Marginality is an inalienable property of any society?

Today, representatives of the intellectual elite increasingly hear that marginalization as a social phenomenon is a disaster of modern economy and politics. But what do they mean by this concept? If marginality is the result of a conflict with existing social norms, how to deal with this phenomenon and whether it should be done?

It turns out that marginality is a topic that worried sociologists back in the 1920s. Marginals at the time called immigrants, who, having moved to North America, could not get along with the local subculture. Later the notion of marginality began to apply to the shaggy homeless from the neighboring garbage dump, and to an intellectual artist with free views of life.

The leading American sociologist of that period, Robert Park, talked about the impact of migration on increasing indifference among the human masses. Today marginality is a quality that is very often attributed to modern youth, which does not obey accepted norms and traditions, but does not defend its own. But it is present not only in her, but also in other representatives of the society. Therefore, we can say that marginality is a socio-psychological phenomenon that is inherent in any society.

In the literature devoted to this issue, the following types of this phenomenon are distinguished:

• Structural or social;
• Cultural or ethnocultural;
• Marginality of social roles.

Modern scientists are studying what causes the emergence of groups that do not agree with the existing social norms. There are two main ways to explain this phenomenon. People can not accept norms due to the fact that in society at the moment there are various social transformations, and also because of their own psychological characteristics.

A. Farj, for example, said that the marginality of the population is a consequence of the conflict between the social norms inherent in different cultures. Most often, such a conflict occurs when there are significant migration flows. After the move, emigrants simply can not reorganize and completely accept new behaviors that seem alien to them. Farge calls marginals of those people who can not adapt to their environment. Thus, they can be not only foreigners, but also people who have lost their habitual social status. Brighton Beach and Chinatown in the large US city of New York - this is just a community of marginalized people who do not want and do not accept the rules adopted in this country. They continue to live as they are used to, but in their new homeland.

In the 90 years of the last century, a special class of marginals was formed in Russian society. They were treated as representatives of the "social bottom", and "new Russians". Each of these groups had their own views on life, interests and needs that were strikingly different from those of the middle class.