Marginal man theory
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Marginal man theory is a sociological theory first developed by sociologists Robert Ezra Park (1864-1944) and Everett Stonequist (1901-1979)) to explain how an individual suspended between two cultural realities may struggle to establish his or her identity.[1][2][3]
Marginal man
The term "marginal man" was first coined by sociologist Robert Ezra Park in 1926 to describe an individual influenced by two differing ethnic or racial groups. According to Park:
- “The marginal man… is one whom fate has condemned to live in two societies and in two, not merely different but antagonistic cultures…. his mind is the crucible in which two different and refractory cultures may be said to melt and, either wholly or in part, fuse.”[4]
See also
- Double consciousness, a similar term coined by W.E.B. Du Bois
References
- ^ Park, Robert Ezra. Race and culture. (1950).
- ^ Stonequist, Everett V. The marginal man: a study in personality and culture conflict. (1937).
- ^ Goldberg, Milton M. "A qualification of the marginal man theory." American Sociological Review 6, no. 1 (1941): 52-58.
- ^ Park, Robert Ezra. "Human migration and the marginal man." American Journal of Sociology (1928).