is an egoist and an individualist.
· The worker highly values the social and political positions he has won. Denial of a person’s right to property created through labor efforts and economical management is alien to him. the marginal, on the contrary, sees the solution to his problems in seizing positions that allow him to use public wealth, or he wants to forcibly appropriate someone else’s property.
Due to these fundamental differences, the worker did not accept the postulates of the “new left,” and they hastened to declare him a reactionary force.
Let's consider another example of the influence of marginal masses on the political life of the country. As A.A. points out. Galkin, any dictatorship needs a social base, a mass that would support it. Otherwise, as he writes, “it leads to a deep crisis of the regime and sooner or later becomes the reason for its death.” In his opinion, political forces planning to come to power are looking for mass sections of the population that they can rely on either before coming to power or after that. One of these layers may be the marginalized, who, during various crises, become a truly mass layer of the population. Thus, for example, marginalized people can become the basis for the establishment of totalitarian regimes.
As Arendt writes, totalitarian movements are possible wherever there are “masses who, for one reason or another, have acquired a taste for political organization.” Arendt points out that democratic freedoms are impossible where the mass system has collapsed and citizens are no longer represented in groups and therefore no longer form a social and political hierarchy. I think that the sharp increase in marginal segments of the population, due to the economic crisis after the First World War, leading to the collapse of such a hierarchy, can serve as the creation of such a mass. Moreover, the main characteristics of such a mass coincide with the characteristics of marginal groups, these are such features as isolation and lack of normal social relationships, as well as key characteristic of such a mass, Arendt indicates that there is no inheritance of the norms and life attitudes of any one class, but a reflection of the norms of several classes. But precisely this borderline state is the state of the marginalized.
The lumpen segments of the population can be considered a peculiar type of modern marginal groups. The well-known theorist O. Bauer and other researchers in this direction associated the increase in political activity of this layer in the late 20s. XX century with the onset of fascism. “Just as Bonaparte did in France, modern dictators of reaction seek to organize the lumpenproletarian scum as the armed vanguard of fascism, lynching and all kinds of Ku Klux Klans.”
A scientist like L.Ya. Dadiani examines the emergence of neo-fascism in Russia. He points out that A.A. Galkin defines fascism as “an irrational, inadequate reaction of twentieth-century society to acute crisis processes that destroy established economic, social, political and ideological structures.” But it is precisely as a result of the destruction of the social structure that such a social group as the marginalized increases.
Dadiani himself lists several categories of people who are Russian neo-fascists: “youth, paramedics, high school students, quite a few students and demobilized military personnel, including participants in the Afghan and Chechen wars, among them are Russian refugees from the CIS countries. Many members and supporters of Russian “ultras” "(as in other countries) grew up or are growing up in flawed, unsettled, broken up or very needy families; a considerable percentage of them are unemployed, offended by someone or something, losers, lumpen elements and people with an adventurous character, amateurs thrill seekers and seekers of glory and adventure." But in fact, almost all of the listed categories of the population are marginal.
In confirmation of the Nazis’ orientation towards this kind of people, one can cite the words of E. Limonov, leader of the National Bolshevik Party, “the most revolutionary type of personality is the marginal: a strange, unsettled person living on the edge of society... One should not think that there are too few of them to be enough for a revolutionary party. There are enough marginalized people, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of them. This is a whole social stratum. Some of the marginalized people join the ranks of the criminal world. We should have the best ones."
Also, E. Limonov in his article argues that all Russian revolutionaries were marginal, and it was this social stratum that made the revolution in Russia, it was they who were the leaders of the future powerful political movements that blew up Europe. Of course, Limonov is not a great historian and his opinion is quite controversial, but there is definitely a grain of truth in this. After all, his words echo the words of Stonequist that we have already cited about the role of the marginalized as the leader of nationalist and socio-political movements.
We can say that the marginalized in their general mass are active as adherents of radical movements. This is the movement of the so-called “new left”, and nationalists and any other ideologies that promise them a quick change in their condition and redistribution of property. While there are not a large number of marginalized people in a particular country, this may not have visible consequences, but if the majority of society becomes marginalized, this can lead to various kinds of revolutions and a departure from the democratic path of development.
§ 2. Marginalized people and crime
But there is another manifestation of the marginalization of societies. I think it will be no secret to anyone that in times of crisis and perestroika, the criminal situation in society worsens. Some researchers of this problem attribute this not only to economic reasons, but also to social ones.
For example, Ryvkina R.V. in his article “The Social Roots of the Criminalization of Russian Society” he writes that economic factors play a huge role in the criminalization of Russian society, but this process was the result of not just one factor, but a system of such reasons. And she identifies several social factors that are worsening the criminal situation in Russian society:
) the value vacuum that arose after the collapse of the USSR and the abandonment of the leading role of the CPSU;
) liberalization of the economy;
) the influence of criminal structures and types of criminal behavior inherited from the USSR;
) the weakness of the Russian state, which arose on the site of the former USSR;
) the emergence in the country of many marginal and unprotected social strata and groups, whose position makes them a potential reserve of crime.
Also, such a researcher as E.V. Sadkov notes the close connection between the marginalization of society and the increase in crime. As he writes in his article, “in this case we are talking not only about quantitative indicators of the degree of interconnection of these social phenomena, statistical (correlation and functional) dependence, but also about qualitative characteristics.”
Marginalized people are mostly prone to aggression and self-centeredness, they are ambitious and have a number of other psychological traits that bring them to the line of criminality. The accumulation of mental tension, the absence of a strong value system, dissatisfaction with social and everyday needs all together causes a state of social rejection and ultimately a change in personality occurs, its degradation and the emergence of readiness for criminal behavior. We can say that the criminogenicity of marginality always depends on the characteristics of the individual, that is, on her upbringing and the conditions for character formation. We can say that a marginal state is a borderline state of an individual who is on the border of antisocial behavior, but this does not mean that the marginal will necessarily cross this border.
Ryvkina R.V. indicates several groups of the population that can be classified as marginalized, which form the social basis for the deterioration of the criminal situation among the population. These are groups such as:
) a large proportion of the population classified as “poor”;
) a significant proportion of unemployed and fictitiously employed;
) the presence of a “social bottom” from among the poor, the homeless, street children and teenagers released from prison;
) a significant proportion of refugees from the “hot spots” of the former USSR;
) a significant proportion of unemployed people demobilized from the army and in a state of “post-war shock”.
Sadkov, as it were, typologizes marginal groups according to the degree of their involvement in crime. He highlights:
)a layer of marginalized people who are gradually beginning to develop a system of values, which is characterized by deep hostility to existing institutions. Such groups of marginalized people cannot be classified as criminal, but some preconditions for this are already appearing;
2)pre-criminal groups of marginalized people, which are characterized by unstable behavior and a nihilistic attitude towards law and order. They commit petty immoral acts and are characterized by insolent behavior. it is these groups that form the material from which groups and individuals with a criminal orientation are then formed;
)persons with a persistent criminal orientation. This kind of marginalized people have already fully formed stereotypes of illegal behavior, and they regularly commit crimes;
)persons who have already served their sentences, they have lost social connections and have virtually no chance of finding work.
The data presented by Ryvkina show that it is necessary to take into account the material aspect of the problem, namely, that factors such as poverty, unemployment, and economic instability are closely related to marginality. I think these factors are quite important in understanding the causes of criminal behavior among marginalized populations.
The problem of homelessness, which is exacerbated by migration, is undoubtedly important. To prove this, Sadkov cites statistical data showing an increase in crime among persons without a fixed place of residence who have committed illegal acts. He points out that in 1998, among those who migrated to Russia and found themselves homeless, 29,631 people committed crimes, and these crimes were mainly against property and theft. In my opinion, this is easily explained. Without a place of residence, these people are deprived of the opportunity to have a regular income and work. This economic instability causes in such a person a desire to appropriate the property of people and anger against the state, which does not allow him to do this.
Sadkov E.V. indicates that marginalized people are a kind of “material” for organized criminal groups, in which they perform in this case the role of the so-called “sixes”. That is, they perform small errands and minor tasks.
Let us consider in a little more detail the reasons for the increase in crime among marginal youth. In "social psychology" edited by Stolyarenko, it is stated that "the marginal social status of young people, combined with contradictory individual physiological processes, creates the basis for the development of intrapersonal conflicts, which are usually resolved by uniting young people into interest groups with a specific subculture, which is often deviant in nature" .
The process of forming gangs with similar meanings also took place in France in the 60s and 70s. These gangs consisted mainly of young people who did not have the desire or ability to work. These gangs primarily committed petty crimes and thefts.
In Russia, the data of experts is of interest, indicating that approximately 30% of young people deny generally accepted norms and values, and the share of those who generally deny spiritual values increased between 1997 and 1999 and amounted to 6%. Kruter M.S. sees in this an opportunity to see from the angle of criminology that the decline of spiritual values creates a vacuum. And this vacuum is filled with base socio-psychological components of consciousness and behavior: intolerance, anger, moral deafness, indifference and others. In his opinion, these qualities and properties contain significant subjective potential for all kinds of criminal conflicts. Kruter also writes that the causes of crime among young people are unemployment among them, unfulfilled social expectations and the formation of the mindset that a good education and legal work do not ensure success in life. This is superimposed on raising the standard of living, which, in general, leads to professional and qualification degradation, aggravation of the processes of social alienation and the orientation of young people towards quick earnings, obtained by any means, including criminal.
To summarize, we can say that the marginalization of society leads to a deterioration in the criminal situation. Marginalized people, like outcast people who often do not have a permanent income, people with an altered value system, are ready to commit crimes. Often the crimes committed by this population group are economic in nature, driven by their own situation. Just as dangerous, in my opinion, is that organized crime, seeing the ongoing social processes (but most likely not realizing them), involves marginalized youth in its activities.
§ 3. Marginal groups of the population in modern Russia
In the work of domestic authors that we have already indicated - “on the fractures of the social structure”, marginal groups existing in Western Europe were considered. They associated the process of marginalization of society primarily with such reasons as the employment crisis and a deep structural restructuring of production. Based on the conclusions drawn in this work, one can imagine the main contours of modern Russian reality. The authors conclude that the marginalized in Western Europe are “a complex conglomerate of groups that differ from each other in a set of important indicators,” among which, along with the traditional marginalized - lumpen proletarians, one can distinguish the so-called new marginalized, the characteristic features of which are a high educational level, developed system of needs, high social expectations and political activity.
As Yu.A. Krasin points out, after the reforms carried out in our country, huge social inequality arose between the upper layer and the lower. In his opinion, this gives rise to three anti-democratic trends: “firstly, the polarization of society..., secondly, the marginalization of disadvantaged groups, which pushes them to illegitimate forms of protest; deprivation of the opportunity to articulate and defend their interests publicly, they form the social basis of extremism; thirdly, the cultivation in society of an atmosphere that undermines the foundations of social justice and the common good, destroying the moral foundations of social unity; a complex of humiliation accumulates at the base of the pyramid, and a complex of permissiveness accumulates at the political Olympus."
But, as Vladimir Dakhin points out in his article “The State and Marginalization,” in Russia “there is no process of social stratification; processes of disintegration predominate.” In his opinion, in Russia there are not three usual layers of the population, since the middle class is blurred and so thin that it can be ignored when analyzing the social structure. Based on this, he divides Russian society into rich and poor, the latter of whom are, as he writes, a marginal majority.
Dakhin divides this marginal majority into several categories. Namely:
)pensioners. He includes among them not only elderly people, but also so-called “early retirees,” that is, groups of young and active people who retired early. It is these early retirees, in his opinion, who are most susceptible to political influence and are increasingly resorting to social protests. Their participation in public life usually takes place under the slogans of communists - fundamentalists and radicals - neo-communists.
2)workers in deindustrializing industries, the lower intelligentsia, living on odd jobs, that is, those affected by hidden and direct unemployment. This mass is fundamentally incapable of radical action due to the preservation of traditional respect and fear of authority. For the majority of them, the height of their discontent may be participation in social protest or voting against government officials in elections.
)employed in non-essential industries and crisis enterprises. According to the author, this category of marginalized people can easily support the idea of a new strong leader.
)rural population. This category of the population is the most stable and resistant to political and social influences, due to the historical habit of a humiliated position. There are a number of factors influencing the conservatism and inertia of the rural population, these include: the lack of a well-thought-out agricultural policy by the government of the Russian Federation, the emphasis on food imports. Strengthening these factors will lead to further self-isolation of the village and the outflow of the population, which will join the most restless part of the city residents and to spontaneous local protests by peasants.
)low-level employees of federal and local authorities. The precariousness of their social status, low incomes and social vulnerability forces this marginal category to seek a way out of the current situation through corruption, illegal and semi-legal transactions in the shadow economy. This poses a greater threat than their possible social actions.
)migrants and immigrants. According to Dakhin, this part of the population will constantly increase, and subsequently form the most defenseless and disadvantaged part of the population. Moreover, this category of marginalized people initially had a higher status and a higher financial situation, which makes them very susceptible to radical propaganda, and their defenselessness makes them more aggressive in self-defense.
)Army and military-industrial complex. As the author points out, with the failure of the conversion program, the entire huge military-industrial complex found itself in crisis, and the personnel working for it are, as a rule, highly qualified workers and scientific personnel who have neither stable work nor good wages. Therefore, this category will support any political force that promises to provide them with work. The marginalized part of the army is already losing patience and may move on to active action. if this happens, it will become a very big state problem.
)A significant part of the youth. As the author writes, as the situation worsens, young people will increasingly be exposed to radical propaganda by existing religious and political forces, with the exception of ultra-communist ones.
According to the author, the presence of such a large spectrum of marginal segments of the population, which has a divisive effect on it, allows the government to carry out liberal reforms at the expense of the population and ignore the need to adopt some social reforms, as the most expensive.
As Krasin points out, marginal layers of the population are currently silent, which creates the illusion of stability in the authorities, but, in his opinion, dangerous processes are brewing in the depths of society, the energy of protest is accumulating without entering the political sphere. But it manifests itself in the deviant behavior of large groups of the population. Protest is expressed in leaving public life for the sphere of crime, drug addiction, alcoholism, mysticism and religious fanaticism. Based on this, a number of characteristics of the marginalization of Russian society can be identified. Pestrikov A.V. in his article “on the issue of the relationship between the qualitative characteristics of the population and the processes of social marginalization” he highlights: paradoxical poverty, high specific gravity criminalized elements, a decline in the quality characteristics of the population in three main groups of indicators: health (physical, mental, social), intellectual potential and professional preparedness, spiritual and moral values and orientations. Assessing the health of the population through the characteristics of ill health, the authors note an increase in morbidity, especially for diseases of social etiology (tuberculosis, syphilis, AIDS/HIV, infectious hepatitis). In the mass consciousness there is a process of erosion of moral norms characteristic of Russian culture. Pragmatism and a focus on personal gain, typical of the American model, are becoming more widespread interpersonal relationships and life orientations.
We can say that in modern Russian society there has been a marginalization of a large part of the population, which can be divided into several categories. This marginalization is also characterized by the emergence of so-called new marginalized people. That is, those who initially have a high level of education and social needs. At the moment, this marginal majority is inactive in the political sphere, but manifests itself in the criminal environment, or escapes from reality with the help of alcohol and drugs. So we can say that all attempts by our government to fight crime, drunkenness and drug addiction will bring little success until they change the existing social situation.
Conclusion
In our work “marginal groups of the population as a socio-political subject”, we fulfilled the assigned tasks. We examined the concepts of marginality existing in America and Western Europe. When studying these concepts, I established the concept of marginality and studied its types, I also studied the main characteristics of a marginal personality and what results in the marginalization of society. The concepts of marginality of domestic researchers were also considered. In the course of carrying out this task, I found that in Russian literature this problem began to be developed much later than in the West, and therefore our researchers relied on already existing concepts of marginality, comprehending them within the framework of Russian reality. We also studied various researchers’ assessments of the activity of marginalized people. While studying this problem, I found out that the marginalized are an active part of the population, and as a result, marginalization requires attention from the authorities. The connections between the marginalization of society and the rise of various radical movements were studied, and a direct relationship was established between the marginalization of society and radicalism. The marginalized sections of the population, for the most part, are unsettled in their lives and therefore want to radically change the existing structure of society. The connections between the marginalization of society and the increase in crime in the country were studied, and their direct relationship was revealed. An increase in the number of marginalized people leads to a worsening of the criminal situation. We also studied the marginal stratum of the population existing in our country, identified categories of people who can be classified as this stratum, and also derived the main characteristics of the marginal stratum in Russia.
While studying the topic of marginality, we realized that this is indeed a very important problem that needs to be studied in the future, since the presence of a marginal population and its composition can significantly affect the political situation in the country. I also understood the main directions of activity of the marginalized, which I, as a future political scientist, will need to take into account.
Also, I think, the problem of marginality is extremely relevant for our country, since after the radical restructuring of all institutions in our country, the marginal layer of the population has become truly massive, and the formation of the so-called new marginalized people has occurred.
Literature
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In Soviet sociological literature, little attention was paid to the problem of marginality, and it was not developed. Interest in this problem grows noticeably only during the years of perestroika, due to the fact that crisis processes bring the problem of marginality to the surface of public life. As I.P. writes Popova about this period: “As a result of the crisis and reforms, previously stable economic, social, and spiritual structures were destroyed or transformed, and the elements forming each of the structures - institutions, social groups and individuals - found themselves in an intermediate, transitional state, as a result of which marginality became characteristics of complex social stratification processes in Russian society."
Addressing the topic of marginality begins with studying this phenomenon in line with generally accepted concepts and gradually moves on to understanding it in the context of modern Russian reality
It should be noted that the tradition of understanding and using the term itself in Russian science connects it precisely with structural marginality, i.e. a concept characteristic of Western Europe. It is noteworthy that one of the first major works by Russian authors, “At the Break in the Social Structure” (mentioned above), dedicated to marginality, was published in 1987 and examined this problem using the example of Western European countries.
The features of the modern process of marginalization in Western European countries were associated, first of all, with a deep structural restructuring of the production system in post-industrial societies, defined as the consequences of the scientific and technological revolution. In this regard, it is interesting to present conclusions about the characteristic features and trends of marginal processes in Western Europe, made in the above-mentioned work (also because they can guess the main contours of the current situation in our reality):
- ·the main reason for the development of marginal processes is the employment crisis of the late 70s - early 80s;
- · the marginalized in Western Europe are a complex conglomerate of groups, which, along with the traditional (lumpen-proletarians), includes new marginalized groups whose characteristic features are high education, a developed system of needs, high social expectations and political activity, as well as numerous transitional groups located at various stages of marginalization and new national (ethnic) minorities;
- · the source of replenishment of marginal layers is the downward social movement of groups that have not yet been cut off from society, however, are constantly losing their previous social positions, status, prestige and living conditions;
- · as a result of the development of marginal processes, a special system of values is developed, which, in particular, is characterized by deep hostility to existing social institutions, extreme forms of social impatience, a tendency to simplified maximalist solutions, denial of any type of organization, extreme individualism, etc.
- · the value system characteristic of the marginalized extends to wider public circles, fitting into various political models of radical (both left and right) trends,
- ·and thus marginalization entails significant shifts in the balance of social and political forces, and affects the political development of society.
Subsequently, there is an awareness of marginality precisely as a phenomenon characteristic of our state and the existing reality. Thus, E. Rashkovsky, in the joint Soviet-French work “50/50: Experience of a Dictionary of New Thinking,” writes that the active process of formation of informal social movements in the 70-80s is associated with the desire to express the interests of marginalized groups. Rashkovsky writes that if we proceed from the fact that “marginal status has become in the modern world not so much an exception as the norm of existence of millions and millions of people,” the concept of marginality becomes the key to the search for a paradigm of a pluralistic, tolerant society. Thus, the political aspect of the problem, which is “of fundamental importance for the fate of modern democracy,” is emphasized.
Rashkovsky, like Western researchers of marginality, believes that “a marginal situation arises at the boundaries of dissimilar forms of sociocultural experience,” and is always associated with tension and can be a source of neuroses, demoralization, individual and group forms of protest. But, according to the author, it can be a source of new perception and understanding of the surrounding world and society, non-trivial forms of intellectual, artistic and religious creativity. As if agreeing with Shibutani, he writes that many achievements of spiritual history, such as world religions, great philosophical systems and scientific concepts, new forms of artistic representation of the world largely owe their emergence to marginal individuals.
In the mid-90s, the study of marginality in Russian sociology took place in various directions. Thus, V. Shapinsky concludes that marginality in the proper sense of the word is a cultural phenomenon and the use of this concept in other areas of knowledge leads to an unproductive expansion of the scope of the concept. Characterizing the phenomenon of cultural marginality itself, the author focuses on “the inclusion of the subject (individual, group, community, etc.) in the social structure of society, in political institutions, economic mechanisms and his “location”, at the same time, in the borderland , a threshold state in relation to the cultural values of a given society." V. Shapinsky considers the main disadvantages of the sociological approach to be the reduction of the problem of marginality to the problem of the existence of an individual or group on the border of two or more social structures of a given society and the localization of the phenomenon of marginality within certain groups and subcultures. In his opinion, this impoverishes the essence of the concept of marginality, making it a characteristic of deviant behavior, and the object of analysis of marginality is certain social groups.
The author contrasts the “limitations” of the sociological approach with the cultural approach to marginality as a certain type of relationship, “which determines the mobility of the category, which therefore cannot be a “fixed” quality of a particular group.” It is also interesting to conclude that “we have every reason to consider the free space between structures as marginal space, and what exists in it as a marginal entity.” This provides a new "launching pad" for deepening the capabilities of the concept.
An attempt to show another facet - a look at a marginal personality - was made by N.O. Navdzhavonov. He views marginality as a problem of the individual in the context of social change. Marginal personality is a theoretical construct that reflects the process of pluralization of personality types as a result of the complication of social structure and increased social mobility.
He gives the following characteristics of a marginal personality:
- ·internalization by the individual of the values and norms of different social groups, sociocultural systems (normative-value pluralism);
- ·behavior of an individual in a given social group (sociocultural system) based on the norms and values of other social groups, sociocultural systems;
- ·impossibility of unambiguous self-identification of an individual;
- ·certain relationships “individual - social group” (“sociocultural system”) (i.e. exclusion, partial integration, ambivalence of the individual).
The author tries to expand the approach to defining marginality in its personal aspect, proposing to consider the problem “in the light of various aspects of the social definition of a person: a person as a transhistorical subject; as a personification of social relations of a certain era.” The marginal subject is presented as the result of the resolution of objective contradictions. “The vectors of further development of such entities will have different directions, including positive ones - as moments of the formation of new structures, active agents of innovation in various areas of public life.”
Interesting idea of A.I. Atoyan about isolating the entire complex of knowledge about marginality into a separate science - social marginalism. The author justifies his idea by the fact that “being a multidimensional phenomenon and, by its very definition, borderline, marginality as a subject of humanitarian research goes beyond the strict boundaries of a single discipline.”
Another important issue that the author pays attention to is demarginalization. Atoyan acknowledges the difficulty and futility of attempts to provide an exhaustive definition of the concept of “marginality.” Nevertheless, he gives his own definition of marginality, he defines it as “a severance of the social connection between an individual (or community) and a reality of a higher order, under the latter - society with its norms, taken as an objective whole.” We can say that Atoyan is saying that it is not people themselves who are marginal, but their connections, the weakening or absence of which causes the phenomenon of marginality. Based on this, the process of demarginalization is defined as a set of restorative tendencies and measures in relation to all types of social connections, the complexity of which imparts stability to the social whole. The key point of demarginalization, the author calls the translation of sociocultural experience from culture to culture, from generation to generation, from the norms of “normals” to the marginalized, etc. As Atoyan points out, we should be talking about the transmission of social communication and the ability to deploy it.
In his other article, Atoyan points out that a violation of the transmission of social experience between the social whole and its parts, management structures and the governed also leads to the marginalization of law and the anomy of society. “Marginalization of law” means “a defective type of legal consciousness and legal behavior that embodies a transitional form of social consciousness.”
The marginalization of Soviet law is an inevitable consequence of changes in legal relations in the state. This causes a disruption in the translation of legal experience into legal norms. The transition to a new legal culture entails the emergence of transitional, mixed forms of legal relations, and they transform the existing law into marginal law. But restoring the normal transmission of legal experience is impossible due to the fact that in the social structure there is also a separation of a marginal group and its isolation.
Marginal law is an objective phenomenon of a marginal situation, but it can hinder the process of demarginalization, increasing marginalization and anomie. The way out of this impasse, as Atoyan writes, is “in a decisive attack on poverty, poverty, social inequality, and therefore on marginal rights.”
To summarize, we can say that the problem of marginality in our country began to be developed only in the late 80s and early 90s, due to its actualization as a result of the situation of the transition period and the crisis existing in our country at that time. The approach to this topic began with the study of this phenomenon in Western countries, and only then did it come to be understood as a Russian reality. Russian authors have studied this problem from various angles and there are several quite interesting concepts of marginality. Marginalization is recognized by our researchers as a large-scale process leading to various negative consequences for the country's population.
Description
Traditionally, the term "fringe science" is used to describe unusual theories or models of discovery that are based on an existing scientific principle and scientific method. Such theories may be defended by a scientist who is recognized by the wider scientific community (through the publication of peer-reviewed research), but this is not required. In a broad sense, fringe science is consistent with generally accepted standards, does not call for a revolution in science, and is perceived, albeit skeptically, as fundamentally sound judgments.
Some modern, widely accepted theories, such as plate tectonics, originated from fringe science and have been viewed negatively for decades. It has been noted that:
Confusion between science and pseudoscience, between honest scientific error and the real thing scientific discovery is not new and is a permanent feature of scientific life […] The acceptance of a new direction by the scientific community may be delayed.The categorical boundaries between fringe science and pseudoscience are often contested. Most scientists view fringe science as rational but unlikely. A fringe scientific movement may fail to achieve consensus for many reasons, including incomplete or inconsistent evidence. A marginal science may be a proto-science that has not yet been accepted by the majority of scientists. Recognition of marginal science by the mainstream largely depends on the quality of the discoveries achieved in it.
The expression "marginal science" is often considered pejorative. For example, Lyell D. Henry Jr. States that " marginal science is a term suggestive of insanity."
Marginal science and pseudoscience
- Pseudoscience characterized by the arbitrary applicability of the scientific method and the irreproducibility of results. This is not fringe science.
Historical examples
- Wilhelm Reich's research into orgone, a physical energy he allegedly discovered, resulted in him being shunned by the psychiatric community and imprisoned for violating a court injunction against research in this area.
- Linus Pauling believed that large amounts of vitamin C were a panacea for a number of diseases; this point of view was not accepted.
- The theory of continental drift was proposed by Alfred Wegener in the 1920s, but did not receive support from mainstream geology until the late 1950s; it is now generally accepted.
- The new doctrine of language in the version of N. Y. Marr was generally a pseudoscience that rejected the method developed in linguistics and lacked verifiability of results, while an attempt was made to adapt it to linguistic reality with a change in the subject area (“stage typology” by I. I. Meshchaninov, partly continued by G. A. Klimov) is a marginal theory, some of the provisions of which were quickly rejected, and some were subsequently used in modern linguistic typology.
Social significance
At the end of the 20th century, fringe criticism of scientific theories based on a literalist understanding of various scriptures gained great development; Entire branches of science are declared "controversial" or fundamentally weak.
The media play a large role in the development of popular ideas about the “controversy” of entire sections of science. It was noted that “from a media perspective, controversial science sells better, including because it relates to important public issues.”
see also
- Protoscience
Notes
Literature
- Controversial Science: From Content to Contention by Thomas Brante et al.
- Communicating uncertainty: Media coverage of new and controversial science by Sharon Dunwoody et al.
- Micheal W. Friedlander At the Fringes of Science. - Boulder: Westview Press, 1995. - ISBN 0813322006
- Frazier K (1981). Paranormal Borderlands of Science Prometheus Books ISBN 0-87975-148-7
- Dutch S. I. (1982). Notes on the Nature of Fringe Science. Journal of Geological Education
- Brown G. E. (1996). Environmental Science under Siege: Fringe Science and the 104th Congress.
additional literature
- MC Mousseau Parapsychology: Science or Pseudo-Science? Journal of Scientific Exploration, 2003. scientificexploration.org.
- C de Jager, Science, Fringe Science, and Pseudo-Science. RAS Quarterly Journal V. 31, NO. 1/Mar., 1990.
- Cooke, R. M. (1991). Experts in uncertainty: opinion and subjective probability in science. New York: Oxford University Press.
- SH Mauskopf, The Reception of Unconventional Science. Westview Press, 1979.
- Marcello Truzzi, The Perspective of Anomalistics. Anomalistics, Center for Scientific Anomalies Research.
- N. Ben-Yehuda, The politics and morality of deviance: moral panics, drug abuse, deviant science, and reversed stigmatization. SUNY series in deviation and social control. Albany: State University of New York Press 1990.
Links
- The National Health Museum / Activities exchange: Teaching Controversial Science Issues Through Law Related Education
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SCIENTIFIC NOTES OF KAZAN STATE UNIVERSITY Volume 151, book. 4 Humanitarian sciences 2009
GENESIS OF THE GENERAL THEORY OF MARGINALITY: CRIMINOLOGICAL ASPECTS
R.F. Stepanenko Abstract
The article briefly outlines the stages of formation and development of the foreign and domestic general theory of marginality - as fundamental for the construction and understanding of the criminological concept of marginal crime. Definitions of a marginal personality, a marginal way of life are given, and the main approaches to the study of such a complex social phenomenon as marginality are highlighted.
Key words: genesis, theory of marginality, processes of marginality, theory of alienation, personality of a marginal criminal, crime.
The processes of marginalization, covering an increasingly large number of citizens, and the deepening stratification of Russian society, naturally interconnected, cannot but influence the general trends and state of crime. Since the 90s of the twentieth century. The share of crimes committed by persons from marginalized groups of the population remains consistently within 60% of the number of all persons committing criminal offenses. This circumstance, in our opinion, indicates the need for a new, differentiated approach to the study of the structure of crime as a whole, with the identification of a separate type within it - marginal crime. Consistent criminological study of this type of crime will allow us to most deeply understand the specifics of the determination and causality of this independent structural element of crime, as well as to approach the construction of a system of measures aimed at preventing or combating crime in general.
In this regard, the task arises of constructing the concept of marginal crime as a system of crimes committed by persons from marginal groups of the population, conditioned by: external processes socio-economic differentiation, as well as the internal specific properties of certain marginal individuals.
Through the implementation of this task, in our opinion, it seems possible to formulate the goal of our further research - the prevention of marginal crime, which includes, on the one hand, a system of measures aimed at providing assistance and assistance to socially vulnerable (including marginal) segments of the population through social control over the activities of bodies, powers and competence
which include responsibilities for the implementation of social policy tasks, and the other - the organized and targeted activities of government bodies, public structures, officials and citizens, aimed at identifying, minimizing and eliminating the causes and conditions conducive to the commission of crimes by marginalized persons, in order to prevent further criminalization of society and rising crime.
Considering the genesis of the general theory of marginality, I would like to note that its formation is based on the philosophical category of “alienation”, developed and becoming one of the central ones in Hegel’s philosophy, which served as an explanation of the specific relationship between man and reality in the conditions of the bourgeois state. The vice of privately owned (bourgeois) society, Hegel notes, is that the process of accumulation of wealth leads to fragmentation and limitation of labor and thereby to the dependence and need of the class associated with it, and hence to the inability to feel and enjoy their freedom and especially spiritual advantages civil society, that is, alienation. Hegel admits that civil society is unable to combat excessive poverty and the emergence of the mob, by which he means the alienated, paupetic part of the population.
The philosophical and economic concept of “alienation” by K. Marx, which arose as a result of polemics with Hegel’s “uncritical positivism,” was formed not so much from an objective-idealistic and anthropological-psychological position, but in the context of interaction between the individual and society. In their works, K. Marx and F. Engels name among the reasons for alienation: “devastation” of a person as a result of his activities; removal of a person from the results of his work, from the management of production and science; alienation of the worker from social institutions and norms, as well as from ideology.
The concept of alienation was further developed in the works of M. Weber and G. Simmel. Thus, in particular, G. Simmel, criticizing the capitalist way of life, explores the cultural aspect of alienation and notes such properties as creative, spiritual and moral - personal alienation. In addition, within the framework of the theory of “conflict” (K. Marx, R. Dahrendorf, L. Coser and others), Simmel notes the deep essence of alienation, which lies in the biological nature of people, in their instincts of hostility. The author notes that the more social and cultural formations are formalized, the more alienated the individual becomes from them. Alienation becomes the only regulator of moral behavior, an “individual law,” a kind of “unique personal a priori” that determines life and behavior. One of the reasons for personality conflict with social environment and further alienation are its psychophysiological characteristics, which predispose not so much to cooperation and organization, but to disorganization and destructive manifestations.
It was G. Simmel, according to many researchers of marginality, who first considered a specific type of “alienated” (“strangers”) as a social universal within the framework of “psychological nominalism” in his work “Sociology” (1908), which served as the main idea of the theory of marginality.
The term marginality, first introduced into scientific circulation by the founder of the Chicago sociological school R. Park in the work “Human Migration and the Marginal Man” (1928), began to be used in connection with the study of migration processes in the United States at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries, caused by high rates of urbanization, the development of trade and significant changes in the social infrastructure of metropolitan cities.
R. Park, analyzing and summarizing these and other numerous theoretical studies, notes, on the one hand, the positivism of migration processes for world civilization, the meaning of which lies in the constructive diversity of national differences for the more successful functioning of any social formation. On the other hand, the author also points out the negative impact of unorganized migration, which significantly changes public culture. This period of adaptation of migrants to the dominant culture is called by R. Park an internal disorder of intense self-awareness, as a result of which a “cultural hybrid” is created with an unstable character and special forms of behavior - a “marginal personality”, “in whose soul there is moral confusion, and in whose consciousness there is confusion cultures".
Subsequently, R. Park’s theoretical concept was called “cultural marginality,” and studies of the psychological characteristics (but not only them - R.S.) of a marginal person were continued by many other theorists of the Chicago sociological school.
In particular, E. Stonequist identifies the following as factors reflecting the degree of alienation and severity of the cultural conflict of a marginal personality:
Disorganization, overwhelm, inability to identify the source of the conflict;
Frustration, despair, destruction of the “life organization”;
Mental disorganization, meaninglessness of existence;
Self-centeredness, ambition and aggressiveness.
American social psychology (T. Shibutani) focuses its attention in the theory of marginality on the “status” of a marginal personality as a key concept meaning “the position where the contradictions of the structure of society are embodied.” T. Shibutani considers the source of marginality to be differences in the existing social structure, where the disparate position of the marginalized compared to the standard group does not allow the latter to satisfy their needs. The concept of cultural marginality is adhered to and further developed by A. Antonovsky, M. Gouldberg, T. Witherman, J. Krauss and others.
During the twentieth century, new approaches and points of view on the problem of marginality have been formed, in connection with which several new directions of its research have emerged, which significantly expand the concept of the object of research and supplement it with attributive characteristics. This phenomenon is studied, as already noted, from the standpoint of social mobility by T. Hughes, who understands marginality as a transitional state from one way of life to another, from one culture or subculture to another. Other American sociologists (Divey, Tiryakyan, etc.) consider as
the reasons for marginality are social changes of different directions of research vectors (professional, age-related, associated with a change of place of residence, economic, etc.).
An important stage in the development of the theory of marginality of American scientists is the conclusion that the concept of this phenomenon, having ceased to be unitary, identified three important directions in its development: cultural, structural and status marginality.
Western European theoretical concepts of this phenomenon differ from traditional American philosophical and sociological directions in the study of marginality. J.B. Mancini, R. Barth, J. Clanfer, L. Althusser, W. Turner, K. Raban and others in their works focus attention not so much on the specific properties of a particular marginal personality, but on the specific characteristics of marginal strata (groups) in the social structure society, especially such as immorality, aggressiveness or passivity, deviations, etc.
One of the European theorists of marginalism, J. Lévy-Strange, noted that the real marginal environment is formed at the expense of those who are not able to extricate themselves from a difficult economic situation. Those who cannot withstand economic pressure are pushed to the periphery of society.
In the monographic study of Swiss University scientists G. Gurung and M. Kolmer “Marginality: the difference in its concepts” (Zurich, 2005), this phenomenon is no longer considered as a social phenomenon, but in a broader sense - as a system that includes three such type (type): social marginality, spatial (geographical) type and mixed type. This typology was formed depending on the degree, scale and vector of research, taking into account such specific features of the phenomenon of marginality as the high dynamism and elasticity of marginalization processes, which in the context of globalization are already becoming inevitable. In a broad sense, the concept of marginality is defined by the authors as “a temporary state in which a person is removed from public life and lives in relative isolation, on the “edge” of a system (cultural, social, political or economic).”
The type of social marginality, which is largely emphasized in criminological research, includes the following types: cultural, ethnocultural, demographic, religious, age, gender, professional, status, etc. To highlight these independent species social marginality is important such essential characteristics as: the depth of the processes of alienation, the degree of inequality and the level of social, economic, cultural and political differentiation of individuals or groups, the multiplicity and diversity of forms of exclusion of marginal strata from society and vice versa - society from them (Brodvin, 2001 ; Darden, 1989; Davis, 2003; Hans, 1996; Hoskins, 1993; Leimgruber, 2004; Massey, 1994; Sommers, 1999, etc.).
It seems that the basic concepts of the foreign theory of marginality that we have considered, the founder of which was R. Park, and the underlying
At its core, the concept of “alienation” indicates some characteristic features of its periodization.
The first stage, which began in the 20s of the twentieth century, is marked by: the introduction into scientific use of the terms marginality, marginal personality; the predominance of the nominalist socio-psychological approach in the study of this type of personality and its characteristics; highlighting its largely negative characteristics, which led to the consolidation of negative connotations for this concept; expansion of ideas “about a marginal person” in connection with professional, educational, religious and demographic changes, which in general was the basis for the methodology for substantiating the sociological and theoretical concept of marginality.
The second stage, dating back to the middle of the twentieth century, expands the boundaries of consideration of marginality, which is recognized not only as an ethnocultural, but also as a social phenomenon. European studies are distinguished by their orientation mainly towards the study of marginality at the group level; a wider range of factors and causes that determine it are identified: economic, socio-legal, ideological, political, etc.
Distinctive features of the third stage, covering the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, are: greatly increased interest in the study of the phenomenon of marginality; formation of a general theory of its study; systemic nature and expansion of interdisciplinary and extradisciplinary approaches; typologization of marginality in the context of micro-, macro- and mega-levels; the creation of international organizations and the intensification of their activities to study marginality as an object of detailed research on a global scale.
The general foreign theory, in our opinion, has made it possible to identify and confirm with a sufficient degree of validity that the marginal personality and marginal strata represent a problematic and largely negative element of the social structure.
Considering the periodization of Russian studies, we can distinguish three stages in the development of the general theory of marginalism (marginology): 1) from the mid-80s to the early 90s of the twentieth century (at the “takeoff” of perestroika); 2) after the “revolutionary situation” of 1991 until the mid-90s; 3) from the mid-90s (after some stabilization of transformation processes) to the present.
The first stage of Soviet research into the concepts of marginality was characterized to a greater extent by a political approach, within the framework of which the phenomenon studied by Russian scientists was considered as an objective result of the functioning of capitalist society in relation to the factors that determine the inevitability of marginalization processes.
The 90s were marked by works of a philosophical orientation (A.I. Atoyan, V.A. Shapinsky, N.A. Frolova, I.P. Popova, etc.), which used philosophical-cultural, sociological, socio-psychological and other approaches. Central to the semantic definition of the concept of marginality is the “classical” image of transition, betweenness, which, in fact, has been characteristic of the Russian social structure since the 90s of the twentieth century.
Research of that period takes “marginality” (as a subject of humanitarian knowledge) beyond the framework of a single discipline - sociology. In this regard, Russian sociologist and philosopher A.I. Atoyan proposes to separate the complex of knowledge about marginality into a separate area of research - social marginalism.
The newest stage of consideration of the phenomenon of marginality in Russia is distinguished by the complexity of research in the field of psychology (E.V. Zmanovskaya, V.D. Mendelevich, etc.), deviantology (Ya.I. Gilinsky, E.I. Manapova,
N.I. Protasova and others), addictionology (G.V. Starshenbaum), social medicine (E.V. Chernosvitov, A.R. Reshetnikov, A.A. Goldenberg, etc.), social psychology (Yu.A. Kleiberg, O O.I. Efimov, Yu.A. Kokoreva, etc.), sociology of economics (N.E. Tikhonova, Z.T. Golenkova, etc.), sociology of law (V.Yu. Belsky, A.I. Kravchenko, S. .I. Kurganov and others), sociology and philosophy of law (V.A. Bachinin, Yu.G. Volkov, O.V. Stepanov, etc.), theory of state and law (A.A. Nikitin, A. .V. Nechaev), criminology (A.I. Dolgova, S.Ya. Lebedev, M.A. Kochubey, etc.) and other branches of humanities and natural sciences.
Philosophical and sociological dissertation research in the study of marginality identifies such types as cultural, religious, ethnocultural, ethnic, sociocultural, professional status, age, and political marginality. Actually, the legal directions of studying the phenomenon of marginality focus on its purely legal aspects, such as marginal behavior, the legal status of a marginal person, the influence of marginal groups on the state of legality and legal order, etc.
The analysis of Russian and foreign research in the field of studying marginality allows us to make some generalizations:
The concept of marginality serves to designate phenomena associated with changes in the social structure, and is used to designate social groups excluded from the system of social division of labor and located “on the edge” of society, that is, “outlying” social groups requiring social control by the state;
The consolidated characteristics of the concept of marginality are the image of “transitivity”, “intermediality”; Marginalization is recognized by researchers as a large-scale process, leading, on the one hand, to dire consequences for large masses of people who have lost their previous status and standard of living, and on the other, containing a resource for the formation of new relationships;
The concept of marginality and related derivatives should be used in the context of theoretical discussions not so much about the transitional state, but about the crisis tendencies of social transformations;
In a certain sense, the “usefulness” of a marginal situation (in philosophical, sociological, psychological aspects) lies in the fact that such a situation stimulates individuals or groups to search for new opportunities for self-realization in various fields social life; at the same time, an attempt to adapt to a crisis situation leads to the retention of the latest and further marginalization;
Cultural (ethnocultural) marginality is understood as the state of individuals (groups) placed on the edge of two or more cultures participating in their interaction, but not completely adjacent to any of them, which manifests itself in ambiguity, uncertainty of status and role;
Marginal status is the basic level of the study of marginality, an important link in its logical chain, a key concept that characterizes the behavioral, dynamic side of the social structure (or elements of this structure), characteristic of the transformational or anomie state of society. At the same time, the processes of social ascent/descendence of status positions are determined by internal (gender, age, professional, material, etc. characteristics) and external characteristics (features of the regional, political, economic, religious situation, employment problems, etc.);
Unemployment, on the one hand, attracts the attention of government agencies and stimulates the search for new opportunities, and on the other hand, it limits the social and individual resources that determine the future, and makes the marginalized “dropped out” of the connection of times for a long, and possibly endless period. In these cases, the behavior of the unemployed in the labor market can be carried out in different forms: chaotic search, rent relations with the state, defensive avoidance behavior, productive dependency, etc.;
Forced migration, including those caused by nationalist sentiments in the regions, difficult economic situation, lack of regular work, violation of the rights of citizens and owners, directly affects the formation of a specific group of frustrated marginalized people;
Attempts to construct marginality “from the outside,” that is, through extra-scientific opinions and statements of individual representatives of journalism, ideology and journalism, are negative in nature. They create the basis for “forgetting”, “not noticing”, “falling out” from the “field of vision” and, consequently, the state ignoring socially unprotected groups, and on the other hand, groups representing a social danger;
When using the term marginality, it is necessary to abandon its a priori negative assessment. This concept has a negative or positive meaning only when the constructive or destructive consequences of these marginalization processes are studied (or studied).
Thus, by summarizing and systematizing the complex of obtained information and knowledge about marginality, it seems that certain conclusions can be drawn.
1. The general theory of marginality (marginalism) is a set of interdisciplinary studies in the field of: 1) knowledge of marginality as a social phenomenon, which is characterized by the presence in the structure of society of “transitional”, “peripheral”, “outlying”, “alienated” in relation to the reference ( dominant) group of individuals, groups and communities (marginal); 2) forecasting and establishing mechanisms and ways to overcome marginality, including through the implementation of comprehensive
social control, which, in our opinion, is one of the conceptual scientific directions in the study of social processes occurring in society.
2. In the general theory of marginality, two main approaches can be distinguished, the direct or indirect object of which is the phenomenon of marginality:
a) humanitarian approach, the leading directions of which are:
A philosophical direction that studies marginality in the aspects of the general theory of philosophy, social philosophy, cultural studies, ethno- and religious anthropology, etc. The object of their study, first of all, is knowledge of the essence of the phenomenon of marginality and the existence of the corresponding communities through the search and further analysis of its root causes , essential characteristics, understanding the features and patterns of processes that determine this phenomenon, as well as considering it in the relationship between society - culture - individual;
A sociological direction that studies marginality in the context of patterns of functioning, development, including transformations in the social structure of society, an element of which, according to many sociologists, is the phenomenon being studied. The main factors determining marginality in sociology are the processes of upward and downward mobility, peripherality, loss of self-identification, status and role positions by these strata, which are studied by this science in conjunction with the processes of transformation and stratification of the social structure, especially during periods of crisis situations. The study of marginality is carried out by both the general theory of sociology and its individual directions and schools (sociology of labor, sociography, theory of social stratification, sociology of deviant behavior, conflictology, sociology of law, etc.);
Theoretical-legal and criminological directions that study, as noted, the status and legal position of the individual; legal nihilism as a property of marginal behavior and the impact of the state of marginality on the deformation of legal consciousness; causes and conditions determining marginal crime; the effectiveness of current legislation and law enforcement practice aimed at minimizing and eliminating factors that contribute to both leading a marginal lifestyle and the commission of offenses, including crimes, by persons from these groups.
b) a natural-humanitarian approach that carries out scientific and theoretical developments of marginalism in the areas of: social medicine (studying individuals and groups leading a marginal lifestyle, including members of society suffering from diseases such as drug addiction, substance abuse, alcoholism, HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis, and other social diseases), social psychology (which studies, among other things, the psychology of dysfunctional families, deviant behavior, addiction psychology, etc.), social psychiatry (studying, in particular, the condition of persons with mental disorders that are characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, etc.).
3. The study of various concepts and directions of the general theory of marginality gives, in our opinion, the opportunity to characterize this phenomenon, in a broad sense, as follows: marginality is a relatively stable social phenomenon, caused by both internal (personal) and external (social) -economic, political, demographic, spiritual and moral, including religious) reasons of an objective and subjective nature, which in their totality produce the formation of specific groups (communities) that are not adapted (or are in the process of adaptation) to the normative value system.
4. In turn, this provision allows us to formulate a generalized concept of a marginal personality, which is understood as a type of personality that is formed in conditions of internal (psychological, physiological, moral, etc.) and external (socio-economic, political, demographic and other) changes in the image life associated with the loss of self-identification, socio-legal and property status, or having such characteristics depending on the institutionalization of its status.
5. By marginal lifestyle (in the criminological sense) we understand a set of types and ways of life typical for socially disadvantaged (marginal) groups, which are characterized by: lack of a permanent source of income, alienation from socially useful activities, delinquent (as asocial) behavior associated with rejection or denial of legal norms (legal nihilism).
It can be assumed that the conclusions we made in this part of the work are debatable. Perhaps the theory of marginality is not a kind of universal that allows us to get closer to the most complete scientific explanation, much less a solution, to the extremely complex problem of deep differentiation of society, which determines the functioning in its structure of such destructive elements as marginal communities.
R.F. Stepanenko. The Genesis of General Theory of Marginality: Criminological Aspects.
The article summarizes the stages of formation and development of foreign and Russian general theory of marginality, which is fundamental to the construction and understanding of criminological concept of marginal crime. The notions of marginal person and marginal way of life are defined. The main approaches to studying the complex social phenomenon of mar-ginality are specified.
Key words: genesis, theory of marginality, marginalization processes, exclusion theory, marginalized perpetrator identity, crime.
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Received by the editor 04/03/09
Stepanenko Ravia Faritovna - candidate of legal sciences, applicant for the Department of Criminal Law of Kazan State University.
