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Rethinking Strangeness: From Structures in Space to Discourses in Civil Society

Department of Sociology at Yale University, jeffrey.alexander{at}yale.edu

Simmel develops his concept of the stranger in an overly structural and reductionist manner. Contrary to Simmel’s suggestion, there is an indeterminate relation between structural exclusion and the attribution of strangeness. After showing that ‘the stranger’ must be rethought in a cultural-sociological way, this essay demonstrates an alternative approach. Articulating a ‘discourse’ that structures Western projections of strangeness, I explore its relation to colonialism, racial and class domination, and national conflict in modern Western history. This approach suggests an alternative, not only to Simmel but to Merton’s and Coser’s earlier structural-functional reconceptualization of stranger theory.

Key Words: culture • exclusion • Simmel • social structure • stranger

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