<p>In this dissertation I address the question of why some social groups classify some people and groups as strangers. To answer the question I focus the stranger in the writings of the Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman.</p><p>According to Bauman, the social construction of the stranger cannot be compared with the asymmetrical relation between an in-group and an out-group. An in-group stands for friends and proximity. It considers the out-group as the enemy at a distance. The hierarchical and a reciprocal relationship that exists between the in-group and the out-group is a part of the social order. The stranger, on the other hand, is constructed in the ambivalent position between the in-group and the out-group. Since there is no room for the stranger in an orderly world she has to be dealt with in a way that keeps the world free from incongruity.</p><p>Since Bauman considers the moral consequence of cultural classification, his work is also relevant for the question of living with the stranger. Leaving the Occidental rational tradition in favour of a phenomenological tradition, Bauman offers a view that considers the encounter with the stranger as a moral meeting. Highlighting responsibility, instead of social arrangements, law or tradition, Bauman visualises the stranger as a moral subject and not as aparticular social type, one who is constantly out of place</p><p>The theoretical considerations of the social making of the stranger, and the moral understanding of living <i>for</i> the stranger, contribute to a deeper understanding about the institutional origins of social marginalisation and cultural exclusion.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:uu-4773 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Månsson, Niclas |
| Publisher | Uppsala University, Department of Education, Uppsala : Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral thesis, monograph, text |
| Relation | Uppsala Studies in Education, 0347-1314 ; 108 |
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