As we remember from school history, the term lumpenproletariat was coined by Marx, thus designating its lower stratum. Translated from german word means "rags".

Gradually, the semantic content of this concept expanded, and everyone who sank to the “bottom” of society began to be called lumpen: tramps, criminals, beggars, prostitutes and various kinds of dependents.

Summarizing well-known definitions, we can say that the word lumpen now unites a class of people deprived of personal property and eking out odd jobs, preferring to live on certain social benefits.

Folk art

IN modern language, actively replenished with youth slang, this concept has expanded even further. Now, when pronouncing the word lumpen, its meaning can be understood in at least three ways:

A person from the bottom (homeless, alcoholic, drug addict);

A person outside of society (marginal);

An unprincipled person who does not comply with the norms of public morality (scum).

Thus, now a representative of any class of society can be called a lumpen if his actions fit one of three categories. Here, for example, are phrases from the mass media: “the lumpen people are growing and multiplying,” “yes, I am a lumpen intellectual,” or “there is such a ruling class in Russia - the lumpen bureaucracy.”

Who are the lumpen: the roots of life philosophy

Historians have determined that the first lumpen appeared in antiquity, and gave birth to this class. In ancient Roman society, the economy was built on the use of the labor of numerous slaves, and small landowners, unable to compete with large farms, quickly went bankrupt. This gave rise to a massive resettlement of peasants who had lost their land to the city.

Nominally, they had all the rights as citizens of the Roman state: they could participate in elections and attend city meetings. However, they had no property and no jobs, which forced them to support their existence by “selling” their votes in support of wealthy clients, or providing other small services.

The Roman government decided to provide financial assistance to these people in the form of a hefty measure of grain (about one and a half kg per day), which they received according to special lists.

In Rome alone, the lumpen proletariat numbered about 300 thousand at the beginning of the first millennium. He began to take an active part in all political and military brawls. Having no constructive interests of their own, these people were ready to serve anyone - just to provide themselves with food and simple pleasures.

The marginalized are the “border guards” of society

Well, what can we say about the marginalized? Translated from Latin, it means "borderline" and refers to a person who has dissociated himself from his social group but has been unable to integrate into any other. The number of marginalized people increases significantly when changes occur too quickly in public order: reforms, revolutions, etc.

In Russia, this process began with the reign of Alexander II and continued with the efforts of Witte and Stolypin. By the beginning of the twentieth century, our country already had a significant layer of marginalized people of all kinds.

Trace in Russian literature

The marginalized and lumpen are distinguished by their special psychology, which is quite clearly imprinted in our classical literature, for example, Maxim Gorky, who described who the lumpen are. In the play “At the Lower Depths” he brought together representatives of all social strata: Baron - from the nobility, Actor - from people of art, Satin - from the technical intelligentsia, Bubnov - from the bourgeoisie, Luka - from the peasants, and Kleshch - from the proletarians.

But not all marginalized people can be classified as lumpen. It is enough to disagree with the attitudes of your circle, while remaining outwardly on the same social level. So, in Nekrasov’s poem “Who lives well in Rus'?”, in fact, life is bad for everyone - from priests to lackeys.

If we consider the heroes of Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” from this position, then they all fall under the definition of marginals: landowners who are forced by circumstances to sell their land; servants who are separated; a footman who is still experiencing the abolition of serfdom; a dropout student dreaming of revolution.

Gorky compiled psychological picture a representative of another version of marginality - a person who rebelliously “breaks out” (the writer’s definition) from his class environment, categorically not accepting its values, and at the same time, continuing to successfully perform his professional functions (“Egor Bulychev and others”).

Savva Morozov - marginalized from the underground

The story of the legendary factory owner Savva Morozov is quite in the spirit of Gorky’s Bulychev: he, as expected, exploited his own workers, and spent the proceeds on supporting revolutionary anarchist groups, that is, he dug a hole for himself. But at the same time he was also a philanthropist.

Such a life could not help but end tragically - unable to withstand the internal discord, he eventually shot himself.

Lumpens and marginalized people: differences

IN explanatory dictionaries it is noted that lumpen and marginalized people are general characteristics people who have lost touch with their social environment and become outcasts in society. But what is their difference?

Let's clarify who the lumpen are. By definition, these are people who have lost contact not only with their social group, but also have lost their means of earning a living and have no source of income. The marginalized are always on the edge: they have fought off their own people, but have not found anyone to turn to. Moreover, they may have mixed features of two bordering subcultures.

In other words, lumpen people do not have permanent jobs, but live on odd jobs, social benefits, or break the law. Marginalized people are people in a borderline state who have not adapted to the changed reality.

It turns out that the lumpen and the marginalized are two separate groups of modern society. Marginality is rather dissent, inherent in man, lost in a world that does not meet his expectations.

Marginal is not a very flattering characteristic. To call him a lumpen means to insult.

Who are the lumpen and the marginalized? This is the question you might ask when you hear these words for the first time. If we talk about the meaning of these words, it will be similar, but not equal. That is, the difference between these definitions that needs to be understood. These words are connected by only one thing - they are used to designate a person who, for one reason or another, is outside his social group and belongs to the lowest social stratum.

How do you think Oblomov from I. A. Goncharov’s novel is lumpen and marginal?

Poll Options are limited because JavaScript is disabled in your browser.

Origin and meaning of words

“Marginal” is a word that has Latin roots and a little later came to different languages peace. According to Wikipedia given word translated from Latin into Russian as “standing, located on the edge.” Marginal people are usually called people who, for some reason, find themselves outside their social group or are at the junction between two specific societies. We can say that the marginalized are outcasts. For example, marginalized people can be called people who, for some reason, left the territory home country and who became apostates in the eyes of their former compatriots, but at the same time did not accept the traditions of the power to which they fled. A group of people is called marginalized when this group did something that led to the collapse of some social or state foundations.

Lumpen - this word came into Russian speech from the German language. Translated, it means “rags.” Lumpen are people who have sunk to the very bottom of society and who do absolutely nothing. labor activity, without benefiting either oneself or society. A person who is financially insecure cannot be called a lumpen: this person works and earns bread by the sweat of his brow. Lumpen - this word applies to criminal elements, people wandering. Alcoholics, drug addicts, and individuals who live solely on government subsidies are also often called lumpen.

Difference between terms

In order not to get confused in concepts, let's look in detail at the differences between lumpen and marginalized people. Lumpens usually do not own any property; often these people simply wander and carry with them only those things that are really necessary for life. The marginalized may well be people who live in material prosperity, but for some reason are rejected by society.

You should know that the word “lumpen” has another meaning: this can be used to call a person devoid of moral and moral values who despises the moral principles accepted in society and mindlessly submits to persons with a certain authority. The more lumpen people appear in society, the greater the danger they begin to pose to society. That is why in the theory of Marxism the term “lumpen proletariat” was introduced, which denoted an environment of criminals and moral corruptors. In the USSR, the word “lumpen” was abusive and offensive.

Marginality, marginalism, marginality - all these words have never had an abusive meaning. They only indicate a person’s borderline state in society, being an outcast and the inability to find one’s place in any social group. Immigrants, political refugees, people who left their native lands and were unable to find a new homeland in another country are often called marginalized. It is worth noting that in modern society the word “lumpen” is almost never used; even homeless people are increasingly called marginalized, although this is not entirely true.

Social Differentiation This is the division of society into groups occupying different positions. Characteristic of any society.

Economic

Political

Professional

The term " stratification" originates from the Latin word stratum - layers, layer. The most universal concept is stratum- social stratum: the selection criteria include income, education, profession, etc.

Strata represent large groups of people differing in their position in the social structure of society.

In sociology there are four main types social stratification - slavery, castes, estates and classes. The first three characterize closed societies, and the last type is open.

Slavery. There are two forms of slavery: patriarchal, in which the slave has all the rights of the youngest member of the family (among the Jews), and classical (Rome, Greece), in which the slave has no rights and is considered the property of the owner (a talking tool).

Caste is a social group (stratum) in which membership is given to a person only by birth. A person's transition from one caste to another during his lifetime is impossible - for this he needs to be born again.

a) brahmins - priests;

b) kshatriyas - warriors;

c) vaishyas - merchants;

d) Shudras - peasants, artisans, workers.

A special position is occupied by the so-called untouchables, who do not belong to any caste and occupy a lower position.

Estates- groups of people with certain rights, responsibilities and social status that are inherited. It is difficult to move from one class to another, but you can move, which is not the case with castes. Privileged, semi-privileged and unprivileged.

Classes. V.I. Lenin: “Classes are large groups of people that differ in their place in a historically defined system of social production, in their relationship (mostly enshrined and formalized in laws) to the means of production, in their role in the social organization of labor, and therefore , according to the methods of obtaining and the size of the share of social wealth that they have.”

Since any social structure is a collection of all functioning social communities taken in their interaction, the following elements can be distinguished in it:

a) ethnic structure (clan, tribe, nationality, nation);

b) demographic structure (groups are distinguished by age and gender);

c) settlement structure (urban residents, rural residents, etc.);

d) class structure (bourgeoisie, proletariat, peasants, etc.);

e) vocational and educational structure.

In the very general view In modern society, three stratification levels can be distinguished: highest, middle and lowest. Economically developed countries the second level is predominant, giving society a certain stability.

All scientists agree that the basis of the stratification structure of society is the natural and social inequality of people. However, on the question of what exactly is the criterion for this inequality, their opinions differ. Studying the process of stratification in society, K. Marx called such a criterion the fact of a person’s possession of property and the level of his income. M. Weber added to them social prestige and the subject’s belonging to political parties, to power. Pitirim Sorokin considered the cause of stratification to be the uneven distribution of rights and privileges, responsibilities and duties in society. He also argued that social space has many other criteria for differentiation: it can be carried out by citizenship, occupation, nationality, religious affiliation, etc. Finally, supporters of the theory of structural functionalism proposed as a criterion to rely on those social functions that are performed certain social strata in society.

Historically, stratification, i.e. inequality in income, power, prestige, etc., arises with the birth of human society.

In the process of changing the social structure of modern Russian society, the following trends can be identified:

1) social polarization, i.e. stratification into rich and poor, deepening social and property differentiation;

2) massive downward social mobility;

3) massive change of place of residence by knowledge workers (the so-called “brain drain”).

Distributive theory (Smith, Guizot)

Land owner - rent

Owner of capital - profit

Worker wages

Social mobility

Social mobility-transition of people from one social group to another.

Social Mobility:

Horizontal(from one group to another but at the same level) - a history teacher became a literature teacher, transfer to another factory but for the same position, change of citizenship.

Vertical:

Rising– from a lower to a higher group (from rags to riches)

Descending- from higher to lower (from president to prime minister)

The reasons that allow a person to move from one social group to another are called social factors mobility.

education

social system: in open society Unlike a closed society, there are no formal restrictions on mobility and almost no informal ones. In a closed society, mobility is limited both quantitatively and qualitatively.

changes occurring in the technology of social production: they lead to the emergence new professions requiring high qualifications and significant training.

warriors and revolutions, leading, as a rule, to a change in the elite of society.

Different birth rates in different strata - lower in the upper strata and higher in the lower strata - create a certain “vacuum” at the top and promote the upward movement of people from the bottom.

Social Elevators- institutions that facilitate the movement of a person from one social group to another.

According to Sorokin, the 3 main social lifts are: church, army, school(education), own(often in the form of money).

Lumpens and outcasts

Lumpen(from German - rags) - homeless people, tramps, etc.

Marginalized- people who are between the stable strata of society and the lumpen (people from villages, migrants from another country, students who came to another city).

Family

Family - is a community of people based on a single family activity, connected by the bonds of marriage and thereby carrying out the reproduction of the population and the continuity of family generations, as well as the socialization of children and the maintenance of existence of family members.

Depending on the nature of the marriage, the characteristics of parenthood and kinship, the following types of family structures are distinguished:

1) monogamous marriage and polygamy. A monogamous marriage is the marriage of one man to one woman. Polygamy is the marriage of one spouse with several women. There are two types of polygamy: polygyny - the marriage of one man with several women and polyandry - the marriage of one woman with several men;

2) patrilineal and matrilineal families. In patrilineal families, inheritance of the surname, property and social status is carried out through the father, and in matrilineal families - through the mother;

3) patriarchal and matriarchal families. In patriarchal families, the head is the father; in matriarchal families, the mother has the highest authority and influence;

4) homogeneous and heterogeneous families. In homogeneous families, spouses come from the same social stratum; in heterogeneous families, they come from different social groups, castes, classes;

5) small children (1-2 children), medium children (3-4 children) and large families(5 or more children).

Partner family (democratic) - a type of modern family based on mutual understanding between spouses and the voluntary distribution of roles in accordance with the capabilities and abilities of each

The most common in modern urbanized cities are the so-called nuclear families, consisting of parents and their children, i.e., two generations.

Family functions:

reproductive

educational

economic

recreational (relieving stressful situations)

supporting each other's family members.

socialization of children.

1 Many of us, walking along the beautiful and elegant streets of our cities, have more than once noticed people who are dressed in dirty clothes, smell of strong fumes, make inarticulate sounds, and can sleep on the ground. Some call such citizens Scourges, but in fact common name similar individuals "Lumpen". What does Lumpen mean?? What does Marginal mean? Before you continue, I want to introduce you to several informative publications on the topic of prison jargon, for example, who is called Rook, how to understand the word Spread, who is Clay Kneader, what is called Nail, etc. The word Lumpen was borrowed from the German term "Lumpen " and is translated as rags. This concept invented by a popular communist figure, Karl Marx. He used this term to designate people from the lower strata of society.
After some time, all declassed elements, such as criminals, tramps, beggars, homeless, whips, etc.

Lumpen- this is a person who interrupts not constant earnings, and does not have his own property



When to use the term " Lumpenization of society", then this means an increase percentage of these layers among the population and the general spread of lumpen psychology during the social and economic crisis.

What does Marginal mean?

The term "Marginal" comes from the Latin word "margo" and is translated as "edge". This concept refers to people who are, as it were, between different social groups, cultures, systems and are influenced by them, which sometimes strongly contradict each other.

Marginal- this is a person who rejects some traditions and values ​​of the culture in which it appears, while creating their own own system values ​​and norms


What is the difference between Lumpen and Marginal?

From all of the above we can conclude that Lumpens are one who has lost touch with his social group and, most importantly, said goodbye to work. Whereas Marginal is a man who hangs out," like g... in an ice hole", neither here nor there. He has moved away from his social group, but is not going to join any other. That is, he is a person who has lost his “roots”. For example, he lived all his life in the city, but suddenly moved to the village, where for Everything is unfamiliar to him.

TRENDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL RELATIONS

Social structure, like other aspects of society, is subject to change. From history courses you know how this happened in the course of civilizational development in different eras. Painting social life modern humanity is also colorful and mobile. The most stable social structure is the one that still exists today traditional societies. They store social groups related to communal land use, subsistence farming, small-scale production. In a number of cases, the principles of religious-communal and even tribal organization are supported.

Societies that have entered the era of industrialization and modernization are distinguished by high social dynamics. Groups associated with large-scale industrial production are strengthening there, and the urban population is growing.

Significant social changes are taking place in developed Western countries. One trend is the rise of a “new” middle class. It includes the majority of the intelligentsia, middle and lower managers, and highly qualified workers. The incomes of these layers, in most cases employed, are no lower than those of the middle and petty bourgeoisie (the “old” middle class). The growth of the middle class reduces social differentiation and makes society more politically stable.

This group of countries has a large proportion of the population employed. At the same time, structural changes in the economy are leading to a reduction in the size of the industrial working class. There are also fewer independent peasants (farmers). At the same time, under the influence of the scientific and technological revolution, the importance of highly qualified mental labor is increasing. Acute social problem unemployment still remains.

tends to have a certain regulatory impact on social relations government. In some cases, the state supports the ideas of social equality, and in extreme cases, egalitarianism. This applies, for example, to former socialist countries, present-day Cuba, and North Korea.

IN Western countries One of the main concerns of the state is to prevent social conflicts. Much is being done to support the most vulnerable segments of the population in a competitive economy - the elderly, the disabled, and large families.

These two groups of the population, each in its own way, seem to fall out of the stable social structure of society.

The word lumpen comes from the German Lumpen - rags. The lumpen include people who have sunk to the “bottom” of public life - tramps, beggars, homeless people. As a rule, these come from different social strata and classes. An increase in the number of this group (lumpenization of the population) is dangerous for society, since it serves as a breeding ground for various kinds of extremist organizations. Different position and different social role in the marginal layers (Latin margina- Hs - located on the edge). These include groups that occupy an intermediate position between stable communities. One of the main channels of marginalization is mass migration from rural to urban areas. This process took place, for example, in the late 20s - 30s in our country. The ongoing industrialization required more and more workers. Former rural residents, having lost touch with the village way of life, had difficulty adapting to the urban environment. For a long time they became people with severed social ties and destroyed spiritual values. Such sections of the population, “unrooted”, with an unstable social position, strived for a solid order established by the state, for a “strong hand”. This created a social basis for the anti-democratic regime and significantly reduced revolutionary expectations of change.





The above example shows one of the negative consequences of the increase in marginal groups. At the same time, one cannot help but admit that often it is these segments of the population that are not bound by traditions and prejudices, they especially actively support the progressive, and often act as its initiators.