Surely you know such a thing asmarginal behavior. Examples of life that illustrate it are numerous. In this article we will try to highlight the general that combines these examples. It presents a characteristic of marginal behavior. You will learn what it is, what applies to it, what are its types and features. The term "marginal" in recent years has become quite common, if not fashionable. After the breakdown of the state system, the transition of our country to market relations, this word was fixed in the lexicon of the people of Russia, along with "golden youth", "oligarch", "skinheads", etc.
The boundaries of the term "marginality"
It is not easy to determine what constitutesmarginal behavior. In our country, a lot of scientific works that are devoted to this issue. Unfortunately, it should be noted that different authors of these works by "marginals" do not always understand the same thing. For example, today even jurisprudence has become marginal, just like law. In other words, this concept is not only related to the person.
Кроме того, явление маргинальности is considered today not only as negative, with which it is associated with the majority. It is sometimes assessed as evidence of the maintenance of advanced ideas by the carrier of a given quality. In this context, marginal behavior is something that can be evaluated positively.
The invalidity of the concept
By and large, this concept isunvalued. For example, I. V. Malyshev indicates that marginal behavior is "neither good nor bad." He also notes that the concept of "marginal" does not have a permanent detonate. What prevails today will be on the sidelines of the structure tomorrow. Indeed, the one who most recently was the “white crow”, often becomes a role model. He turns from marginal to representative of the ruling class. So it was, for example, with the "new Russian" - novice businessmen in Russia.
E.Starikov formulated a rather original approach to understanding marginality. This researcher noted that marginal behavior is behavior that is neutral with respect to assessments (positive or negative), but at the same time it has a multi vector. Marginality is the process of re-arranging the mosaic of society, when the masses of people, large in size, are transferred from one social group to another. The researcher noted that this disease is evidence of the growth of the social organism.
Interdisciplinary approach
So, we can state that in the definitionthe content of such a thing as marginal behavior still has a number of difficulties. In particular, when using the term, various disciplinary approaches emerged (in social psychology, sociology, political science, cultural studies and economics). This gives a rather general character to the concept itself, which becomes interdisciplinary. In addition, in the process of development, clarification of this term, several meanings have affirmed, which refer to different types of marginality.
The origin and interpretation of the term "marginal"
This word is derived from the French term,translate meaning "marginal collateral". As a rule, it means the following: insignificant, insignificant, intermediate, secondary. Another meaning of the term, more characteristic of the French language and used mainly in economics, is “almost unprofitable, economically close to the limit”.
But another interpretation is more interesting for us.In the Brockhaus and Efron dictionary, the following definition is given: marginals are short notes taken on the margins of old printed books or manuscripts. They are intended to clarify certain places of the text. Speaking figuratively, the marginal is a person who is on a certain verge, threshold, and often the one who found himself "overboard."
Anyone can be a margin
In connection with the foregoing, a naturalthe question is: how to define this boundary, to understand, is this or that individual "behind the door" or is it standing in front of it? What are the features of marginal behavior?
The rules of the game established in society havesome uncertainty that may be significant at the turning points. This leads to the fact that everyone, in fact, can be considered marginal if:
- social status of a person is not defined;
- his tomorrow is not secured;
- his mind and health are unstable;
- random turns of fate are allowed;
- any character trait, specific appearance, hobbyor a profession against the background of the rest constitutes an obvious minority and can be regarded as a deviation from the norm, which, in turn, is a reason for repression.
In the world, it goes without saying, there is absolutely nohealthy people, normal in all respects, prosperous, corresponding to certain abstract ideas of classical philosophy about man. However, such an approach will not give us anything in defining the margin. A. Green argued that a marginal person is a comprehensive term. Including everything, this concept does not exclude anything. Therefore, this term should be used carefully and only after determining its parameters.
Opinion A. A. Nikitin
A. A.Nikitin considers marginality as a special form of social life of a person or group, which negatively affects the structure of society and is characterized by the deformation of values, social landmarks and traditions. At the same time interpersonal relationships are destroyed, a person or a group is alienated from a number of legal, economic and political processes. As a result of all this, a special type of personality of the marginal is formed.
Marginal person
According to A. A.Nikitin, it is characterized by the following two groups of properties: special legal and general social. The latter include a significant change or complete loss of the previous legal and social status, which are caused by factors external to the person. This also includes the interimness of the legal and social situation, the development of dual social adaptation, and others. The special legal properties are the absence, incorrectness or insufficiency of the legal regulation of the position of marginalized people. In addition, it is an impossibility to fully realize the rights and freedoms provided for in the legislation in relation to these persons. From a legal point of view, their position is either ambiguous or ambivalent.
The appearance of marginality is influenced by the following main factors:
- значительное изменение или утрата былого social and / or legal status, the forms of which may be different (loss or reduction of income, loss of work, housing or family, disability and health, the need to change the place of stay / residence, etc.);
- external factors associated with a deep and dramatic transformation of the social structure in various fields (national, cultural, political, economic, etc.);
- существенное изменение психологического state, which is characterized by a more complex process of self-identification of a particular person in society, weak perception of traditions, loss of vital interests, etc.
Bio and sociomarginal
Among the marginals are bio-and socio-marginals.The first are flawed persons for health reasons. Socio-marginals have departed from their class or group due to certain circumstances, independent or dependent on the individual. Their inclusion in their class or group is complicated by the fact that such people have no socially useful connections.
According to D.M.Zaripova, the main forms of administratively and morally punishable types of marginal behavior are begging, vagrancy, and settled parasitism, which is currently subject only to moral condemnation. In addition, sociomarginals are minors who are delivered for offenses to the police station. They also include prostitutes, drug addicts, alcoholics, forced migrant workers. Biomarginals are patients with infectious diseases after long-term treatment (that is, cured), patients with tuberculosis, various infectious and venereal diseases, leprosy, and HIV-infected.
"Risk groups"
In the literature it was repeatedly noted thatcriminalization (involvement in criminal activity) is subject to more marginal subgroups. These are the so-called "risk groups". These include:
- unemployed or employed fictitiously;
- the poor;
- representatives of the so-called "social bottom" (street children, vagrants, bums, beggars, etc.);
- Persons who have been in prison or returned from military service;
- internally displaced persons, refugees from “hot spots”, people migrating to the city from the village.
These categories are available in any society. In different countries, there is only a difference in the quantitative sense of representatives of these groups and the "safe" part of society.
Levels of marginality
A. A.Nikitin identifies the following 2 levels of marginality: public and personal. Based on whether members of a particular group cross the line of law, this researcher proposes to divide them into two marginal layers:
- social group or layer of risk;
- asocial group or layer.
The first includes such categories of populationas immigrants, internally displaced persons, refugees who do not have the status of an internally displaced person or a refugee, the unemployed, the disabled, and persons who do not have a propiska. To the second, neglected and homeless minors, prostitutes, bums, beggars, vagrants, ex-prisoners suffering from drug or alcohol addiction, drug addicts.
The boundary of the legality of behavior
Can we talk about what existsmarginal legitimate behavior? The correct answer to this question is as follows. Marginal behavior is a phenomenon that is generally characterized by marginality. It balances on the verge of wrongful and legitimate. This means that marginal behavior includes both legitimate, but existing at the border with illegal, and illegal. The criterion for assigning a marginal group to one of the two layers identified above can be considered wrongfulness (including asociality) and the legitimacy of the behavior of its members. Criminologists are mainly interested in the second (asocial) layer, although people belonging to the first group (illegal migrants, for example) should not be overlooked, since the classification proposed above is conditional.
What is the marginal legitimatebehavior? It is based on the following motives: personal selfish calculations, fear of responsibility, fear of condemnation from society, the state or others. Marginal lawful behavior (examples - alcoholism, vagrancy, etc.) is, as it were, on the verge of antisocial. It leads a person to an offense. However, it can be characterized as marginal legal behavior. In this case, the following driving forces “work” in the mental mechanism of a person’s motives: fear of condemnation, threat of possible punishment, etc. They deter the individual from the wrongdoing.
Finally
So marginal behavior, examples andthe features of which we have reviewed are very diverse. It can be shown by representatives of a number of social categories. Currently, there are many definitions of such concepts as "marginal behavior". Examples of some of them were given in the article. Science, of course, needs clarification of this term.
