Peculiarities of a marginal personality in the modern world

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Peculiarities of a marginal personality in the modern world

Martynova S. P.,

postgraduate student of the department of philosophical, social-political and legal sciences in Donbass State pedagogical university

In the article it is analyzed a marginal individual as a social phenomenon that forms the basis for the deployment of the global crises which consequences are unpredictable from the standpoint of the modern science. The above mentioned actualizes the social and philosophical analysis of the peculiarities under the conditions of globalization, determinants and mechanisms of the social transit of the marginal communities into the integrated sociocultural space.

Keywords: margin, social medium, lumpen, social contradictions, marginal communities.

Nowadays the Ukrainian crisis society directs man to the creative realization of the individual, but at the same time it does not provide specific resources for this. At the present stage of the development of philosophy in the era of the global, social and spiritual crisis it is becoming important the formation of a new ideological paradigm of a marginal personality that requires research in the field of philosophy and cultural studies. The phenomenon of margin is always relevant, because through marginality new models of life, moral values, a different outlook emerge. The marginal personality is important for any society at all stages of its development and in various forms of its manifestation. With the growing scale of margin in the society there deepen the social contradictions that form the basis for the deployment of global crises which consequences are unpredictable from the standpoint of modern science. The above defined updates the sociophilosophical analysis of the peculiarities of margin in the context of globalization, determinants and mechanisms of social transit of the marginalized communities into the integrated socio-cultural space. marginal individual social

Philosophical reflection on the public attitudes to individuals who in their worldview do not fit the prevailing social norms can be found in the treatises of thinkers of the Ancient World, Ancient Greece, the Renaissance, the times of Modern and Contemporary History. As a result of the seizure of foreign territories, the slave trade, geographical discoveries and the development of trade it occurred the fragmented socio-cultural diffusion, and the phenomenon of margin began spreading not to individuals but to entire social groups. However, the most obviously the formation of the marginalized communities occurred under the influence of large-scale transformations specific to each historical epoch. The aim of the article is to outline the stages of creativity in the everyday world of the individual.

Thus, in Ancient Rome the mass migration to the cities of the peasants who lost their ability to farm on land, led to a significant increase of the urban poor whose axiological orientations were expressed by the slogan «bread and circuses». History of the Middle Ages documented the formation of the marginalized communities from among the military mercenaries who were involved by the monarchs to conduct long feudal wars and crusades, but after the end of the military campaign (as well as the formation of the standing armies) could not be absorbed into the institutions of feudal society, preferring brigandage and robbery as means of their existence.

The transition from the feudal society to the industrial form was accompanied by the formation of the lumpen communities. The essential difference of the way of life and axiological orientations of the pauperized peasantry determined the complexity of adaptation of this social execution to a new role as proletarians. In addition, the oversupply of cheap labor force in the labor market led to unemployment, resulting in the society the spread of poverty and social inequality.

By the 20th century the phenomenon margin was not stood out as a separate element of social theory, but seen in the integrity of the common problems of the social development. However, with the acceleration of the human development, deepening of the inequality and therefore social contradictions in the society it was formed a scientific approach to study margin. Thus, in the 20s of the 20th century R. Park, an American scientist, exploring the issues of social mobility of individuals, introduced the concept of marginality, defining it as a state of individuals who are on the border of two different cultures. E. Stounkvist, T. Veblen, T. Shybutani, D. Holovenski complemented this theoretical concept from the standpoint of sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, psychology. Despite the fact that the term «marginal man» was first introduced by an American sociologist R. Park [6, p. 881-893] in 1928, this phenomenon we can meet both in the treatises of Ancient India, and in the works by Karl Marx. Any evolution is characterized by the different level of adaptation of the members of the society to the historical transformations that determines the presence in the society both a vanguard and outsiders. The latter, in fact, were seen as a vestige of the old formation that marked that very line from which the society wished to distance quickly. However, because of the modest social dynamics and relatively long historical period to adapt during the change these segments of the society remained practically outside the priorities of social management. As a result of the seizure of the foreign territories, the slave trade, geographical discoveries and the development of trade it occurred the fragmented socio-cultural diffusion, and the phenomenon of margin began spreading not on individuals, but on solid social groups. However, the most obviously the formation of the marginalized communities occurred under the influence of large-scale transformations specific to each historical epoch. Thus, in Ancient Rome the mass migration to the cities of the peasants who lost their ability to farm on land, led to a significant increase of the urban poor whose axiological orientations were expressed by the slogan «bread and circuses».

Since the ancient times the extensive model of society has been accompanied by the seizure of foreign territories and the slave trade, geographical discoveries and dissemination of trade, resulting in the fragmented sociocultural phenomenon of diffusion and the phenomenon of margin spread not on individuals, but on certain social groups.

However, the most obviously the formation of the marginalized communities occurred under the influence of large-scale transformations specific to each historical epoch. Thus, in Ancient Rome the mass migration to the cities of the peasants who lost their ability to farm on land, led to a significant increase of the urban poor whose axiological orientations were expressed by the slogan «bread and circuses».

The epoch of the Middle Ages was marked by the development of monotheistic religiousness [5, p. 50]. Fierce competition between the doctrines of Christianity and Islam as the main dominant ideology in the Western European and Arab societies determined the need in justification by the philosophical thought the necessity of the complete subordination of individuals to the ideals of a particular doctrine.

In particular, A. Maslov points out that «in the writings by Augustine ... by the concentrated way it is expressed the main worldview paradigm of the relationship of the individual and society of the Western Middle Ages the complete absorption of the individual by the Total, Absolute» [2, p. 9-10].

Together with it, the history of the Middle Ages was enriched with the examples of the formation of the marginalized communities from among the military mercenaries who were involved by the monarchs to conduct long feudal wars and crusades. Thus, after the military campaign or the formation by the monarchs the regular army the military laborers could not absorb in the institutions of the feudal society. Such communities often long controlled the areas of land and sea (piracy), set their own rules and thereby challenged the society. At the same time the monarchs, after unsuccessful attempts to destroy them physically, often chose the path to divert the leaders of these communities at the service, creating conditions for their demarginalization.

The transition from the feudal society to the industrial one was accompanied by pauperization of the peasantry and a massive infusion of it into the ranks of the proletariat. The essential difference between the mode of existence and axiological orientations of these social strata determined the complexity of the adaptation of former peasants into a new role as proletarians. In addition, the oversupply of cheap labor force in the labor market led to unemployment, resulting in spreading poverty and social inequality in the society. Under these circumstances, in the society new marginalized groups were being formed. Marxist theory has identified them as lumpen proletariat (literally translated from German Lumpen «ragged, rags») [1]. Thus, beggars, vagrants, criminals and so on were attributed to the lumpen communities.

In the early 20th century, the growing scales of the socio-economic changes in the society covered larger masses of people, resulting in increasing the quantity of the marginalized communities in the society. As R. Barnet underlined «the life of every generation, by definition, is an era of transition, but our time marks more significant changes in the organization of the planet compared to those that took place during, at least, the last 500 years» [5, p. 24]. Against the background of the rapid development of the society the distance between the vanguard and outsiders began to be seen more clearly. This negatively affected the paces of the social development and formed the basis for the crisis events that determined the need to conduct the relevant research to offer solutions to new social problems.

If until the 20th century philosophical reflection did not single out the phenomenon of margin as a separate element of social theory, considering it together with the common problems of social development, but with the quantitative growth of the marginalized groups scientific thought was increasingly paying attention to the specificity of their role in the society. The above mentioned actualized the necessity of forming a scientific approach to the study of the phenomenon of margin.

In particular, in the first half of the 20th century, after some economic growth caused by the active participation of the US companies in the material provision of the allies in the military-political bloc in World War I, the cyclical crisis, the Great Depression, involved Ukraine. The industrial society met with the fact that together with the resolution of economic issues the social problems came to the fore. Epidemiological nature of spreading social nihilism among the population, neglecting values and social norms and laws affected the growth of crime to catastrophic scales and threatened to preservation of the social formation.

For the inhomogeneous from the racial and ethnic sides Ukrainian society with traditionally intense migration it was necessary to gain more knowledge about the individual as an object of manipulation. As unlike the industrialize countries of Europe, Ukraine's economy was destroyed by war and demanded a proper reconstruction, it is on this very wave it was formed Ukrainian scientific tradition in the study of margin, to understand which it is necessary to make a chronological overview.

For the first time as a sociological term, R. Park suggested the concept of marginality in 1928 in his book «Human Migration and Marginalized Man». The results of his research of the development of the urban environment (including the immigrant enclaves in the American cities) and race relations of the intercultural interaction allowed the scientist to form an idea of the type of a person that is «on the verge» which is characteristic of the intense migration processes in the American society.

According to R. Park the concept of marginality defines the position of individuals on the border of the two different, conflicting between themselves cultures and is used to study the consequences of non-adaption of the migrants, the peculiarities of state of mulattos and other «cultural hybrids» [5, p. 8]. The main criterion to determine the nature of a marginal man is the presence of a sense of moral dichotomy, bifurcation and conflict when old habits are discarded but new ones are not formed yet. «Without any doubt the periods of transition and crisis in the lives of most of us can be comparable to that an immigrant feels when he leaves his Motherland to find a better luck in a foreign land. However, in the case of a marginal human the period of crisis is relatively permanent. As a result, it can turn into a type of personality» [5, p. 4-6].

Together with this R. Park indicates that a marginal man is characterized of a new type of cultural relationships that is formed during the global ethno-social processes. «A marginal man is a personality type that appears at the time and in the place where from the conflicts of races and cultures begin to arise new societies, people and cultures. The fate dooms these people to exist in both worlds simultaneously, forces them to choose in their attitude towards these worlds the role of a cosmopolitan and the role of a stranger. Such a person becomes (compared to the surrounding cultural environment) an individual with a broader horizon, more subtle intellect, more independent and rational views. A marginal man is always a more civilized creature» [5, p. 11].

Therefore, R. Park first formulated the concept of a «marginal man» trying to interpret the results of his own studies concerning the behavior of the members of certain ethnic groups of the urban population. At the same time against the background of the enormous heuristic potential, the conceptual frameworks of the theoretical positions by R. Park were limited to the subject of his studies, leaving wide scope for the further study of the phenomenon of margin.

If R. Park considers a marginal individual as a man on the verge of two cultures and two societies, who will never be accepted in the new society, staying in it a personality with split consciousness and destroyed psyche, E. Stounkvist points out that during the adaptation it can be formed a personality with new features, and tries (as R. Park) to emphasize the positive features inherent to a marginal personality and those which should be used in social projecting. According to the scientist's thought, the process of the transformation of the social, mental and emotional aspects of a personality can last about 20 years.

Thus, E. Stounkvist defines three phases of evolution of a «marginal person»: 1) the individual is not aware that his own life is covered by the cultural conflict, he only tries to adapt himself to the dominant culture; 2) the individual experiences the conflict consciously (at this very stage a personality becomes a «marginal»); 3) successful and unsuccessful attempts to adapt to the situation of conflict [4, p. 92-93].

But the anthropological realities till this time are not defined in the processes of the transformation of the spiritual and cultural values, which, on the one hand, are exposed to the integration and harmonization, and, on the other, retain their authenticity and belonging to the ethno-cultural system. It can be stated that marginality is one of the markers, the leading mechanism of globalization, the cultural expansion of the powerful states that form a globalization space of cultural influences. However, this statement in the 21st century is already becoming problematic. Marginality is not only the focus on the average consumer but not primitive adaptive complexes that look like transformed mythologems of the theories of Z. Freud, Carl Jung and other researchers.

The problem of margin has always existed in the society. The question of the anthropological limit, perception of a human by a human, his microcosm, his achievements has been existing in large spatial intervals of the being of the cultural forms of communication.

It can be concluded that the lack of social dialogue in the society concerning determining the dominant way of the socio-cultural development hinders the socio-economic progress, which is reflected in its economic state, which does not allow to provide the decent level of the social standards for its members (that is why the part of the latter migrate in search of a better life) and to properly finance science (which makes the part of researchers seek opportunities for self-realization in other communities).

References

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References

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3. Maslov A. O. Marginal'na osobystist' jak predmet social'nofilosofs'kogo analizu [Za nauk. red. d-ra filos. n., prof. Muljara V. I.] / A. O. Maslov. Zhytomyr: ZhDTU, 2004. 165 s.

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