In sociology, the term “marginal” refers to individuals and groups located on the “outskirts”, on the “sidelines” or simply outside the framework of the main ones characteristic of a given society. structural divisions or prevailing sociocultural norms and traditions. This concept was first introduced by American sociologists studying the sociocultural situation in Hawaii in the 20s of the twentieth century, a territory with a particularly social and cultural diversity of population.
The category of “marginal personality,” introduced by Parsons, was used to designate the socio-psychological consequences of migrants’ failure to adapt to the demands of urbanism as a way of life. Since then, the concept of “marginal groups” (“marginal strata”) has become firmly established not only in American sociology.
Marginality as a phenomenon is an inevitable accompaniment of social mobility, both vertical, associated with the transition from one stratum to another, and horizontal, associated with movement to another status position of equal prestige. During such a transition, the loss of belonging to the old stratum can significantly advance the process of entering the new stratum. The principles of such “delay” are determined by the characteristics of the individual, who must tune in to accept a new subcultural environment, the formation of a new type of identity, which requires a certain time, during which subjective adaptation is carried out.
A migrant from a village to a city can serve as a reference model of a marginal personality. Arriving at permanent place living in the city, he has difficulty getting used to the new rhythm of life for him, new orders and rules, stereotypes of behavior. He is no longer a rural resident, since he constantly lives in the city, but he is also not yet a city dweller, since he has not yet adapted to the urban cultural environment; previously learned norms of lifestyle are constantly visible in his actions.
Thus, the process of loss of objective belonging to a certain social community, a stratum without subsequent subjective entry into a new stratum is called marginalization.
The marginal man, torn out of the village and thrown into the harsh jungle of the city, is the most common hero of Balzac and Zola, Hugo and Maupassant, Chekhov and Gorky. The behavior of such a person is extreme: he is either overly passive or very aggressive, easily violates moral standards and is capable of unpredictable actions.
Such a person lives simultaneously in two worlds, without being adapted to either of them. Consciousness bifurcates, he easily loses his bearings, becomes a convenient object for political manipulation, and easily falls into aggression or social apathy. Cut off from his social roots, such a person experiences a feeling of constant dissatisfaction, not without reason seeing the main and main reason in social changes.
Marginalized groups arise during mass migration (refugees) or in conditions of “pushing” a certain number of the population beyond the boundaries of socially significant structures (loss of work, home, deprivation of civil and political rights, etc.). The threat posed by this layer is due to the fact that its representatives lose their functional (professional, production, etc.), and then many other connections with society, and find themselves outside the network of social control.
In Ukraine, the dismantling of the previous social structure is accompanied by an intensive process of marginalization of society; more and more intermediate layers are appearing (a kind of “tumbleweed”), people who have broken away from traditional sociocultural systems, but do not fit into the new structures.
In general, in the context of the transition to new social conditions, to market relations, marginalization becomes widespread, or, as sociologists say, structural marginalization occurs, which is associated with the loss of entire layers of their previous status, with the severance of previous ties, the loss of stable value guidelines, social roots, understanding of what is happening.
The issues of such mass downward mobility in conditions of social crises were dealt with by P. Sorokin, who, by the will of fate, himself found himself in such “millstones”. The situation of general social destruction occurs not only during revolutions, but during periods of economic depression, modernization, etc.
It should be noted that marginal status does not necessarily carry negative content; it can also be a temporary state that ends with fairly rapid adaptation. How many talented people (writers, artists, scientists, etc.) came to the city from the village and quickly fit into the new sociocultural aura.
In general, the technical, social, and cultural changes of recent decades have given the problem of marginality qualitatively new contours. Urbanization, mass migrations, intensive interactions between bearers of heterogeneous ethnic cultures and religious traditions, the erosion of age-old cultural barriers, the influence of mass communications on the population - all this has led to the fact that marginal status has become in the modern world not so much an exception as the norm for the existence of millions and millions of people.
The lumpen, who represent the “social bottom” (homeless people, drug addicts, alcoholics), should be distinguished from the marginal layers. We can say that the state of marginality can end either in a transition to a higher status, or it can lead to a fall, a descent to the “social bottom.”
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Sociology: Textbook. – Odessa, 2013. - p. IN textbook highlights the main topics of the sociology course, including issues of history and theory of sociology, methodology and methods of sociology
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Realization in society is one of the psychological needs of a person. A person who falls out of society is called marginal, but this does not mean that such a person is necessarily poor and leads a self-destructive lifestyle. Once you find out who the marginalized are, you may be surprised to find them among your friends.
Who is a marginalized person - definition
According to the sociological explanatory dictionary, a marginal personality is a person who is in a borderline state between two or more social groups, systems, and cultures. What does it mean, a marginal person is an asocial subject, but not necessarily dysfunctional, immoral or suffering from pathological attachments. It is believed that the first marginalized were people freed from slavery who left their usual environment, but were not able to immediately become full-fledged members of society.
If the marginalized in society do not perform socially useful functions, then they create various problems. Marginalized people are capable of forming groups and causing unrest. In European countries, such a phenomenon as a migrant revolt is not uncommon. These people, who were accepted into a foreign country, provided with housing and food, can bring many problems to law-abiding indigenous residents. Somewhat less common are harmless marginals, as examples can be given to representatives of national minorities, the fashionable downshifter movement, etc.
The status of “marginal” can be prescribed to a person by society or accepted by the individual independently. “Stigmatization” and “labeling” of non-standard people can happen in the workplace, in a hospital, at school. Minorities – national, sexual, etc. – are often subjected to this kind of repression. This is a violation of human rights. An individual can realize his own marginality himself. In this case, he must decide whether to “return to normality” or live with the status of “marginal.”
Who are the marginalized and lumpen?
The term “lumpen” was introduced by K. Marx; he included tramps, beggars, and bandits to this group. According to ordinary people, the lumpen and the marginalized represent one group of people with similar interests and lifestyles. This is not entirely true. Lumpen is a declassed, physically and morally degraded element, the “dregs of society”, which is part of a marginal group, but at the same time, a marginal person is not always a lumpen.
Signs of marginalized people
Sociologists call the main feature of the marginalized the severance of economic, social and spiritual ties that exist in “pre-marginal” life. Mostly migrants and refugees become marginalized. A former military man who has been discharged from service but has not yet found himself in civilian society may find himself on the edge of social groups. Connections with the past were severed upon dismissal, but there are still no new ones, and in particularly unfavorable conditions there won’t be any. Then a person can declassify – i.e. sink to the very “bottom” of life.
Other signs of marginality:
- mobility - occurs in the absence of housing, attachments;
- mental problems - appear as a result of the inability to find one’s “place in the sun”;
- development of one’s own values, sometimes hostility towards the existing society;
- sufficient ease of involvement in illegal activities.
Types of marginalized people
With positive developments in events, a person’s period of marginality does not last too long - having adapted, found a job, and joined society, he loses his marginal status. The exception is people who were forced to become marginalized (refugees) or those who consciously chose this way of life (vagrants, radicals, extremists, revolutionaries). Sociologists divide the main types of marginalized people this way: political, ethical, religious, social, economic, biological.
Political marginals
To understand who a political marginal is and the meaning of this term, we can recall the period of Fidel Castro coming to power in Cuba, accompanied by bloody repressions. The “Island of Freedom” became unbearable for the life of about 2 million people who fled to other countries, essentially becoming political marginals - people who are not satisfied with the existing political regime and its laws.
Ethnic marginalized
People who experience ethnic marginality usually include individuals born from representatives different nationalities. Not every interethnic marriage gives rise to marginalized people; this only happens if the child does not associate himself with any of the nationalities of his parents - in this case, he is not accepted anywhere. Another answer to the question who are ethnic marginalized people is national minorities, representatives of extremely small nationalities living among other nationalities.
Religious fringes
The majority of people in society either adhere to a certain religion or do not believe in God at all. Religious fringes are individuals who believe in the existence higher power, but cannot call themselves representatives of any existing religion. Among such individuals (prophets) you can find those who gathered like-minded people and created their own church.
Social marginals
Such a phenomenon as social marginality develops in a society experiencing cataclysms: coups, revolutions, etc. Entire groups of people in a changing society are losing their place and cannot find it in the new system. Such social outcasts often become migrants; as an example, we can recall representatives of the nobility who left Russia after the 1917 revolution.
Marginal economic
The answer to the question of who the economic marginal is basically comes down to unemployment and the poverty that accompanies this phenomenon. Economic marginalized people are forced or intentionally losing the opportunity to earn money and live at the expense of others - receiving help from others, benefits from the state, alms, etc. In modern society, super-rich people who are also cut off from society are also considered to be economically marginalized.
Biomarginals
An ideal public organization implies caring for those who find themselves in a difficult situation due to health problems, so the question of who is a biological marginal should not arise. In fact, those who have no value to society due to ill health are left completely unprotected. Biomarginal people include disabled people, chronically ill people, old people, HIV-infected people, etc.
Pros and cons of marginality
The initially negative meaning of the term “marginal” has already changed and does not always carry a negative load. To be outside the “herd”, to be different from many is fashionable and even prestigious, but positive sides marginality can be found even in classical meaning this phenomenon:
- marginalized people are more mobile than ordinary people; it is easier for them to move to an economically more prosperous area, find a better-paid job, or change their profession;
- due to their dissimilarity with other members of society, some marginalized people can build their own business on this, for example, an ethnic marginalized person can open a store with goods produced by his people;
- Thanks to their flexibility, marginalized people often bring something new and progressive to society.
The negative aspects of marginality include the fact that this phenomenon is mainly associated with radical changes in the structure of society - reforms, revolutions. In general, society always suffers from such changes - the state becomes poorer, promising individuals leave it. Another disadvantage of marginalization of society is the decline in living standards and security due to lumpenization large quantity marginalized.
Marginality is also negative when it is artificially created. During long-term revolutions and wars, the number of marginalized people grows exponentially, as a result, innocent people die and sink to the bottom. Examples of forced marginalization are the Holocaust of the Jewish nation perpetrated by Nazi Germany and Stalin's repressions, as a result of which hundreds of thousands of people were exiled, resettled, deprived of work and housing.
Marginality and poverty
Since in modern society the answer to the question of who the marginalized are has changed greatly, the consequences of marginality are not always poverty, deprivation of liberty or even life. Marginal people, as already mentioned, can also be very rich people who, due to their wealth, are freer than other members of society. And there are often cases when successful businessmen retire from business and leave big cities for the provinces and villages.
Within the framework of such a phenomenon as marginality, it is worth mentioning the recently appeared downshifters. From birth, an individual develops in two opposite directions - as a social person and as an individual person. Ideally, these forces should be balanced, but in reality, one of these directions often outweighs. With increased socialization, a conformist is born, and with increased individualization, a downshifter can be born.
A downshifter is a person who has chosen to live outside of society or has severely limited communication with people outside his family. This is a marginalized person who is quite satisfied with being in a borderline state, when he is free to move around the world and live completely independently. Most often, downshifters prefer to engage in art - drawing, writing books, etc. And their creativity is almost always in demand, because... the author has strong energy And .
Marginalized people are people who, for various reasons, have fallen out of their usual social circles and are unable to join new social strata, usually due to cultural inconsistency. In such a situation, they experience strong psychological stress and experience a crisis of self-awareness.
The theory of who the marginalized were was put forward in the first half of the 20th century by R. E. Park. But before him, issues of social declassing were raised by Karl Marx.
Weber's theory
Weber concluded that a social movement begins when marginalized groups establish a community, and this leads to various reforms and revolutions. Weber gave a deeper interpretation of what made it possible to explain the formation of new communities, which, of course, did not always unite the social dregs of society: refugees, the unemployed, and so on. But on the other hand, sociologists have never refuted the undoubted connection between the human masses, excluded from the system of customary social connections, and the process of organizing new communities.
The main principle in human communities is: “Chaos must be somehow ordered.” At the same time, new classes, groups and layers almost never arise in connection with the organized active work beggars and homeless people. Rather, it can be seen as the construction of parallel people whose lives were quite orderly before moving to a new position.
Despite the prevalence of the currently fashionable word “marginal,” the concept itself is rather vague. Therefore, it is impossible to specifically identify the role of this phenomenon in the culture of society. You can answer the question of who the marginalized are with the characteristic “non-systemic”. This will be the most accurate definition. Because the marginalized are outside the social structure. That is, they do not belong to any group that determines the character of society as a whole.
There are marginalized people in culture too. Here they are outside the main types of thinking and language and do not belong to any artistic movement. The marginalized cannot be classified as one of the dominant or main groups, nor with the opposition, nor with various subcultures.
Society has long defined who the marginalized are. The opinion has become established that these are representatives of the lower strata of society. At best, these are people who are outside the norms and traditions. As a rule, calling a person marginal shows a negative, contemptuous attitude towards him.
But marginality is not an autonomous state, it is the result of non-acceptance of norms and rules, the expression of a special relationship with the existing. It can develop in two directions: breaking all usual connections and creating own world or gradual displacement by society and subsequent throwing out of the law. In any case, the marginal is not the wrong side of the world, but only its shadow sides. The public is accustomed to showing off people outside the system in order to establish its own world, considered normal.
Introduction
1. The problem of marginality in modern sociology
1.1 Evolution of the concept of marginality in the history of sociology
1.2 Grounds for marginalization
2. Marginal layer in Russian society
2.1 Poverty and marginalization of the population
2.2 Marginality and crime
2.3 New marginal groups in Russian society
3. Ways to solve the problem of marginality in Russia
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
Everywhere in the modern world there is an ever expanding and deepening interaction of cultures, determined by the interaction of societies. Ethnic boundaries are blurred and destroyed, cultural deformation occurs, the consequence of which is a marginal person who simultaneously belongs to two cultures and does not belong entirely to either one. Modern society is experiencing a “transitional” state. This state is characterized by a revaluation of traditional values. In the process of changing values and norms in society, non-traditional social phenomena and processes are formed, in particular, the marginalization of society. The study of the phenomenon of marginality as a social phenomenon of the transition period seems especially relevant for Russia. A huge number of people are marginalized individuals. These are migrants, those who quickly acquired one or another social status, children from mixed marriages, converts to a new religion. In a society where there are many subcultures, almost every member of some of them will be marginalized in other subcultures. Marginalization is recognized as a large-scale process, on the one hand, leading to dire consequences for large masses of people who have lost their previous status and standard of living, and on the other, a resource for the formation of new relationships. The purpose of this work: to consider the marginalized as a social group. The objectives of this work are: to define the concept of marginality and marginality; consider categories of people belonging to the marginalized; trace the evolution of the concept of marginality in the history of sociology; highlight the reasons for marginalization; address poverty and marginalization of the population; reveal the relationship between marginality and crime; characterize new marginal groups in Russian society.
1. The problem of marginality in modern sociology
1.1 Evolution of the concept of marginality in the history of sociology
The concept of marginality played important role in sociological thought, however, there are still many difficulties in determining the content of the concept of marginality. Firstly, in the practice of using the term itself, several disciplinary approaches have developed (in sociology, social psychology, cultural studies, political science and economics), which gives the concept itself a fairly general, interdisciplinary character. Secondly, in the process of clarification and development of the concept, several meanings related to different types of marginality were established. Thirdly, the vagueness of the concept makes it difficult to measure the phenomenon itself and analyze it in social processes. At the same time, the fairly widespread and sometimes arbitrary use of the term leads to the need to clarify its content and systematize various approaches and aspects of its use. For this purpose, we will try to consider the history of the term, approaches to its use, characteristics of different types of marginality as they have developed in Western sociology.
Disorganization, stupefaction, inability to determine the source of the conflict;
Anxiety, anxiety, internal tension;
Isolation, alienation, non-involvement, constraint;
Frustration, despair;
Destruction of the “life organization”, mental disorganization, meaninglessness of existence;
Researchers note the closeness of his characteristics of a “marginal person” and the characteristic features of a society defined by Durkheim that is in a state of anomie, as a consequence of the breakdown of social ties. However, Stonequist, who recognized that each of us has many social doubles, which gives rise to an association with marginality, was interested in the causes of culturally determined marginality.
However, the analysis of increasingly complex social processes in modern societies through the concept of marginality, which led to interesting observations and results, becomes one of the recognized sociological methods.
Developing the concept of marginality, Hughes noted the importance of transitional phases, often marked by rites of passage, which take us "from one way of life to another... from one culture and subculture to another" (college life is a transitional phase in preparation for later life and etc.). Hughes expanded the concept to include virtually any situation in which a person is at least partially identified with two statuses or reference groups, but nowhere is it fully accepted (for example, a young man, a master). The phenomenon of marginality, defined in such in a broad sense, emerges as many of us participate in a highly mobile and heterogeneous society. Hughes, and then Devay and Tiryakian in American sociology determined that social change and upward mobility tend to be a cause of marginality for members of any group.
In its most general form, marginality is associated with the exclusion of individuals or social groups from 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, a quite typical statement is made that the marginal part includes part of the population “not participating in the production process, not performing public functions, which does not have social status and exists on funds that are either obtained by circumventing 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.
Social - marginalization as a loss of social prestige: declassification, stigmatization, etc. marginal groups.
A certain stability and continuity in the development of the social structure, in which crisis phenomena and structural changes associated with the scientific and technological revolution lead only to quantitative and qualitative changes in “marginal” (in relation to the main society) social groups;
The work of J.B. Mancini can be cited here. It generalizes and, in part, synthesizes various theoretical approaches and positions.
Cultural marginality - in its classical definition, refers to the processes of cross-cultural contacts and assimilation. This type of marginality is based on the relationship between the value systems of two cultures in which the individual participates, which results in ambiguity, uncertainty of status and role. The classic descriptions of cultural marginality were given by Stonequist and Park.
Visibility, prominence: the greater the degree of centrality of a marginal situation in relation to personal identity, the greater the degree of inadaptability (for example, Park noted that gypsies are not truly marginal people because they carry their “home connections” with them, their marginality is peripheral to their essential identity).
Direction of identification: the greater the equivalence of a person’s identification with the two above-mentioned groups, the more high degree inadaptability. This is the case where an individual who participates in two cultures will experience marginality only if she identifies simultaneously with both. The position is quite difficult. Researchers considered ways to resolve it in different situations. One of the assumptions is that a more stable identification with a particular group will help resolve conflicts inherent in marginality. Another view is that dual identification may result in enrichment rather than conflict.
Judging by the publications that appeared in the 90s, studies of marginality are developing abroad in these traditions. Among the aspects: marginalization in third world countries; marginal outlying, deprived groups; marginality as a cultural phenomenon.
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.
Modern Russian reality is also making its own adjustments to the meaning and content of the concept of “marginality,” which has increasingly begun to appear on the pages of newspapers, journalistic and scientific publications, and various kinds of analytical reviews.
Interest in the problem of marginality increases noticeably during the years of perestroika, when crisis processes begin to bring it to the surface public life. The features of the modern process of marginalization in Western European countries were associated primarily 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 draw conclusions about characteristic features and trends in marginal processes in Western Europe, made in the above-mentioned work.
The theme of marginality was especially pronounced in the polemical and journalistic presentation in the works of E. Starikov, published in the late 80s. This problem is studied rather as a political one. Soviet society appears initially marginalized, a fact of marginal “birthright” (revolution, civil war). Sources of marginalization - mass mobility processes and the formation of the “Asian” paradigm social development, the destruction of civil society and the dominance of the redistributive system (which the author calls “social imitation”). The action of these factors leads to the production and reproduction of marginal masses, which E. Starikov identifies with the “ochlos”, the mob, and the lumpen. The author presents the process of marginalization at the present stage as a process of declassification, coming from the upper “socio-psychological floor” (E. Starikov calls this model inverted). In other words, the erosion of social ties and the loss of social class positions has not an economic, but a socio-psychological basis - the destruction of the professional code of honor, work ethics, and loss of professionalism. On this basis, a very speculative idea of the Soviet society of the marginalized was built. The antithesis of this was proclaimed to be a civil society with normal human connections, which ideally represented the main, final goal of perestroika.
An analysis of the processes of social stratification, carried out by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1993, made it possible to define new criteria in assessing the marginal strata formed as a result of this process. One of them is moderately autonomous workers (composition: specialists in the city, managers, including the highest level, new layers, workers, employees, engineers). Reason: in this group there is no specific direction of labor autonomy, i.e. workers of this type may have either great opportunities for advancement or none.
A number of works raise the traditional issues of youth as a marginal group, examining the perspectives of their processes of marginalization in Russia. As an example, we can cite the publication of D.V. Petrova, A.V. Prokop.
It is worth noting a number of borderline themes in which one can see the potential for interaction with the heuristic field of the concept of marginality. These are the themes of loneliness and atypicality, developed accordingly by S.V. Kurtiyan and E.R. Yarskaya-Smirnova. Certain features of this field can be found in the philosophical problems of the “abnormal person” - a disabled student, developed by V. Linkov.
Summarizing 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. However, the statement of this phenomenon in our society, its specific features and the scale determined by the uniqueness of the situation of the “revolutionary transition” determined the need for a clearer definition of its parameters and theoretical approaches to its study.
By the second half of the 90s, the main features of the domestic model of the concept of marginality were emerging. Marginalization is recognized as a large-scale process, on the one hand, leading to dire consequences for large masses of people who have lost their previous status and standard of living, and on the other, a resource for the formation of new relationships. At the same time, this process should be the object of social policy in different levels, which has different content in relation to different groups of marginalized populations.
1.2 Grounds for marginalization
Every human activity is subject to habituation (habituation), which helps to reduce a person’s various choices and relieves him of the need to define each situation anew. Thus, human activity is automated to a certain extent, and frequently repeated actions become patterns. The most important part of the habitualization of human activity is associated with the process of institutionalization. It takes place wherever mutual typification of habitual actions takes place.
What is particularly important for understanding marginality is that typification refers not only to actions, but also to actors within institutions. “The Institute assumes that actions of type X must be performed by agents of type X.”
This is the basis for the phenomenon of the “black sheep” in any community. This echoes the concept of “accepting deviant identity” by E. Hughes. "Most statuses have one leading feature that serves to distinguish those who belong to that status from those who do not." This, for example, is a doctor’s certificate. In addition, a number of “auxiliary” features, such as class, religion, race and gender, are usually informally expected of a given status. It is likely to assume that an individual who does not possess any of the auxiliary traits will turn out to be a “marginal”, not meeting general expectations. Again, in contrast to deviant characteristics that can lead to the official deprivation of a doctor’s status (violation of ethics, commission of a crime), in the designated culture, female or African-American doctors will be “marginal”. They will be “marginal” until a redefinition of the situation occurs, as a result of which the list of auxiliary features of a particular status will be expanded or modified.
Another example of a group's inconsistency with its supporting characteristics is the marginal status of the “new poor scientists” in modern Russia. Despite the presence of formal qualification characteristics (higher education, employment in scientific centers, publications), this group has lost such important auxiliary features that were previously characteristic of it, such as income and prestige. Without ceasing to be scientists, this group found itself marginalized.
Marginality as atypicality is considered in the sociology of disability. In this case, either a person’s appearance or behavior is atypical and does not fit into the given standards. Despite the fact that people with atypical appearance and behavior, again, do not pose a threat to society, the dominant culture seeks to protect itself from the Other, the incomprehensible. As is known, “ugliness” and “foolishness” different cultures attributed a magical meaning, where atypicality was either a “black mark” or “God’s chosenness.” Today, the media broadcast the positions of the healthy majority, which do not leave a legitimate niche for people with disabilities, produce their social exclusion, giving these people, at best, a beneficiary status. Prejudices and negative stereotypes are based on the tradition of protecting “decent”, “normal” people from contact with atypical people.
The typification of a situation in most cases is biographically determined and depends on the available stock of knowledge and accumulated experience systematized in a certain way. If we have enough knowledge in our arsenal to define a situation, we define it by the “natural order” as undoubtedly given. Complexity again arises in a marginal, non-standard situation that we cannot determine “automatically” and the outcome of which is unknown to us and therefore potentially dangerous. “Marginal” is defined as something that is missing from the previous experience of society. This applies both to individuals and groups whom we, based on the existing stock of knowledge, cannot typify, and to situations in which we lack previous experience for behavior. This happens when a person is faced with an atypical form of typical phenomena or even with a fundamentally new situation. In the first case, biographical experience can still help by providing typical ways of reacting to “typical anomalies,” while in the second it is useless and sometimes harmful. It is this particular feature of the socio-economic situation in modern Russia that gives grounds for statements about “general marginalization” in the country, since the previous, historically established definitions and models of behavior, “the experience of fathers” no longer “work” in it.
So, in the context under consideration, marginality is something that cannot be defined or typified. It characterizes phenomena or groups (individuals) for which there is no place in existing institutions. Unlike deviation, they do not yet pose a direct threat to society, but they seem unpredictable and therefore are a factor of concern. Therefore, society strives either to return these groups to a “normal state” or to isolate them.
1.3 Marginality and social mobility
Despite the fact that the issue of marginality came to sociology precisely in connection with the study of migration and the problems that arise for people in new environment, the unification of the concepts of marginality and mobility did not happen. We can only talk about the intersection of two traditions, which is mainly instrumental in nature. For example, the concept of mobility is used in studies of marginality to clarify the empirical boundaries of this phenomenon.
In studies of marginality, one of the most important problems is the empirical fixation of this phenomenon, which is solved using the traditions of mobility research, when we diagnose the state of marginality by the fact of moving to another (most often, “outlying”) social group. The mere fact of transition is not enough. A whole series of questions arise: does any social movement create a state of marginality? What additional indicators help us track it?
The emergence of mass social mobility is associated with modernization processes and the activation of mobility occurs through the destruction of ideas about the immutability of the hierarchy of inequality and the formation of achievement values. Today, ideological guidelines are changing; a career and advancement to the top are no longer perceived as an absolute value. Consequently, the question arises about studying mobility at the micro level, studying the very moment of transition, its " driving forces" and subjective significance. And in this analysis the concept of marginality can be useful.
Marginality:
At first glance, it seems that the concept of mobility is consistent with the structural understanding of marginality, since it is within the framework of this approach that the connection between marginalization and processes occurring in the social structure is worked out. However, in reality, such a solution turns out to be counterproductive. Within the framework of the structural approach, first of all, groups are considered that, as a result of structural transformations, move to the peripheral areas of the social structure.
The cultural approach, which defines marginality as the state of groups of people or individuals placed on the edge of two cultures, participating in the interaction of these cultures, but not completely adjacent to any of them, seems more adequate, since it focuses on the commonality of the situation for individuals and the essential characteristics of this situations. The situation of marginality arises on the basis of the contradiction in the value systems of the two cultures in which the individual participates, and is manifested in ambiguity, uncertainty of status and role.
According to the classification of marginality proposed by J.B. Mancini, we can talk about essential and procedural marginality, the difference between which is the static or dynamic nature of the marginal position.
Social mobility:
Most general definition social mobility is the movement of an individual in social space. Therefore, the choice of a methodological approach to the analysis of mobility, within the framework of which interaction with the concept of marginality is possible, makes sense to base on the basic difference in the understanding of social space that has developed in modern sociology. There are two main approaches to understanding social space: substantialist and structuralist, the differences between which can be reduced to two blocks:
Logic of social space analysis. If the substantialist tradition goes from recognizing, defining the elements of social space to describing the connections between them, then the structuralist approach assumes the opposite path - from social connections to the description of the elements, and the essential features of the elements are determined precisely through the social relations in which they are involved.
The idea of a unit of social space. For the substantialist approach, this is an individual interacting with other individuals. In the structuralist understanding, the unit of social space is the status position. Individuals only occupy status positions.
Social positions are constructed in the course of complex social interactions and exist independently of the individual, while mobility is the process of moving from one position to another.
An important characteristic of a position is a set of roles and identities that provides a place in the structure for the person occupying this place. The transition to a different social position confronts the individual with the need to change habitual patterns of behavior, adapt to a new role set, and develop a new coordinate system to distinguish his position in society.
It can be concluded that a structuralist vision of social space opens up heuristic possibilities for understanding the relationship between marginality and mobility. Any movement in social space leads to a temporary state of marginality. We can talk about the degree of marginality, which depends on the distance between social positions and points of movement. The greater this distance, the more different the new value-normative complex is from the previous one and the more effort and time is required for adaptation. We can say that the transition range contains not only a spatial, but also a temporal characteristic. Joint consideration of the issues of marginality and mobility is methodologically possible and productive. The most important theoretical foundations for such an analysis should be:
An approach to marginality as a dynamically developing situation associated with the movement of an individual between social statuses. The main characteristic of this situation is the normative and value uncertainty associated with a change in position in social space.
Recognizing the temporary nature of marginality. Moving between social statuses also has a time parameter, measuring the time required to adapt to a new role complex and develop new social connections.
The universality of the connection between mobility and marginality. In other words, any movement in social structure accompanied by temporary marginality. In sociology, the main attention is paid to the study of problems associated with downward movements, job loss, poverty, etc. Marginality accompanying upward mobility is a new topic that requires special study.
With upward and downward mobility, the general signs of marginality - value and normative uncertainty, identity crisis - are combined with features specific to each type. These differences depend, first of all, on the characteristics of the social construction of higher and lower social positions, and, accordingly, situations of upward and downward mobility.
2. Marginal layer in Russian society
2.1 Poverty and marginalization of the population
In Russia, as in the former USSR, as well as in many developed countries, poverty has always existed. Only she was different everywhere. Poverty began to be discussed and understood as a social problem in our country only when researchers moved away from the obscured average characteristics of living standards and looked at wages and family income through the prism of their differentiation.
The categories “living wage” and “level of poverty”, defined as some minimum limit, ensuring the biological and social reproduction of humans and workers, were of great practical importance.
In 2001, the average cost of living (LW) across the country was 1,500 rubles. per capita per month (at the conversion rate this is 50 US dollars, i.e. 1.7 dollars per day). Meanwhile, the UN believes that for different countries The poverty level is determined by an income of -2-4 dollars per day. The crisis of August 17, 1998 was the second crushing blow to to the Russian population. In January 1999 the minimum wage was 10.6% of living wage and was equal to 3 US dollars per month, that is, it completely lost its socio-economic meaning. By 2000, it became obvious that the subsistence minimum established in 1992 could no longer be used as a poverty line, especially since it was aimed at 1.5-2 years, but 8 years have passed. A new living wage was “built”, which was based on a different methodology, and its substantive changes were envisaged once every four years. In the first three quarters of 2003, taking into account inflation, the cost of living reached an average of 2,121 rubles for the Russian population. per month per person, the share of food in the corresponding consumer budget now corresponds to about 50%.
Two forms of poverty have emerged: “stable” and “floating”. The first is due to the fact that a low level of material security, as a rule, leads to deterioration of health, deskilling, deprofessionalization, and ultimately to degradation. Poor parents produce potentially poor children, which is determined by their health, education, and qualifications received. The drama of the situation lies in the fact that two thirds of children and one third of the elderly population find themselves “beyond the threshold” of social guarantees, in the poverty group. Meanwhile, the majority of older people, through their past work, have secured for themselves the right to at least a comfortable (according to the “new metric”) existence, and the poverty of children cannot be tolerated, because it undoubtedly leads to a decrease in the quality of future generations and, as a consequence, the main characteristics of the nation’s human potential.
There is an intensive process of feminization of poverty, which has extreme forms of manifestation in the form of stagnant and deep poverty. Along with the traditional poor (single mothers and large families, the disabled and the elderly), a category of “new poor” has emerged, representing those groups of the population that, due to their education and qualifications, social status and demographic characteristics, have never before (during Soviet times) been low-income. All experts came to the conclusion that the working poor are a purely Russian phenomenon.
The dynamics of the share of the poor population, according to the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation, from 1992 to 1998 formally had a downward trend (from 33.5% to 20.8%); however, since the third quarter of 1998 (as a result of the default on August 17), there has been a significant increase specific gravity poor people maximum point in the first quarter of 2000 (41.2%). The past decade, when the number of poor people fluctuated from 30 to 60 million people, characterizes a very difficult situation in the country, given that the level of the subsistence minimum (SL) itself ensures only physical survival: from 68 to 52% of its volume is food expenses. Thus, under these conditions, about 45 million people. either they developed a survival strategy, or became pauperized, moving into a layer of marginalized people.
According to the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation, in the third quarter of 2003, the share of the population with monetary incomes below the subsistence level of the total population was 21.9% or 31.2 million people. These figures indicate the dynamics of a significant reduction in poverty. In order to determine the factors and effectiveness of poverty reduction measures, it is necessary, at a minimum, to have two types of information: a) about the socio-demographic composition of the poor and b) about the dynamics of the structure of the poor population. It is the indicators that characterize the change in the structure of the poor that actually reflect the ways and specific methods of solving the problem of poverty. A detailed analysis of the composition of poor families, or what is called the “profile” of the poor, shows that in demographic terms, of the total number of family members, more than a quarter (27.3%) are children under 16 years of age, about a fifth (17.2%) - persons over working age, and the rest - more than half (55.5%) - are the working population. Special calculations show that, by gender and age, the population with disposable resources below the subsistence level in 1999 included 59.1 million people, including 15.2 million children, 24.9 million women and 19.0 million men. This means that the poor were: 52.4% of the total number of children under 16 years of age, 39.5% of women and 35.6% of men. This is the most general characteristic. It shows that in terms of material security, more than half of children are below the “border” of a decent life, and the share of poor women is higher than the share of poor men. Despite the fact that the difference by gender is small, there is still every reason to talk about the feminization of poverty, which is confirmed by the factors shaping it.
According to social composition, the following groups of the adult population are distinguished among the poor: more than one third (39.0%) are employed, about one fifth (20.6%) are pensioners, 3% are unemployed, 5.3% are housewives, including women located in maternity leave for child care. In terms of demographic typology, there are three groups among poor families: a) married couples with children and other relatives (50.8%); b) single-parent families, which may include other relatives (19.4%).
The marginalization of the population in the process of its intense downward mobility poses a particularly acute problem of analysis and consideration of the current situation. Information obtained as a result of a special socio-economic study of the “social bottom” in Russia, conducted by the Institute of Economics and Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, shows that the lower limit of the size of the “social bottom” is 10% of the urban population, or 10.8 million people, which includes 3, 4 million people are beggars, 3.3 million are homeless, 2.8 million are street children and 1.3 million people are street prostitutes. These figures do not coincide with official statistics. Thus, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, there are from 100 to 350 thousand homeless people in Russia, and this is natural, because law enforcement agencies record only that part of the social bottom that falls into their orbit. And this is just the visible part of the iceberg. .
Analysis of the data shows that the “social bottom” has a predominantly “male face”. Among its inhabitants, two thirds are men and one third are women. The “bottom” in Russia is young: the average age of beggars and homeless people is approaching 45 years; for street children it is 13 years, for prostitutes - 28. The minimum age for beggars is 12 years, and for prostitutes - 14 years; They begin to play homeless children at the age of 6 years. The majority of beggars and homeless people have secondary and specialized secondary education, and 6% of beggars, homeless people and prostitutes even have higher education.
According to citizens of Russian cities, the greatest likelihood of ending up on the “social bottom” is among lonely elderly people (the chances of getting to the “bottom” are 72%), pensioners (61%), disabled people (63%), large families (54%), unemployed (53%), single mothers (49%), refugees (44%), displaced people (31%). Experts believe that teachers, engineers, and low-skilled workers are doomed to vegetate in poverty (the chances of such a life are estimated at 24-32%). They do not have the opportunity to climb up the social ladder.
The threat of impoverishment hangs over certain socio-professional segments of the population. The “social bottom” absorbs peasants, low-skilled workers, engineering and technical workers, teachers, creative intelligentsia, and scientists. There is an effective mechanism in society for “sucking” people to the “bottom”, the main components of which are the methods of carrying out current economic reforms, the unrestrained activities of criminal structures and the inability of the state to protect its citizens.
It is difficult to get out of the “social hole”. People at the bottom rate rising social power extremely low (only 36%); 43% say that this has never happened in their memory; however, 40% say this happens sometimes. Experts believe that the threat of impoverishment is a global social danger. In their opinion, it is capturing: peasants (29%), low-skilled workers (44%); engineering and technical workers (26%), teachers (25%), creative intelligentsia (22%). The current situation urgently requires the development of a special national Program for a set of preventive measures. .
It must unite the efforts of both government and non-government and charitable organizations.
2.2 Marginality and crime
Such a phenomenon as marginality undoubtedly serves as one of the causes of crime. The close relationship between marginality and crime is indisputable and appears quite certain. The relationship between marginality and crime can be interpreted not only in the form of an assumption that the marginalized, due to a number of circumstances, are prone to delinquency and committing crimes, but also in the form of an assumption that the marginalized, located on the “outskirts”, in the “bottom” of social life (“lumpen” , "scourges", "homeless people", prostitutes, beggars, etc.), are less legally protected than others, and more often become victims of various types of crimes. However, the living conditions of such marginalized people are such that the line between victimization and crime disappears. Becoming a victim of a crime or the criminal himself in this case is often perceived by them as the norm, in the order of things.
From this point of view, for criminologists, the inner world marginal personality, its consciousness and behavior. In the absence of circumstances conducive to the favorable adaptation of the marginalized, it is not only possible, but in most cases, an outburst of aggression occurs, often resulting in a criminal act. Of particular interest are psychological characteristics, inherent in the personality of marginalized people: weak resistance life's difficulties; disorganization, stupefaction, inability to independently analyze anxious sensations; inability to fight for their rights and freedoms; restlessness, anxiety, internal tension, sometimes turning into unjustified panic; isolation, alienation and hostility towards other people; destruction of one’s own organization of life, mental disorganization, meaninglessness of existence, tendency to mental pathology and suicidal actions; self-centeredness, ambition and aggressiveness. All these features of the marginalized, as it were, spontaneously form that deep layer of the psyche that brings him to the line of criminality and makes him legally vulnerable.
As the practice of fighting crime and criminological research shows, marginalized people are convenient and cheap “material” for organized criminal groups. They perform minor tasks related to “guiding”, “playing along” in pre-planned situations, carrying out small assignments, etc. Their share in the material benefits received from crimes is very insignificant. They are often forced to take responsibility for crimes they did not commit. Famous athletes who lost their lives also fell into the ranks of organized groups of criminals. physical fitness, but still capable of using their power in the operations of a criminal group. In fact, the essential attributes of marginality are the following: social factors, such as poverty, unemployment, economic and social instability, various kinds of social and national conflicts.
Of particular importance for the study of marginality, as a special social phenomenon that, of course, has purely criminological significance, is the problem of homelessness, which has intensified since the increase in migration and the process of privatization of housing, to which criminal elements have actively joined. Quite convincing are the statistical data indicating an increase in crime among persons without a fixed place of residence (homeless people) who have committed illegal acts. For example, in 1998 alone, among persons who migrated for various reasons and found themselves without a definite place of residence, 29,631 people committed crimes. And in such large cities as Moscow and St. Petersburg there are 1803 (6%) and, respectively, 2323 (8%) people. Criminological analysis shows that in the total array of crimes committed by this category of persons, crimes against property and theft predominate, which is understandable: having no place of residence, people, as a rule, are deprived of permanent sources of income and work. .
Marginality stands out favorable environment development of crime. 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.
2.3 New marginal groups in Russian society
The concept of “new marginal groups” has not yet been established in modern research literature. The reasons for the emergence of “new marginalized people” in Russia were fundamental changes in the social structure as a result of the crisis and reforms aimed at creating a new socio-economic model of society.
By new marginal groups we mean socio-professional groups in which significant, intense, large-scale changes in position are taking place in relation to the previous system of social relations, due to external, radically and irreversibly changed socio-economic and political conditions.
Turning to the modern Russian situation, the criteria of “novelty” and marginality of socio-professional groups can be recognized: deep, basic changes in the social position of certain socio-professional groups, occurring mainly forcedly, under the influence of external circumstances - complete or partial loss of work, change of profession , position, working conditions and pay as a result of the liquidation of the enterprise, reduction in production, general decline in living standards, etc.; the duration of such a situation. Further, uncertainty of status, instability of position, potential multi-vector social trajectories in conditions of instability, as well as due to personal characteristics; internal and external inconsistency of the situation, caused by status inconsistency and aggravated by the need for sociocultural reorientation.
It is obvious that the composition of the “new” marginal groups is very heterogeneous. In determining their parameters, the opinions of experts surveyed in 2000 were used. The study identified three main groups. One of them was designated as “post-specialists” - specialists in economic sectors who have lost their social perspective in the current situation and are forced to change their social and professional status. These are groups of the population that are most exposed to dismissal, do not have employment prospects in accordance with their specialty and qualifications, and whose retraining is associated with a loss of skill level and loss of profession. General characteristics of this group: a fairly high socio-professional status, level of education and special training, achieved largely in the past; conditions of lack of demand created by the crisis and state policy; discrepancy between a low level of financial status and a fairly high social status; lack of opportunity to change your status.
Post-specialists are one of the most extensive, diverse in composition and different in social status of new marginal groups. 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 main marginalizing factors that erode social and professional status are unemployment and forced underemployment. Since unemployment was recorded by statistical bodies (1992), the number of unemployed in the economically active population has more than doubled, reaching 8,058.1 people in 2000. The fastest growing proportion of unemployed people aged 30-49 years old, which in 2000 already accounted for more than half of all unemployed. The share of specialists among the unemployed decreased slightly, amounting to about 1/5. The proportion of people unemployed is also growing more than a year- from 23.3% in 1994 to 38.1% in 2000, and there is a trend towards an increase in stagnant unemployment.
Despite all the heterogeneity and complexity of the group of “post-specialists,” we can single out the most common types: regional-settlement workers - workers of small and medium-sized cities with a collapsing mono-industry, labor-surplus and depressed regions; professional-industrial - workers in industries (mechanical engineering, light industry, food industry, etc.), professions and specialties (engineering and technical workers) that are not in demand by modern economic conditions; budgetary - workers of the reformed budgetary sectors of science, education, and the army. They are made up of workers who have lost their jobs or are underemployed, who have a high level of education, work experience, high social and professional (including official) status, and high aspirations for work. The behavioral strategy of the main part of these groups is aimed at survival.
“New agents” are representatives of small businesses and self-employed people. Their situation differs significantly from that of the above group. The name “new agents” is also conditional and aims to highlight their fundamentally new role in relation to the previous socio-economic system and social structure of the active principle in the formation of a system of new socio-economic relations.
The main criteria of marginality at this level are the “transitional” state of the entire social stratum in the process of its formation; lack of a favorable external environment as a condition for its sustainable, socially-designed functioning; existence on the border between “light” and “shadow”, the legal and shadow sectors in a system of economic relations with many transitional “shadow” and criminal forms of existence. Another level is groups of entrepreneurs within this layer. The criteria for their marginality have a different meaning. This is a state of instability, compulsion, status inconsistency in certain groups of entrepreneurs. And here two main types can be distinguished - an entrepreneur “by nature” and an entrepreneur forced to this by circumstances. One of the signs is the ability to see and build a perspective for your enterprise. The transformation strategy of this type is based mainly on the same survival strategy, which deforms the emerging features of small businesses and the self-employed population.
“Migrants”—refugees and forced migrants from other regions of Russia and from “near abroad” countries—are considered as a special marginal group. The peculiarities of the situation of this group are related to the fact that it objectively finds itself in a situation of multiple marginality, caused by the need to adapt to a new environment after a forced change of place of residence. The composition of forced migrants is heterogeneous. Those with official status are 1,200 thousand. But experts call the real number of forced migrants 3 times larger. The situation of a forced migrant is complicated by a number of factors. Among the external factors is the double loss of homeland (inability to live on former homeland and the difficulties of adaptation in the historical homeland). These are problems with obtaining status, loans, housing, etc., as a result of which the migrant may be completely ruined. Another level is the attitude of the local population. Experts noted different cases the hostility that inevitably arises on the part of old-timers towards migrants. And finally, internal factors are associated with a person’s mental discomfort, the degree of which is determined by his personal characteristics and is enhanced by the phenomenon of realizing that you are “another Russian” - with a slightly different mentality.
3. Ways to solve the problem of marginality in Russia
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. A complete solution to this problem is associated with the country’s recovery from the crisis and the stabilization of social life, the formation of stable functioning structures, which really makes this prospect remote. However, the need and potential possibilities for a socially acceptable solution to the problem of marginality are revealed through targeted management influence on various groups factors determining this phenomenon, and at specific, local levels.
Essentially, the problem of stabilization and harmonization of marginality in public life comes down to two problems that have their own range of tasks: the tasks of the state system of social support for groups and individuals marginal by their natural and socio-demographic characteristics (disabled people, people of retirement age, youth, etc.) .P.); the task of creating and improving by the state a system of channels (institutions) of social mobility that is adequate to modern requirements, contributing to the strengthening of the positive direction of marginality and the transformation of marginal groups and individuals into the middle stratum.
Consideration of the problem of marginality in socio-professional movements actualizes the task of creating conditions for the harmonious development of the professional and qualification structure of the labor market, rational use the potential of various categories of the active working population seeking their place in the emerging social structure.
In this regard, based on the two-level nature of marginality in modern conditions, it is necessary to highlight two main directions and levels of solving the problem:
· at the federal level – development of strategic directions and frameworks, including the creation of legal and economic conditions for the normal development of entrepreneurship, self-employment, and private practice; creation of a personnel retraining fund and development of the concept of socio-professional readaptation and resocialization of the employed population;
· at local levels - specific conclusions and recommendations that determine the ways, directions and measures of work with socio-professional groups for various administrative levels and management links.
The practice of state, trade union and other forms of social protection of the population in Russia at the present time is, as a rule, empirical, a posteriori in nature in the form of “fire measures”. This implies the need to increase scientific development and the validity of various federal, municipal, sectoral programs for social protection of the population, their integrativeness.
Developed capitalist countries have a lot of interesting and positive experience in the field of state regulation of social processes. For example, Sweden's experience in implementing active measures in the field of employment would be important for us. These active measures include:
· vocational training and retraining of persons who find themselves unemployed or those at risk of unemployment;
· creation of new jobs, mainly in the public sector of the economy;
· ensuring geographic mobility of the population and labor force by providing subsidies and loans for vacant positions;
· providing information to the population about vacancies by region of the country, by profession, skill level, providing every job seeker with the opportunity to contact enterprises where there are jobs;
· encouraging the development of entrepreneurship by providing subsidies and loans.
Since the 1950s, Sweden has created and effectively operates government system training and retraining of personnel (AMU). In total, the AMU system employs 5.5 thousand people, its annual turnover is 2.4 billion crowns. AMU's relations with the public employment system and private firms are built on the basis of selling its services in developing programs, organizing training courses and conducting training. This system itself plans its activities based on market needs and competes with private educational institutions engaged in vocational training. On average, between 2.5 and 3% of the Swedish workforce completes AMU programs over the course of a year, 70% of whom find work within six months of completing their studies.
The experience of developed capitalist countries has shown how important forecasting the occupational structure of the population is for regulating the labor market. There is extensive experience in such forecasting in the USA, where a service for forecasting the professional structure of employment has been created.
Essential elements in solving the problems of the labor market are the development of legislation in the field labor resources, development of programs for regional placement and state support for small enterprises.
The experience of rapid modernization of Western European countries has shown that modernization processes are quite contradictory and conflict-prone in nature. Moreover, the conflicts generated by these processes can be different in intensity, take place at different levels of the social structure, are characterized by great dynamics of regrouping of political and social forces, and have different forms. In this regard, it is appropriate to recall the experience of Italy, when social conflict within the framework of modernization processes took the form of political extremism on a national scale. One of the reasons for the widespread spread of this form of social conflict was the marginalization that engulfed the entire society.
In conclusion, it must be said that studying the processes of marginalization and the positions of marginal groups in new conditions will allow, firstly, to predict the development of the social structure of society, and secondly, to find adequate measures to prevent the complete collapse of the social structure, which is fraught not only with increased social instability, but also other serious consequences.
Conclusion
Marginality in the sociological sense means not just a lack of participation in social institutions of various kinds: in material production, in the decision-making process, in the distribution of resources, etc., but exclusion from social structures. Marginal groups of refugees, the “new poor,” social outsiders, and representatives of the “social bottom” are growing. It is the marginalized who experience the most profound, fundamental changes in social status, characterized by uncertainty, instability of the situation, its internal and external inconsistency, potential multi-vector social trajectory caused by status incompatibility and sociocultural reorientation. As a result of marginalization, tension, extremism, and nationalism grow in society.
The state of marginality is largely characteristic of many groups. These are, firstly, skilled workers, specialists, engineers, part of the management corps, etc., who worked in the public sector of the economy (enterprises of the military-industrial complex, conversion industries, closing enterprises), who in the past had a high level of education and social and professional status , who now find themselves in a situation of forced change. The conditions of lack of demand created by the crisis and state policy led to a glaring discrepancy between the sharply decreased level of financial status and a sufficiently high social status, turning them into socially helpless people. Secondly, these are representatives of small and medium-sized businesses, the self-employed population, representatives of “new” professions that meet market conditions (shuttle workers, security guards, members of criminal communities, etc.). The position of these groups is unstable and not always legitimate. Thirdly, these are “migrants” - forced migrants from a number of regions of Russia and from “near abroad” countries.
In the context of an aging workforce in the near future and due to depopulation of the population, it is advisable to develop a strategy for using the entire workforce and improving the quality of the existing one.
The further development of social stratification processes in Russian society, the transformation of the social structure will largely depend on the speed of the processes of economic and political reform, on the sociocultural characteristics of the country and their post-Soviet specifics.
The problems of various social groups, united by signs of marginality in a transforming society, are closely interrelated. In general, they have a common set of recipes for solving them - state regulation of optimal social conditions; professional rehabilitation of groups of the economically active population and measures to assist in social adaptation in relation to groups with the most difficult situation.
Bibliography
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2. L.A. Belyaeva. Book Review (Book Review: Marginality in Modern Russia) // Sociological Research. 2002. No. 4. P. 151-153.
3. Golenkova Z.T., Igitkhanyan E.D., Kazarinova I.V. Marginal layer: the phenomenon of social stratification // Sociological studies. 1996. No. 8. P. 12-17.
4. Nikolaev V.G. The problem of marginality: its structural context and socio-psychological implications // Social and Humanitarian Sciences. 1998. No. 2. pp. 156-172.
5. Park R.E. Cultural conflict and marginalized people // Social Sciences and Humanities. 1998. No. 2. pp. 172-175.
6. Popova I.P. New marginal groups in Russian society (theoretical aspects of research) // Sociological Research. 1999. No. 7. P. 62-71.
7. Rimashevskaya N.M. Poverty and marginalization of the population // Sociological studies. 2004. No. 4. pp. 33-43.
8. Sadkov E.V. Marginality and crime // Sociological studies. 2000. No. 4. P. 43-47.
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Introduction
1.2 Grounds for marginalization
1.3 Marginality and social mobility
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
Everywhere in the modern world there is an ever expanding and deepening interaction of cultures, determined by the interaction of societies. Ethnic boundaries are blurred and destroyed, cultural deformation occurs, the consequence of which is a marginal person who simultaneously belongs to two cultures and does not belong entirely to either one. Modern society is experiencing a “transitional” state. This state is characterized by a revaluation of traditional values. In the process of changing values and norms in society, non-traditional social phenomena and processes are formed, in particular, the marginalization of society. The study of the phenomenon of marginality as a social phenomenon of the transition period seems especially relevant for Russia. A huge number of people are marginalized individuals. These are migrants, those who quickly acquired one or another social status, children from mixed marriages, converts to a new religion. In a society where there are many subcultures, almost every member of some of them will be marginalized in other subcultures. Marginalization is recognized as a large-scale process, on the one hand, leading to dire consequences for large masses of people who have lost their previous status and standard of living, and on the other, a resource for the formation of new relationships. The purpose of this work: to consider the marginalized as a social group. The objectives of this work are: to define the concept of marginality and marginality; consider categories of people belonging to the marginalized; trace the evolution of the concept of marginality in the history of sociology; highlight the reasons for marginalization; address poverty and marginalization of the population; reveal the relationship between marginality and crime; characterize new marginal groups in Russian society.
1. The problem of marginality in modern sociology
1.1 Evolution of the concept of marginality in the history of sociology
The concept of marginality has played an important role in sociological thought, but there are still many difficulties in defining the content of the concept of marginality. Firstly, in the practice of using the term itself, several disciplinary approaches have developed (in sociology, social psychology, cultural studies, political science and economics), which gives the concept itself a fairly general, interdisciplinary character. Secondly, in the process of clarification and development of the concept, several meanings related to different types of marginality were established. Thirdly, the vagueness of the concept makes it difficult to measure the phenomenon itself and analyze it in social processes. At the same time, the fairly widespread and sometimes arbitrary use of the term leads to the need to clarify its content and systematize various approaches and aspects of its use. For this purpose, we will try to consider the history of the term, approaches to its use, characteristics of different types of marginality as they have developed in Western sociology.
Disorganization, stupefaction, inability to determine the source of the conflict;
Anxiety, anxiety, internal tension;
Isolation, alienation, non-involvement, constraint;
Frustration, despair;
Destruction of the “life organization”, mental disorganization, meaninglessness of existence;
Researchers note the closeness of his characteristics of a “marginal person” and the characteristic features of a society defined by Durkheim that is in a state of anomie, as a consequence of the breakdown of social ties. However, Stonequist, who recognized that each of us has many social doubles, which gives rise to an association with marginality, was interested in the causes of culturally determined marginality.
However, the analysis of increasingly complex social processes in modern societies through the concept of marginality, which led to interesting observations and results, is becoming one of the recognized sociological methods.
Developing the concept of marginality, Hughes noted the importance of transitional phases, often marked by rites of passage, which take us "from one way of life to another... from one culture and subculture to another" (college life is a transitional phase in preparation for later life and etc.). Hughes expanded the concept to include virtually any situation in which a person is at least partially identified with two statuses or reference groups, but is nowhere fully accepted (e.g., young man, master). The phenomenon of marginality, defined in this broad sense, occurs when many of us participate in a highly mobile and heterogeneous society. Hughes and then Devay and Tiryakian in American sociology determined that social change and upward mobility tend to be a cause of marginality for members of any group.
In its most general form, marginality is associated with the exclusion of individuals or social groups from 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, a quite typical 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.
Social - marginalization as a loss of social prestige: declassification, stigmatization, etc. marginal groups.
A certain stability and continuity in the development of the social structure, in which crisis phenomena and structural changes associated with the scientific and technological revolution lead only to quantitative and qualitative changes in “marginal” (in relation to the main society) social groups;
The work of J.B. Mancini can be cited here. It generalizes and, in part, synthesizes various theoretical approaches and positions.
Cultural marginality - in its classical definition, refers to the processes of cross-cultural contacts and assimilation. This type of marginality is based on the relationship between the value systems of two cultures in which the individual participates, which results in ambiguity, uncertainty of status and role. The classic descriptions of cultural marginality were given by Stonequist and Park.
Visibility, prominence: the greater the degree of centrality of a marginal situation in relation to personal identity, the greater the degree of inadaptability (for example, Park noted that gypsies are not truly marginal people because they carry their “home connections” with them, their marginality is peripheral to their essential identity).
Direction of identification: the greater the equivalence of a person’s identification with the two above-mentioned groups, the higher the degree of inadaptability. This is the case where an individual who participates in two cultures will experience marginality only if she identifies simultaneously with both. The position is quite difficult. Researchers have considered ways to resolve it in different situations. One of the assumptions is that a more stable identification with a particular group will help resolve conflicts inherent in marginality. Another view is that dual identification may result in enrichment rather than conflict.
Judging by the publications that appeared in the 90s, studies of marginality are developing abroad in these traditions. Among the aspects: marginalization in third world countries; marginal outlying, deprived groups; marginality as a cultural phenomenon.
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.
Modern Russian reality is also making its own adjustments to the meaning and content of the concept of “marginality,” which has increasingly begun to appear on the pages of newspapers, journalistic and scientific publications, and various kinds of analytical reviews.
Interest in the problem of marginality increases noticeably during the years of perestroika, when crisis processes begin to bring it to the surface of public life. The features of the modern process of marginalization in Western European countries were associated primarily 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 the conclusions about the characteristic features and trends of marginal processes in Western Europe made in the above-mentioned work.
The theme of marginality was especially pronounced in the polemical and journalistic presentation in the works of E. Starikov, published in the late 80s. This problem is studied rather as a political one. Soviet society appears to be marginalized from the very beginning, a fact of marginal “birthright” (revolution, civil war). The sources of marginalization are massive processes of mobility and the formation of the “Asian” paradigm of social development, the destruction of civil society and the dominance of the redistributive system (which the author calls “social imitation”). The action of these factors leads to the production and reproduction of marginal masses, which E. Starikov identifies with the “ochlos”, the mob, and the lumpen. The author presents the process of marginalization at the present stage as a process of declassification, coming from the upper “socio-psychological floor” (E. Starikov calls this model inverted). In other words, the erosion of social ties and the loss of social class positions has not an economic, but a socio-psychological basis - the destruction of the professional code of honor, work ethics, and loss of professionalism. On this basis, a very speculative idea of the Soviet society of the marginalized was built. The antithesis of this was proclaimed to be a civil society with normal human connections, which ideally represented the main, final goal of perestroika.
An analysis of the processes of social stratification, carried out by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1993, made it possible to define new criteria in assessing the marginal strata formed as a result of this process. One of them is moderately autonomous workers (composition: specialists in the city, managers, including the highest level, new layers, workers, employees, engineers). Reason: in this group there is no specific direction of labor autonomy, i.e. workers of this type may have either great opportunities for advancement or none.
A number of works raise the traditional issues of youth as a marginal group, examining the perspectives of their processes of marginalization in Russia. As an example, we can cite the publication of D.V. Petrova, A.V. Prokop.
It is worth noting a number of borderline themes in which one can see the potential for interaction with the heuristic field of the concept of marginality. These are the themes of loneliness and atypicality, developed accordingly by S.V. Kurtiyan and E.R. Yarskaya-Smirnova. Certain features of this field can be found in the philosophical problems of the “abnormal person” - a disabled student, developed by V. Linkov.
Summarizing 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. However, the recognition of this phenomenon in our society, its specific features and scale, determined by the uniqueness of the situation of “revolutionary transition”, determined the need for a clearer definition of its parameters and theoretical approaches to its study.
By the second half of the 90s, the main features of the domestic model of the concept of marginality were emerging. Marginalization is recognized as a large-scale process, on the one hand, leading to dire consequences for large masses of people who have lost their previous status and standard of living, and on the other, a resource for the formation of new relationships. Moreover, this process should be the object of social policy at different levels, having different content in relation to different groups of the marginalized population.
1.2 Grounds for marginalization
Every human activity is subject to habituation (habituation), which helps to reduce a person’s various choices and relieves him of the need to define each situation anew. Thus, human activity is automated to a certain extent, and frequently repeated actions become patterns. The most important part of the habitualization of human activity is associated with the process of institutionalization. It takes place wherever mutual typification of habitual actions takes place.
What is particularly important for understanding marginality is that typification refers not only to actions, but also to actors within institutions. “The Institute assumes that actions of type X must be performed by agents of type X.”
This is the basis for the phenomenon of the “black sheep” in any community. This echoes the concept of “accepting deviant identity” by E. Hughes. "Most statuses have one leading feature that serves to distinguish those who belong to that status from those who do not." This, for example, is a doctor’s certificate. In addition, a number of “auxiliary” features, such as class, religion, race and gender, are usually informally expected of a given status. It is likely to assume that an individual who does not possess any of the auxiliary traits will turn out to be a “marginal”, not meeting general expectations. Again, in contrast to deviant characteristics that can lead to the official deprivation of a doctor’s status (violation of ethics, commission of a crime), in the designated culture, female or African-American doctors will be “marginal”. They will be “marginal” until a redefinition of the situation occurs, as a result of which the list of auxiliary features of a particular status will be expanded or modified.
Another example of a group's inconsistency with its supporting characteristics is the marginal status of the “new poor scientists” in modern Russia. Despite the presence of formal qualification characteristics (higher education, employment in scientific centers, publications), this group has lost such important auxiliary features that were previously characteristic of it, such as income and prestige. Without ceasing to be scientists, this group found itself marginalized.
Marginality as atypicality is considered in the sociology of disability. In this case, either a person’s appearance or behavior is atypical and does not fit into the given standards. Despite the fact that people with atypical appearance and behavior, again, do not pose a threat to society, the dominant culture seeks to protect itself from the Other, the incomprehensible. As is known, different cultures attributed a magical meaning to “ugliness” and “foolishness”, where atypicality was either a “black mark” or “God’s chosen one.” Today means mass media broadcast the positions of the healthy majority, which do not leave a legitimate niche for people with disabilities, produce their social exclusion, giving these people, at best, a beneficiary status. Prejudices and negative stereotypes are based on the tradition of protecting “decent”, “normal” people from contact with atypical people.
The typification of a situation in most cases is biographically determined and depends on the available stock of knowledge and accumulated experience systematized in a certain way. If we have enough knowledge in our arsenal to define a situation, we define it by the “natural order” as undoubtedly given. Complexity again arises in a marginal, non-standard situation that we cannot determine “automatically” and the outcome of which is unknown to us and therefore potentially dangerous. “Marginal” is defined as something that is missing from the previous experience of society. This applies both to individuals and groups whom we, based on the existing stock of knowledge, cannot typify, and to situations in which we lack previous experience for behavior. This happens when a person is faced with an atypical form of typical phenomena or even with a fundamentally new situation. In the first case, biographical experience can still help by providing typical ways of reacting to “typical anomalies,” while in the second it is useless and sometimes harmful. It is this particular feature of the socio-economic situation in modern Russia that gives grounds for statements about “general marginalization” in the country, since the previous, historically established definitions and models of behavior, “the experience of fathers” no longer “work” in it.
So, in the context under consideration, marginality is something that cannot be defined or typified. It characterizes phenomena or groups (individuals) for which there is no place in existing institutions. Unlike deviation, they do not yet pose a direct threat to society, but they seem unpredictable and therefore are a factor of concern. Therefore, society strives either to return these groups to a “normal state” or to isolate them.
1.3 Marginality and social mobility
Despite the fact that the issue of marginality came to sociology precisely in connection with the study of migration and the problems that arise for a person in a new environment, the concepts of marginality and mobility were not combined. We can only talk about the intersection of two traditions, which is mainly instrumental in nature. For example, the concept of mobility is used in studies of marginality to clarify the empirical boundaries of this phenomenon.
In studies of marginality, one of the most important problems is the empirical fixation of this phenomenon, which is solved using the traditions of mobility research, when we diagnose the state of marginality by the fact of moving to another (most often, “outlying”) social group. The mere fact of transition is not enough. A whole series of questions arise: does any social movement create a state of marginality? What additional indicators help us track it?
The emergence of mass social mobility is associated with modernization processes and the activation of mobility occurs through the destruction of ideas about the immutability of the hierarchy of inequality and the formation of achievement values. Today, ideological guidelines are changing; a career and advancement to the top are no longer perceived as an absolute value. Consequently, the question arises about studying mobility at the micro level, studying the very moment of transition, its “driving forces” and subjective significance. And the concept of marginality can be useful in this analysis.
Marginality:
At first glance, it seems that the concept of mobility is consistent with the structural understanding of marginality, since it is within the framework of this approach that the connection between marginalization and processes occurring in the social structure is worked out. However, in reality, such a solution turns out to be counterproductive. Within the framework of the structural approach, first of all, groups are considered that, as a result of structural transformations, move to the peripheral areas of the social structure.
The cultural approach, which defines marginality as the state of groups of people or individuals placed on the edge of two cultures, participating in the interaction of these cultures, but not completely adjacent to any of them, seems more adequate, since it focuses on the commonality of the situation for individuals and the essential characteristics of this situations. The situation of marginality arises on the basis of the contradiction in the value systems of the two cultures in which the individual participates, and is manifested in ambiguity, uncertainty of status and role.
According to the classification of marginality proposed by J.B. Mancini, we can talk about essential and procedural marginality, the difference between which is the static or dynamic nature of the marginal position.
Social mobility:
The most general definition of social mobility is the movement of an individual in social space. Therefore, the choice of a methodological approach to the analysis of mobility, within the framework of which interaction with the concept of marginality is possible, makes sense to base on the basic difference in the understanding of social space that has developed in modern sociology. There are two main approaches to understanding social space: substantialist and structuralist, the differences between which can be reduced to two blocks:
Logic of social space analysis. If the substantialist tradition goes from recognizing, defining the elements of social space to describing the connections between them, then the structuralist approach assumes the opposite path - from social connections to the description of the elements, and the essential features of the elements are determined precisely through the social relations in which they are involved.
The idea of a unit of social space. For the substantialist approach, this is an individual interacting with other individuals. In the structuralist understanding, the unit of social space is the status position. Individuals only occupy status positions.
Social positions are constructed in the course of complex social interactions and exist independently of the individual, while mobility is the process of moving from one position to another.
An important characteristic of a position is a set of roles and identities that provides a place in the structure for the person occupying this place. The transition to a different social position confronts the individual with the need to change habitual patterns of behavior, adapt to a new role set, and develop a new coordinate system to distinguish his position in society.
It can be concluded that a structuralist vision of social space opens up heuristic possibilities for understanding the relationship between marginality and mobility. Any movement in social space leads to a temporary state of marginality. We can talk about the degree of marginality, which depends on the distance between social positions and points of movement. The greater this distance, the more different the new value-normative complex is from the previous one and the more effort and time is required for adaptation. We can say that the transition range contains not only a spatial, but also a temporal characteristic. Joint consideration of the issues of marginality and mobility is methodologically possible and productive. The most important theoretical foundations for such an analysis should be:
An approach to marginality as a dynamically developing situation associated with the movement of an individual between social statuses. The main characteristic of this situation is the normative and value uncertainty associated with a change in position in social space.
Recognizing the temporary nature of marginality. Moving between social statuses also has a time parameter, measuring the time required to adapt to a new role complex and develop new social connections.
The universality of the connection between mobility and marginality. In other words, any movement in the social structure is accompanied by temporary marginality. In sociology, the main attention is paid to the study of problems associated with downward movements, job loss, poverty, etc. Marginality accompanying upward mobility is a new topic that requires special study.
With upward and downward mobility, the general signs of marginality - value and normative uncertainty, identity crisis - are combined with features specific to each type. These differences depend, first of all, on the characteristics of the social construction of higher and lower social positions, and, accordingly, situations of upward and downward mobility.
2. Marginal layer in Russian society
2.1 Poverty and marginalization of the population
In Russia, as in the former USSR, as well as in many developed countries, poverty has always existed. Only she was different everywhere. Poverty began to be discussed and understood as a social problem in our country only when researchers moved away from the obscured average characteristics of living standards and looked at wages and family income through the prism of their differentiation.
The categories “living wage” and “level of poverty”, defined as a certain minimum limit ensuring the biological and social reproduction of humans and workers, were of great practical importance.
In 2001, the average cost of living (LW) across the country was 1,500 rubles. per capita per month (at the conversion rate this is 50 US dollars, i.e. 1.7 dollars per day). Meanwhile, the UN believes that for different countries the level of poverty is determined by an income of -2-4 dollars per day. The crisis of August 17, 1998 was the second crushing blow to the Russian population. In January 1999, the minimum wage was 10.6% of the subsistence level and equal to 3 US dollars per month, i.e. it completely lost its socio-economic meaning. By 2000, it became obvious that the subsistence minimum established in 1992 could no longer be used as a poverty line, especially since it was aimed at 1.5-2 years, but 8 years have passed. A new living wage was “built”, which was based on a different methodology, and its substantive changes were envisaged once every four years. In the first three quarters of 2003, taking into account inflation, the cost of living reached an average of 2,121 rubles for the Russian population. per month per person, the share of food in the corresponding consumer budget now corresponds to about 50%.
Two forms of poverty have emerged: “stable” and “floating”. The first is due to the fact that a low level of material security, as a rule, leads to deterioration of health, deskilling, deprofessionalization, and ultimately to degradation. Poor parents produce potentially poor children, which is determined by their health, education, and qualifications received. The drama of the situation lies in the fact that two thirds of children and one third of the elderly population find themselves “beyond the threshold” of social guarantees, in the poverty group. Meanwhile, the majority of older people, through their past work, have secured for themselves the right to at least a comfortable (according to the “new metric”) existence, and the poverty of children cannot be tolerated, because it undoubtedly leads to a decrease in the quality of future generations and, as a consequence, the main characteristics of the nation’s human potential.
There is an intensive process of feminization of poverty, which has extreme forms of manifestation in the form of stagnant and deep poverty. Along with the traditional poor (single mothers and large families, the disabled and the elderly), a category of “new poor” has emerged, representing those groups of the population that, due to their education and qualifications, social status and demographic characteristics, have never before (during Soviet times) been low-income. All experts came to the conclusion that the working poor are a purely Russian phenomenon.
The dynamics of the share of the poor population, according to the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation, from 1992 to 1998 formally had a downward trend (from 33.5% to 20.8%); however, from the third quarter of 1998 (as a result of the default on August 17), there was a significant increase in the share of the poor, with a maximum point in the first quarter of 2000 (41.2%). The past decade, when the number of poor people fluctuated from 30 to 60 million people, characterizes a very difficult situation in the country, given that the level of the subsistence minimum (SL) itself ensures only physical survival: from 68 to 52% of its volume is food expenses. Thus, under these conditions, about 45 million people. either they developed a survival strategy, or became pauperized, moving into a layer of marginalized people.
According to the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation, in the third quarter of 2003, the share of the population with monetary incomes below the subsistence level of the total population was 21.9% or 31.2 million people. These figures indicate the dynamics of a significant reduction in poverty. In order to determine the factors and effectiveness of poverty reduction measures, it is necessary, at a minimum, to have two types of information: a) about the socio-demographic composition of the poor and b) about the dynamics of the structure of the poor population. It is the indicators that characterize the change in the structure of the poor that actually reflect the ways and specific methods of solving the problem of poverty. A detailed analysis of the composition of poor families, or what is called the “profile” of the poor, shows that in demographic terms, of the total number of family members, more than a quarter (27.3%) are children under 16 years of age, about a fifth (17.2%) - persons over working age, and the rest - more than half (55.5%) - are the working population. Special calculations show that, by gender and age, the population with disposable resources below the subsistence level in 1999 included 59.1 million people, including 15.2 million children, 24.9 million women and 19.0 million men. This means that the poor were: 52.4% of the total number of children under 16 years of age, 39.5% of women and 35.6% of men. This is the most general characteristic. It shows that in terms of material security, more than half of children are below the “border” of a decent life, and the share of poor women is higher than the share of poor men. Despite the fact that the difference by gender is small, there is still every reason to talk about the feminization of poverty, which is confirmed by the factors shaping it.
According to social composition, the following groups of the adult population are distinguished among the poor: more than one third (39.0%) are employed, about one fifth (20.6%) are pensioners, 3% are unemployed, 5.3% are housewives, including women who are on maternity leave to care for a child. In terms of demographic typology, there are three groups among poor families: a) married couples with children and other relatives (50.8%); b) single-parent families, which may include other relatives (19.4%).
The marginalization of the population in the process of its intense downward mobility poses a particularly acute problem of analysis and consideration of the current situation. Information obtained as a result of a special socio-economic study of the “social bottom” in Russia, conducted by the Institute of Economics and Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, shows that the lower limit of the size of the “social bottom” is 10% of the urban population, or 10.8 million people, which includes 3, 4 million people are beggars, 3.3 million are homeless, 2.8 million are street children and 1.3 million people are street prostitutes. These figures do not coincide with official statistics. Thus, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, there are from 100 to 350 thousand homeless people in Russia, and this is natural, because law enforcement agencies record only that part of the social bottom that falls into their orbit. And this is just the visible part of the iceberg. .
Analysis of the data shows that the “social bottom” has a predominantly “male face”. Among its inhabitants, two thirds are men and one third are women. The “bottom” in Russia is young: the average age of beggars and homeless people is approaching 45 years; for street children it is 13 years, for prostitutes - 28. The minimum age for beggars is 12 years, and for prostitutes - 14 years; They begin to play homeless children at the age of 6 years. The majority of beggars and homeless people have secondary and specialized secondary education, and 6% of beggars, homeless people and prostitutes even have higher education.
The reasons for downward mobility can be external (loss of a job, reforms in the country, unfavorable changes in life, criminal environment, forced relocation, the war in Chechnya, the consequences of the war in Afghanistan - the Afghan syndrome) and internal (propensity for vices, inability to adapt to new conditions life, personal character traits, homeless childhood, poor heredity, lack of education, absence of relatives and friends). The most important reason, which can lead people to the “social bottom” - loss of work. 53% of the population and 61% of experts think so.
According to citizens of Russian cities, the greatest likelihood of ending up on the “social bottom” is among lonely elderly people (the chances of getting to the “bottom” are 72%), pensioners (61%), disabled people (63%), large families (54%), unemployed (53%), single mothers (49%), refugees (44%), displaced people (31%). Experts believe that teachers, engineers, and low-skilled workers are doomed to vegetate in poverty (the chances of such a life are estimated at 24-32%). They do not have the opportunity to climb up the social ladder.
The threat of impoverishment hangs over certain socio-professional segments of the population. The “social bottom” absorbs peasants, low-skilled workers, engineering and technical workers, teachers, creative intelligentsia, and scientists. There is an effective mechanism in society for “sucking” people to the “bottom”, the main components of which are the methods of carrying out current economic reforms, the unrestrained activities of criminal structures and the inability of the state to protect its citizens.
It is difficult to get out of the “social hole”. People at the bottom rate rising social power extremely low (only 36%); 43% say that this has never happened in their memory; however, 40% say this happens sometimes. Experts believe that the threat of impoverishment is a global social danger. In their opinion, it is capturing: peasants (29%), low-skilled workers (44%); engineering and technical workers (26%), teachers (25%), creative intelligentsia (22%). The current situation urgently requires the development of a special national Program for a set of preventive measures. .
It must unite the efforts of both government and non-government and charitable organizations.
2.2 Marginality and crime
Such a phenomenon as marginality undoubtedly serves as one of the causes of crime. The close relationship between marginality and crime is indisputable and appears quite certain. The relationship between marginality and crime can be interpreted not only in the form of an assumption that the marginalized, due to a number of circumstances, are prone to delinquency and committing crimes, but also in the form of an assumption that the marginalized, located on the “outskirts”, in the “bottom” of social life (“lumpen” , "scourges", "homeless people", prostitutes, beggars, etc.), are less legally protected than others, and more often become victims of various types of crimes. However, the living conditions of such marginalized people are such that the line between victimization and crime disappears. Becoming a victim of a crime or the criminal himself in this case is often perceived by them as the norm, in the order of things.
From this point of view, for criminologists, the inner world of a marginal personality, its consciousness and behavior acquires special significance. In the absence of circumstances conducive to the favorable adaptation of the marginalized, it is not only possible, but in most cases, an outburst of aggression occurs, often resulting in a criminal act. Of particular interest are the psychological characteristics inherent in the personality of marginalized people: weak resistance to life’s difficulties; disorganization, stupefaction, inability to independently analyze anxious sensations; inability to fight for their rights and freedoms; restlessness, anxiety, internal tension, sometimes turning into unjustified panic; isolation, alienation and hostility towards other people; destruction of one’s own organization of life, mental disorganization, meaninglessness of existence, tendency to mental pathology and suicidal actions; self-centeredness, ambition and aggressiveness. All these features of the marginalized, as it were, spontaneously form that deep layer of the psyche that brings him to the line of criminality and makes him legally vulnerable.
As the practice of fighting crime and criminological research shows, marginalized people are convenient and cheap “material” for organized criminal groups. They perform minor tasks related to “guiding”, “playing along” in pre-planned situations, carrying out small assignments, etc. Their share in the material benefits received from crimes is very insignificant. They are often forced to take responsibility for crimes they did not commit. Famous athletes who had lost their physical fitness but were still capable of using their strength in the operations of the criminal group also fell into the ranks of organized groups of criminals. In fact, the indispensable attributes of marginality are such social factors as, for example, poverty, unemployment, economic and social instability, various kinds of social and national conflicts.
Of particular importance for the study of marginality, as a special social phenomenon that, of course, has purely criminological significance, is the problem of homelessness, which has intensified since the increase in migration and the process of privatization of housing, to which criminal elements have actively joined. Quite convincing are the statistical data indicating an increase in crime among persons without a fixed place of residence (homeless people) who have committed illegal acts. For example, in 1998 alone, among persons who migrated for various reasons and found themselves without a definite place of residence, 29,631 people committed crimes. And in such large cities as Moscow and St. Petersburg there are 1803 (6%) and, respectively, 2323 (8%) people. Criminological analysis shows that in the total array of crimes committed by this category of persons, crimes against property and theft predominate, which is understandable: having no place of residence, people, as a rule, are deprived of permanent sources of income and work. .
Marginality acts as a favorable environment for the development of crime. 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.
2.3 New marginal groups in Russian society
The concept of “new marginal groups” has not yet been established in modern research literature. The reasons for the emergence of “new marginalized people” in Russia were fundamental changes in the social structure as a result of the crisis and reforms aimed at creating a new socio-economic model of society.
By new marginal groups we mean socio-professional groups in which significant, intense, large-scale changes in position are taking place in relation to the previous system of social relations, due to external, radically and irreversibly changed socio-economic and political conditions.
Turning to the modern Russian situation, the criteria of “novelty” and marginality of socio-professional groups can be recognized: deep, basic changes in the social position of certain socio-professional groups, occurring mainly forcedly, under the influence of external circumstances - complete or partial loss of work, change of profession , position, working conditions and pay as a result of the liquidation of the enterprise, reduction in production, general decline in living standards, etc.; the duration of such a situation. Further, uncertainty of status, instability of position, potential multi-vector social trajectories in conditions of instability, as well as due to personal characteristics; internal and external inconsistency of the situation, caused by status inconsistency and aggravated by the need for sociocultural reorientation.
It is obvious that the composition of the “new” marginal groups is very heterogeneous. In determining their parameters, the opinions of experts surveyed in 2000 were used. The study identified three main groups. One of them was designated as “post-specialists” - specialists in economic sectors who have lost their social perspective in the current situation and are forced to change their social and professional status. These are groups of the population that are most exposed to dismissal, do not have employment prospects in accordance with their specialty and qualifications, and whose retraining is associated with a loss of skill level and loss of profession. General characteristics of this group: a fairly high socio-professional status, level of education and special training, achieved largely in the past; conditions of lack of demand created by the crisis and state policy; discrepancy between a low level of financial status and a fairly high social status; lack of opportunity to change your status.
Post-specialists are one of the most extensive, diverse in composition and different in social status of new marginal groups. 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 main marginalizing factors that erode social and professional status are unemployment and forced underemployment. Since unemployment was recorded by statistical bodies (1992), the number of unemployed in the economically active population has more than doubled, reaching 8,058.1 people in 2000. The fastest growing proportion of unemployed people aged 30-49 years old, which in 2000 already accounted for more than half of all unemployed. The share of specialists among the unemployed decreased slightly, amounting to about 1/5. The proportion of people who have been unemployed for more than a year is also growing - from 23.3% in 1994 to 38.1% in 2000, and there is a trend towards an increase in stagnant unemployment.
With all the heterogeneity and complexity of the group of “post-specialists”, the most general types can be distinguished: regional-settlement - workers of small and medium-sized cities with a declining mono-industry, labor-surplus and depressed regions; professional-industrial - workers in industries (mechanical engineering, light industry, food industry, etc.), professions and specialties (engineering and technical workers) that are not in demand by modern economic conditions; budgetary - workers of the reformed budgetary sectors of science, education, and the army. They are made up of workers who have lost their jobs or are underemployed, who have a high level of education, work experience, high social and professional (including official) status, and high aspirations for work. The behavioral strategy of the main part of these groups is aimed at survival.
“New agents” are representatives of small businesses and self-employed people. Their situation differs significantly from that of the above group. The name “new agents” is also conditional and aims to highlight their fundamentally new role in relation to the previous socio-economic system and social structure of the active principle in the formation of a system of new socio-economic relations.
The main criteria of marginality at this level are the “transitional” state of the entire social stratum in the process of its formation; lack of favorable external environment as conditions for its sustainable, socially-designed functioning; existence on the border between “light” and “shadow”, the legal and shadow sectors in a system of economic relations with many transitional “shadow” and criminal forms of existence. Another level is groups of entrepreneurs within this layer. The criteria for their marginality have a different meaning. This is a state of instability, compulsion, status inconsistency in certain groups of entrepreneurs. And here two main types can be distinguished - an entrepreneur “by nature” and an entrepreneur forced to this by circumstances. One of the signs is the ability to see and build a perspective for your enterprise. The transformation strategy of this type is based mainly on the same survival strategy, which deforms the emerging features of small businesses and the self-employed population.
“Migrants”—refugees and forced migrants from other regions of Russia and from “near abroad” countries—are considered as a special marginal group. The peculiarities of the situation of this group are related to the fact that it objectively finds itself in a situation of multiple marginality, caused by the need to adapt to a new environment after a forced change of place of residence. The composition of forced migrants is heterogeneous. Those with official status are 1,200 thousand. But experts call the real number of forced migrants 3 times larger. The situation of a forced migrant is complicated by a number of factors. Among the external factors is the double loss of the homeland (the inability to live in the former homeland and the difficulty of adapting to the historical homeland). These are problems with obtaining status, loans, housing, etc., as a result of which the migrant may be completely ruined. Another level is the attitude of the local population. Experts noted various cases of the hostility that inevitably arises on the part of old-timers towards migrants. And finally, internal factors are associated with a person’s mental discomfort, the degree of which is determined by his personal characteristics and is enhanced by the phenomenon of realizing that you are “another Russian” - with a slightly different mentality.
3. Ways to solve the problem of marginality in Russia
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. A complete solution to this problem is associated with the country’s recovery from the crisis and the stabilization of social life, the formation of stable functioning structures, which really makes this prospect remote. However, the need and potential possibilities for a socially acceptable solution to the problem of marginality are revealed through targeted management influence on various groups of factors that determine this phenomenon, and at specific, local levels.
Essentially, the problem of stabilization and harmonization of marginality in public life comes down to two problems that have their own range of tasks: the tasks of the state system of social support for groups and individuals marginal by their natural and socio-demographic characteristics (disabled people, people of retirement age, youth, etc.) .P.); the task of creating and improving by the state a system of channels (institutions) of social mobility that is adequate to modern requirements, contributing to the strengthening of the positive direction of marginality and the transformation of marginal groups and individuals into the middle stratum.
Consideration of the problem of marginality in social and professional movements actualizes the task of creating conditions for the harmonious development of the professional and qualification structure of the labor market, rational use of the potential of various categories of the active working population seeking their place in the emerging social structure.
In this regard, based on the two-level nature of marginality in modern conditions, it is necessary to highlight two main directions and levels of solving the problem:
· at the federal level - development of strategic directions and frameworks, including the creation of legal and economic conditions for the normal development of entrepreneurship, self-employment, and private practice; creation of a personnel retraining fund and development of the concept of socio-professional readaptation and resocialization of the employed population;
· at local levels - specific conclusions and recommendations that determine the ways, directions and measures of work with socio-professional groups for various administrative levels and management links.
The practice of state, trade union and other forms of social protection of the population in Russia at the present time is, as a rule, empirical, a posteriori in nature in the form of “fire measures”. This implies the need to improve the scientific development and validity of various federal, municipal, and industry programs for social protection of the population and their integrativeness.
Developed capitalist countries have a lot of interesting and positive experience in the field of state regulation of social processes. For example, Sweden's experience in implementing active measures in the field of employment would be important for us. These active measures include:
· vocational training and retraining of persons who find themselves unemployed or those at risk of unemployment;
· creation of new jobs, mainly in the public sector of the economy;
· ensuring geographic mobility of the population and labor force by providing subsidies and loans for vacant positions;
· providing information to the population about vacancies by region of the country, by profession, skill level, providing every job seeker with the opportunity to contact enterprises where there are jobs;
· encouraging the development of entrepreneurship by providing subsidies and loans.
Since the 1950s, a state system of training and retraining of personnel (AMU) has been created and effectively operates in Sweden. In total, the AMU system employs 5.5 thousand people, its annual turnover is 2.4 billion crowns. AMU's relations with the public employment system and private firms are built on the basis of selling its services in developing programs, organizing training courses and conducting training. This system itself plans its activities based on market needs and competes with private educational institutions engaged in vocational training. On average, between 2.5 and 3% of the Swedish workforce completes AMU programs over the course of a year, 70% of whom find work within six months of completing their studies.
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