Marginal rider

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Randseiter (originally in English: Marginal Man ) is a sociological term that comes from Robert Ezra Park and was systematized by his student Everett V. Stonequist . The concept is considered to be Park's most important individual contribution to cultural sociology .

Park understood the social figure of the marginal side to be a person who is on the edge, thus in the border area, of two cultures and thus participates in both cultures without really belonging. At first Park had meant the mulatto by this , later he generalized his concept and described the marginalized personality as the result of mobility processes of spatial, social and cultural nature. Such a life situation creates a psychological crisis with feelings of uprooting and disorientation . But coping with the crisis opens up opportunities for the marginalized rider that those with roots hardly have. The marginal rider becomes a person with a broader horizon, a sharper intellect and an unbiased and rational point of view. Park saw the Randseiter as the modern personality type who was released from traditional ties.

Kurt Lewin also used this figure of thought for adolescents who are in the transition from childhood to that of adults.

In general, a marginalized person is understood to mean a person who feels marginalized when changing from one social reference group to another, which creates an identity crisis .

literature

  • Robert E. Park: Human Migration and the Marginal Man. In: Richard Sennett (Ed.): The Classic Essays on the Culture of Cities. Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York 1969, pp. 131-142.
  • Robert E. Park: Migration and the marginal rider. In: Peter-Ulrich Merz-Benz / Gerhard Wagner (ed.): The stranger as a social type. UVK, Konstanz 2002, pp. 55-72.
  • Everett V. Stonequist: The Marginal Man. A Study in Personality and Culture Conflict. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1937 (reprinted by Russell & Russell, 1961).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Rolf Lindner, Robert E. Park (1864-1944). In: Dirk Kaesler : Classics of Sociology . Volume I: From Auguste Comte to Alfred Schütz . 4th edition, Munich 2003, pp. 213-229, here p. 220.
  2. ↑ Julia Reuter: The Stranger. In: Stephan Moebius , Markus Schroer : Divas, Hackers, Speculators. Social figures of the present. Berlin 2010, pp. 161–173, here pp. 165 f.