User:Vjb03c/stranger

Stranger (sociology)]

The sociologist Georg Simmel defined the stranger as a member of a social system who is not strongly attatached to the system. The stranger is characterized and influenced by such commonalities as social distance, and the value of objectivity. (Rogers, 1999) The stranger is neither a member of the social group nor a complete outsider and often is seen as an asset in economic trade and for psychological purposes

== Characteristics

The stranger is one who is neither too close nor too far. If she came to close, she would no longer be a stranger; she would be a member of the group. However, if she was too far away, she would cease to have any contact with the group. Thus to be a stranger involves a combination of closeness and distance (Ritzer, 2007). This combination allows for the individual to regard the stranger as “no owner of soil” in both the physical and figurative sense. This allows the individual who ultimately has contact with the stranger to develop and ideology that there will be no objectivity in the social interaction of the stranger in that they are have no “connection” with the individual themselves but in order to be near the group share some similarity (Simmel, 1908).

Simmel maintained that the stranger was unlike that of the commonly accepted idea of “hear today, gone tomorrow” but was a more permanent structure in the societal groups; more a fixed position. Moreover, the stranger brings assets into the social group, citied by Simmel in economical means but later expanded to psychological, through his/her uniqueness as playing an objective role in the social group.

The commonality of the stranger, conversely, is what makes the social type near and far at the same time. The individual’s ability to identify the stranger makes the stranger a part of the social group. Simmel likened this to the Middle Ages and the treatment of the Jews in the levying of taxes. Taxes paid by Christians varied according to their wealth at any given time, for every single Jew the tax was fixed once and for all due to the Jew having his social position as a Jew, not as a bearer of certain objective contents. With respect to taxes every citizen was regarded as a possessor of a certain amount of  wealth and his tax could follow the fluctuations of his fortune. But the Jew as a taxpayer was first of all a Jew, and thus his fiscal position contained an invariable element (Simmel, 1908). The Jew, in Simmel’s analogy was the Stranger in his respective social group, he still actively participates as a member of the group, but there is no differentiation between them as they are seen as outsiders == .

== Economic Interactions

In his essay on “How is Society Possible” (1910), Simmel discusses the importance of distance in groups in order for an individual to feel objectivity in another, citing the unknowingness of one another as grounds for thinking that rests solely on fact. In this, Simmel found that one of the most common roles of the stranger in the social group was in a position of an economical asset; the trader. As long as production for one’s own needs is the general rule, or products are exchanged within a relatively small circle, there is no need for a middleman within the group. A trader is required only for goods produced outside the group. Unless there are people who wander out into foreign lands to buy these necessities, in which case they are themselves “strange” merchants in this other region, the trader must be as stranger; there is no opportunity for anyone else to make a living at it (Simmel, 1908.) ==

== Objectivity and the Stranger

The strangers distance in a social groups makes for a more trusting interaction between the stranger and members of the group from which he comes. The strangers lack of emotional involvement allows him to be more dispassionate in his judgments of, and relationships with, members, thus many members of the social group feel more comfortable expressing confidences to him than they would to those who are close to them and members of the same group. (Ritzer, 2007) This is often seen in interactions with taxi cab drivers, as well as mental health personnel who group members view as strangers but largely do not consider a part of the immediate group. Critics sustained that this level of objectivity comes as a result of lack of participation in the group, thus making the stranger an outsider. Simmel maintained that objectivity is by no means non-participation (which is altogether outside both subjective and objective interaction), but a positive and specific kind of participation--just as the objectivity of a theoretical observation does not refer to the mind as a passive tabula rasa on which things inscribe their qualities, but on the contrary, to its full activity that operates according to its own laws, and to the elimination, thereby, of accidental dislocations and emphases, whose individual and subjective differences would produce different pictures of the same object (Simmel, 1908). ==

==  Conclusion Georg Simmel regarded the stranger in the sociological aspect as differing greatly from that of the stranger as regarded by everyday society. The stranger is an ever-present member of all social groups that is neither too far nor too close and thus makes for an excellent vessel of objectivity and business. Man, being a creature who is dependent on differences, creates relationships and interactions based on his understanding, or lack there of, of another individual. Strangeness, according to Simmel, is a necessary aspect of such relationships and can be seen in all interactions, even of the closest members of a social group. Husbands and wives, can be seen demonstrating strangeness in extra marital activities such as poker groups, or reading groups, in which their spouse is estranged. These strange, objective assets to the group create a more balanced interaction within the group. == ==

REFERENCES


 * Ritzer, George. Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots: The Basics.McGraw Hill: Boston, 2007.
 * Simmel, Georg. "The Metropolis and Modern Life", 1903.
 * Simmel, Georg. "The Stranger", 1908
 * Simmel, Georg. "How Is Society Possible?". American Journal of Sociolgoy. Vol. 16, (1910).
 * Rogers, Everrett. "George Simmel's Concept of the Stranger and Intercultural Communication Research." Communication Theory. Vol. 9, February 1999, pg 58-74.

EXTERNAL LINKS


 * Georg Simmel Homepage
 * "The Stranger"