O estranho: ensaio sociológico sobre o estranhamento social

Abstract

The present work on social strangement begin with some general theoretichal reflexions, in a atempt to prepare the field for a better comprehesion of the dilemas and conflicts that emerges from it. It starts with a discusion of the paper “The Stranger”, in wich Freud seeks to comprehend the cause of the sensacion of strangement. Then it is shown the contribution of Georg Simmel, through his reflexions about the “stranger”, the urban life, etc. From Pierre Bourdieu, it is explored his theory about social class and social space, specially the relation between the phisical and social space and the struggle for class distinction and hegemony in a field. It is also discused the analisys of the diferenciation of value spheres, the desechantment of the world and the conditions of the sensation of social belonging in Max Weber, and the theory of recognition in Axel Honneth. Some of the features of “the stranger” are ilustrated with the novel “The Stranger”, from Albert Camus. From this, it is identified two poles of the strangement: invisibiity and chock. The first pole is worked out from the conception that social invisibility derives directly from class strangement (as a kind of anesthesic resource), and the second is more related with a intencional strangement, as a subversive atitude, or a “struggle for recognition” of a particular lifestyle or way of behavior. In the following, it is discused the works of Howard Becker and Zygmunt Bauman that demonstrates important contributions for the comprehension of “social strangement”, although they go apart of the present work in important questions. In the second part, it is explored the strangement related with the social invisibility throught a empirical work with “garbage pickers” and a homeless man.