Realization in society is one of the psychological needs of a person. A person who falls out of society is called marginal, but this does not mean that such a person is necessarily poor and leads a self-destructive lifestyle. Having learned who the outcasts are, one can be surprised to find them among acquaintances.

Who is marginal - definition

According to the sociological explanatory dictionary, a marginal person is a person who is in a borderline state between two or more social groups, systems, cultures. What does it mean that a marginal is an asocial subject, but not necessarily dysfunctional, immoral or suffering from pathological attachments. It is believed that the first outcasts were people freed from slavery who left their familiar environment, but could not immediately become full-fledged members of society.

If the marginalized in society do not perform socially useful functions, then they create various problems. Outcasts are able to stray into groups and arrange riots. In European countries, often such a phenomenon as a riot of migrants. These people, who were taken in a foreign country, provided with housing and food, can bring many problems to law-abiding indigenous people. Harmless outcasts are somewhat less common, as an example, representatives of national minorities, the fashionable movement of downshifters, etc. can be cited.

The status of "marginal" can be prescribed to a person by society or accepted by an individual independently. “Branding” and “labeling” of non-standard people can happen in a work team, in a hospital, at school. This kind of displacement is often subjected to minorities - national, sexual, etc. This is a violation of human rights. The individual can realize his own marginality himself. In this case, he must decide - "return to normality" or live with the status of "marginal".

Who are marginals and lumpen?

The term "lumpen" was introduced by K. Marx; he referred to this group vagrants, beggars, bandits. According to the inhabitants, lumpen and outcasts represent one group of people with similar interests and lifestyle. This is not entirely true. A lumpen is a declassed, physically and morally degraded element, a "scum of society", which is part of a marginal group, but at the same time, a marginal person is far from always a lumpen.

Signs of marginals

Sociologists call the main sign of the marginalized the rupture of economic, social and spiritual ties that exist in the "pre-marginal" life. Mostly migrants and refugees become marginalized. A former military man, dismissed from service, but not yet found himself in civil society, can find himself on the edge of social groups. The ties with the past were severed upon dismissal, but there are no new ones yet, and in especially unfavorable conditions, there will not be. Then a person can declassify - i.e. sink to the bottom of life.

Other signs of marginality:

• mobility - occurs in the absence of housing, attachments;
• mental problems - appear due to the inability to find their "place under the sun";
• development of own values, sometimes hostility to the existing society;
• sufficient ease of involvement in illegal activities.

Types of marginals

With a positive development of events, the period of marginality in a person does not last too long - having adapted, finding a job, joining society, he loses his marginal status. The exception is people who have become marginalized by force (refugees) or those who have consciously chosen such a way of life (tramps, radicals, extremists, revolutionaries). Sociologists divide the main types of marginals in this way: political, ethical, religious, social, economic, biological.

Political outcasts

To understand who a political marginal is, the meaning of this term, one can recall the period when Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba, accompanied by bloody repressions. The “island of freedom” has become unbearable for the life of about 2 million people who fled to other countries, becoming, in fact, political outcasts - people who are not satisfied with the existing political regime, its laws.

Ethnic outcasts

People who are subject to ethnic marginality usually include individuals born from representatives of different nationalities. Not any interethnic marriage gives rise to marginals, this happens only if the child does not identify himself with any nationality of his parents - in this case he is not accepted anywhere. Another answer to the question of who the ethnic outcasts are is national minorities, representatives of extremely small nationalities living among other nationalities.

Religious outcasts

The bulk of people in society either adhere to a certain denomination, or do not believe in God at all. Religious outcasts are individuals who believe in the existence of higher power but cannot call themselves representatives of any existing religion. Among such individuals (prophets) one can meet those who gathered like-minded people and created their own church.

Social marginals

Such a phenomenon as social marginality develops in a society experiencing cataclysms: upheavals, revolutions, etc. Entire groups of people in a changing society are losing their place and cannot find it in new system. Such social marginals often become migrants, as an example, we can recall representatives of the nobility who left Russia after the 1917 revolution.

Marginal economic

The answer to the question, who is the economic marginal, basically comes down to unemployment and the accompanying poverty. Economic marginals are forced or deliberately lose the opportunity to earn and live at the expense of others - receiving help from others, benefits from the state, alms, etc. In modern society, super-rich people, who are also cut off from society, are also classified as economic marginals.

Biomarginals

Ideal social organization implies care for those who are in difficult situation because of health problems, so the question of who such a biological marginal should not arise. In fact, those who have no value to society due to ill health are completely unprotected. The biomarginals include the disabled, the chronically ill, the elderly, HIV-infected, etc.

Pros and cons of marginality

The initially negative meaning of the term “marginal” has already changed and does not always carry a negative load. To be outside the “herd”, to be different from many is fashionable and even prestigious, but positive sides marginality can be found even in the classical meaning of this phenomenon:

• marginalized people are more mobile than ordinary people, it is easier for them to move to an economically more prosperous area, to find more high paying job, change profession;
• due to their dissimilarity with other members of society, some outcasts can build their business on this, for example, an ethnic outcast can open a store with goods produced by his people;
• due to their flexibility, marginals often bring something new, progressive to society.

The negative aspects of marginality include the fact that this phenomenon is mainly associated with radical changes in the structure of society - reforms, revolutions. In general, society always suffers from such changes - the state becomes poorer, promising individuals leave it. Another disadvantage of the marginalization of society is the decline in living standards and security due to the lumpenization of a large number of marginals.

Marginality is also negative in the case when it is artificially created. During long revolutions, wars, the number of marginals grows exponentially, as a result, innocent people die and sink "to the bottom". Examples of forced marginalization are the Holocaust of the Jewish nation, arranged by fascist Germany and the Stalinist repressions, as a result of which hundreds of thousands of people were exiled, resettled, deprived of work and housing.

Marginality and poverty

Since in modern society the answer to the question of who the marginal are has changed a lot, the consequences of marginality are far from always - poverty, imprisonment or even life. Marginals, as already mentioned, can also be very rich people who, due to their wealth, are freer than other members of society. And it is not uncommon for successful businessmen to retire and leave big cities for the provinces, for villages.

Within the framework of such a phenomenon as marginality, it is worth mentioning the recently appeared downshifters. From birth, the individual develops in two opposite directions - as a social and as an individual personality. Ideally, these forces should be balanced, but in reality, one of these directions often outweighs. With increased socialization, a conformist is born, and with increased individualization, a downshifter may be born.

A downshifter is a person who has chosen a life outside of society or severely limited communication with people outside his family. This is a marginal who is quite satisfied with his being in a borderline state, when he is free to move around the world, to live completely independently. Most often, downshifters prefer to engage in art - they draw, write books, etc. And their work is almost always in demand, because. the author has strong energy and .

05/06/2018 74 488 2 Igor

Psychology and society

Often on television or in the media we hear and see foreign word"marginal". Its meaning has undergone significant changes, starting from the time of its formulation by the American sociologist R. Park and ending today. To explain the actual meaning of this concept in simple terms, it is necessary to trace the history of the use of this term and highlight the main types of outcasts in the history of mankind.

Content:

Who is marginal?

For the first time this term was used in psychology in 1928 by Robert Park in the meaning of a person occupying an intermediate position between rural and urban residents. This is the one who previously lived in a village, a village, and then moved to the city, while his cultural values, acquired while living in the countryside, did not fit into the requirements and foundations of urban civilization. His behavior and habits turned out to be unacceptable for the urban social environment. Today, outcasts are called not only people who do not fit into the urban environment.

This term's got enough wide use. Sociological science classifies as marginal the person whose behavior goes beyond the generally accepted norms and rules of any social group. It sits between two conflicting groups. It leads to internal conflict person. The marginal is part of two different social groups, but does not accept either of them (does not live by their laws and is not guided by the norms and values ​​\u200b\u200baccepted in them). From a psychological point of view, the marginal physically belongs to a particular social group, but psychologically, morally, emotionally is outside of it.

The meaning of the word "Marginal"

Marginal (from the Latin "marginalis"- extreme or "margo" - edge) - a person living in social environment, but not accepting the worldview, principles, norms, values, moral ideals, way of life imposed by it. We can say that he is on the edge of the system, outside the laws and orders imposed by the social structure. In modern Russian, there are many synonyms for the word "marginal": outcast, white crow, informal, individual, asocial, nihilist. Example: bum, hippie, goth, hermit monk, ascetic.

Also, people from the lower strata of society, even Karl Marx designated the term "Lumpen". In modern times, the two concepts of marginal and lumpen are intertwined with each other.

Signs of marginality:

• violation of ties important for a person (biosocial, cultural, spiritual, economic) that existed in a previous life;
• constant movement due to lack of attachment to anything;
• internal psychological conflict due to the inability to find oneself and the emergence of mental problems on this basis;
• due to non-observance of law and order, the ease of becoming an unlawful member of society (offender);
• representatives of the lowest strata of society (homeless people, alcoholics, drug addicts, etc.);
• the formation of their own values ​​and norms, which very often contradict and are hostile to the values ​​of the social group to which the marginal belongs.

At first glance, the word "marginal" is painted only with negative colors. Actually it is not. Like any phenomenon, marginality has, in addition to negative aspects, and positive which include the following:

• different thinking, outlook is a source of progressive, innovative activity;
• due to high mobility, the marginalized are more likely to start life from a new leaf, get a different education, find best work, move to a more prosperous area of ​​the city or change the country of residence to a more economically developed one;
• due to their uniqueness, dissimilarity with others, the marginalized have the opportunity to find an untapped niche in the market of goods and services and engage in a profitable business (open their own business related to the sale of ethnic goods, souvenirs from their former place of residence). Outcasts for this reason very often become billionaires.

Marginal personality according to Robert Park

The American sociologist Robert Park attributed the following to the main character traits and personality traits of the outcasts:

• anxiety;
• aggressiveness;
• ambition;
• touchiness;
• selfishness;
• categorical in views;
• negativism;
• unsatisfied ambition;
• anxiety states and phobias.

In society, people with an asocial lifestyle (poor refugees, homeless people, beggars, vagrants, people with various kinds of addictions, lawbreakers) were called marginal individuals, who can be attributed to representatives of the social bottom. Their living conditions have a significant negative impact on their mental state. Any civilized society lives according to its established rules, customs and norms. R. Park believed that marginal personality:

1. Rejects any norms and traditions accepted in society.
2. Has no sense of duty towards the society in which he lives.
3. Experiencing a strong need for solitude and avoids the company of people.

Important! Most expert sociologists and practicing psychologists believe that the marginal is a source of cultural growth. He can objectively, without external influence, evaluate any phenomenon and situation, because they are not involved in it, as if isolated. It fills the social group with new ideas, views, introduces new trends, helps members of society develop, broaden their horizons, look at problems from a different angle, instills.

Types of marginals

Depending on the reasons for the development of a marginal way of life and the characteristics of their manifestation, marginals are divided into the following types:

1. ethnic- people who, for various reasons and circumstances, were forced to change their place of residence and ended up among representatives of another nationality, nationality, ethnic group, culture. This type is the most difficult to overcome, since a person adapts to a foreign culture, traditions, language, religion for a long time and is not able to change his appearance, race and nationality (descendants from mixed marriages, emigrants).
2. Social- associated with the change of one economic system to another (slavery was replaced by feudalism, socialism by capitalism). Entire groups of people cannot immediately find their place and adapt to the new social system.
3. Biological The ideal society is one that takes care of its weak and sick members. In reality, unhealthy people and people with disabilities or mental faculties has no value for society, are left out of life (the disabled, the elderly, the chronically ill, HIV-infected, children with Down syndrome and other diseases that limit their capacity).
4. Economic- people who for some reason lost their jobs and the opportunity to have a stable income, lost their property, housing, and super-rich people who, due to their material wealth, become cut off from all other members of society (beggars, homeless people, dependents, billionaires, oligarchs ).
5. religious- people who do not consider themselves either representatives of any existing denomination, or non-believers. These are the individuals who believe in their ideals, their gods and create their own churches and sects (prophets, sectarians).
6. Political- appear during turning points in history, during a period of political crisis, when people lose faith in modern politicians and their proclaimed values, fight against the existing political system, do not trust the authorities and take a hostile civil position.
7. Criminal- when the refusal to live according to the laws existing in society and moral standards leads to the commission of an offense (criminals).
8. Age- when the older generation loses contact with the youth, the so-called conflict of children and fathers arises.

Examples of well-known outcasts in history

Vivid examples of outcasts in history are entire neighborhoods of New York emigrants, Chinatown in China and Russia's Brighton Beach. Many emigrants, due to the prevailing mentality, find themselves left out of American society, unable to integrate into it and accept new values.

Another example is the outcasts as a subclass of Russian society that arose as a result of the "breaking" of old and the emergence of new socio-economic relations in the 90s of the XX century. Moreover, the marginals then included representatives of both poles of social inequality: the lower strata of society (“the social bottom”) and the so-called “new Russians”.

Outcasts were called world-famous writers and poets, artists and creators, geniuses and scientists, who during their lifetime were considered insane and outcasts because of their dissimilarity with others and the lack of understanding of their views and creativity by other members of society. AT modern world there is another group of marginals - people who spend most of their time at the computer, which leads to a change in their consciousness, the predominance virtual life over the real one.

From history, marginals include:

• Diogenes of Sinop - ancient Greek philosopher, student of Antisthenes;
• Stepan Razin - Don Cossack, leader of the uprising of 1670-1671;
• Emelyan Pugachev - Don Cossack, leader of the Peasants' War of 1773-1775;
• Ustim Karmelyuk - Ukrainian peasant, leader of the peasant movement in Podolia in 1813-1835.

If you remember the literary heroes:

• James Moriarty - A. Conan Doyle A cycle of works about Sherlock Holmes;

The meaning of the words "marginal" and "marginality" in the modern world has changed beyond recognition. However, this is not surprising. The world is rapidly changing right before our eyes and old stereotypes are being replaced by new concepts, often diametrically opposed to the old ones.

What is marginality and who are marginals? What new categories of people began to be classified as marginalized in the modern world. How the marginal differs from all other representatives of society, and why he has such a status, you will learn about from the article.

So, the marginal is who? This term came into use as early as 1928. It was formulated by the US sociologist Robert Park. He believed that a marginal person can be called a person who occupies some intermediate and indefinite position between a city dweller and a rural outback dweller.

The culture of such a subject is not formed, he cannot fit into the unfamiliar living conditions in another place. His behavior patterns are not accepted by society, and for them he is nothing but a savage who does not know how to behave among people.

The term itself originates from the word "margo", which in Latin means "edge". Therefore, marginals are those who live on the very edge, the edge of society, and do not fit into the generally accepted norms of interaction between people.

What is marginality according to Robert Park?

Marginality is a sociological concept. It means the borderline, intermediate position of people between social groups. This in a certain way affects the psyche of such people (outcasts).

Previously, this word had a sharply negative connotation in society. Robert Park considered such people extremely touchy, aggressive and focused only on themselves. In addition, he included among them those who committed crimes, did not have their own housing, were alcoholics and drug addicts.

In a word, these were the people of the poorest and lowest strata of society. An important feature marginal was the denial of all norms and rules in society. They had no obligations, violated the rules of interaction between people.

Park said that such people are often lonely, do not want to make friends and family.

Categories of people who are marginalized in modern society

In the modern world, the concepts of "marginality" and "marginal" have lost their original sharply negative meaning. Marginals are now called those representatives of society whose way of thinking and way of life differs significantly from the way of life of the main mass of people.

Gradually, the semantic content of this term has changed a lot. Once they were representatives of the very bottom of society. Now everything is different. Now in the network and the media, you can often find many articles devoted to the word "marginal" in its elite sense, for example, "marginal culture", "marginal literature", "marginal worldview". Now both the unemployed and the millionaire can be marginalized.

In simple terms, marginal people are now called everyone who does not fit into the socially “correct” behavior.

Marginals can be called:

• a vagabond without housing and work;
• a traveler who left to search for the meaning of life in Thailand, India, Tibet;
• a hippie who denies the hierarchy of society;
• freelancer and any "free artist" who is not tied to work and lives on the road;
• a hermit living away from society;
• a multimillionaire whose lifestyle is very different from most people.

Classification of marginal groups in sociology

In sociology, marginals are subdivided into several groups, these include:

• ethnic outcasts are mostly migrants.
• There are biological marginals, these are those who have certain physical or mental capabilities.
• There are age gaps, this is the generation with which communication in society is almost lost.
• There are social outcasts, as a rule, these are those who do not fit into social structure because of your lifestyle.
• There are also economic marginals They are either the poorest or have no jobs at all.
• There are political, those people who use methods of political struggle not approved by society.
• In addition, there are religious, these are those who have a faith that does not coincide with that recognized in society.
• And the last - criminal elements, criminals.

I hope the article helped you find out who the marginal is? How has the meaning of the words "marginal" and "marginality" changed? And what do these words mean now in our modern world.

A classic example of a marginal is Jeffrey Lebowski, the hero of the cult film The Big Lebowski (1998)

If you want to fully understand this topic, I recommend revisiting the famous cult film of the Coen brothers The Big Lebowski (1998). Main character This movie is a classic outlier. Everyone's favorite pacifist, Jeffrey Lebowski, can be called a classic outcast of the modern world.

Here is the official trailer for The Big Lebowski (1998):

I wish everyone strives to be themselves, stay true to their dreams and not squeeze themselves into the stereotypes of society, while, of course, without violating the freedom of other people!

See you on the blog pages!

The word marginals has become fashionable years 15-20 ago. Almost everyone loves to use it: from abstruse and glamorous intellectuals to almost grandmothers on benches. Anyone who somehow does not fit into the usual can hear in his address: "Yes, he's just marginal!".

Moreover, in the vast majority of cases, the attitude towards this person will be strictly negative. And this is understandable, given that the very meaning of this word is known to units.

In Russia, the concept of a marginal is constantly confused with the concept of a lumpen, that is, a declassed element, a tramp, an alcoholic drug addict, a homeless person, a criminal. The one who is outside of society, outside of its coordinate system. The benefits of it to society are zero, but you will not get any harm.

But if we consider the phenomenon of marginality in more detail, then we will find out that marginal people, of course, are outside the system (lat. marginalis - edge, border, side), but they have their own set of values, which they sacredly adhere to.

They have a strong reluctance to adhere to generally accepted norms, which they consider unsuitable for themselves. Unlike the marginals, the lumpen are ready to obey a strong leader who has power and accept the values ​​of this leader.

A marginal is a person who is outside the boundaries of both the generally accepted system and the "systemic opposition", who obeys only his own rules. He is not contact, avoids society, as he is well aware of his otherness. This is a person who lives outside of his time period.

If we take the present time as a segment, then the marginal can either overtake their contemporaries, or maybe lag behind them, consciously choosing for themselves life according to rules that have already expired.

Is it good or bad? None of the contemporaries can know this. What will take root from what the advancing one preaches, what will rise from the past tomorrow?

Despite the fact that marginals have always been treated sympathetically, if not despised, they are a very important part of society, although they try their best not to be this part.

It is the outcasts, who go against everything, who open up new things to the world (which of them was not considered a marginal in their time - Jesus Christ? Copernicus? Nikola Tesla? Mayakovsky? Picasso?), or carefully preserve the "remnants of the past" (Orthodox believers in the Soviet Union) .

Feminists and fighters for the equality of blacks in the United States are recent marginals, and today racists and chauvinists who claim that a woman is an inferior being are considered marginal.

Freelancers who don't want to work from 8 to 5, and child frees who don't go crazy with the idea of ​​leaving behind offspring; hippies who advocate free love as opposed to traditional family values ​​and downshifters who do not spend their lives working are all marginalized.

But we no longer treat them sharply negatively, as we did a few years ago. Society recognized their right to exist. The more developed the society, the more loyal it is to any manifestations of individuality.

And it seems that not much time will pass, and people with their own special outlook on life will be treated not from the position of usefulness and conformity to traditions, but from the position of harmlessness and possible creative potential.

After all, there are more and more developed societies, and the freedom of one ends where the freedom of another begins.

When reading paper or online publications, you can often come across words whose meaning is not clear. Embargo, mainstream, gender, collapse, gadget, pattern, retail, headliner, trend, fake... You can guess what some of them mean from the general meaning of the text, but this is not always easy. The task is simplified when the word is currently used by the media so often that it is firmly remembered, and the reader has no choice but to learn or guess about the meaning of a particular term.

"Incomprehensible Concepts"

The most difficult thing is with words that are not used daily in speech. a large number journalists. These include, for example, "offer" or "marginal". The meaning of a word is sometimes difficult to guess from its sound. And if the word is foreign, then the task becomes almost impossible. One has to turn to explanatory dictionaries to establish the origin of a term unusual for the ear.

Who is this marginal? The meaning of the word is particularly difficult to ascertain for several reasons. Firstly, not all explanatory dictionaries give the full number of meanings. Secondly, the very meaning of this word has undergone several cardinal changes, which has made it rather blurry and fuzzy. Only by tracing the whole story, you can understand this issue.

First of all, marginal is not a mathematical concept, not a plant and not a wardrobe item. This is a man. But what kind of person, what distinguishes him from everyone else and why he received a separate status - all these questions are the subject of a detailed discussion.

Outcasts of the early 20th century

The term itself was formulated in 1928 by the American sociologist Robert Park, since then its meaning has undergone significant changes. Initially, R. Park, the founder of the psychology of the urban lifestyle, believed that the marginal is someone who is in an indefinite position between the rural and the urbanized. His usual culture was destroyed, and he did not fit into the new one. Such a person can be called a savage in the stone jungle, so his behavior is unacceptable in the social environment of the city.

The term was formed from the Latin margo - "edge". Thus, marginal people are people who live on the border of various social elements, but do not fit into the norms of any of them.

Marginal personality according to Robert Park

The meaning of the word from the very beginning was quite negative. How best to answer the question of whether Professor R. Park himself defined the main character traits of such a person in this way: anxiety, aggressiveness, ambition, resentment and self-centeredness. Usually, this was the name given to various kinds of asocial elements: the poorest migrants, vagrants, the homeless, drunkards, drug addicts, and criminals. In general, representatives of the social bottom. The borderline state in which these people are, leaves an imprint on their psyche.

Every society has its own written and unwritten rules, customs and traditions. The marginal rejects all this, not feeling his duty towards society, not sharing the norms accepted in it. According to R. Park, such individuals have a strong need for solitude and a solitary lifestyle.

Classification

According to the modern sociological classification, there are several groups of people who, according to a number of unifying features, can be called outcasts.

These groups include:

• ethnic marginals (descendants from mixed marriages, migrants);
• biological marginals (people with limited physical or mental capabilities, deprived of the attention and care of society);
• age marginals (a generation whose connection with the majority of society was severed);
• social marginals (people who do not fit into a particular social structure due to their lifestyle, worldview, profession, etc.);
• economic marginalized (the unemployed and the poorest segments of the population);
• political outcasts (those who use methods of political struggle that are not accepted in a given society);
• religious outcasts (believers who do not adhere to a particular denomination);
• criminal outcasts (criminals, by the standards of this society).

In modern society

Due to such a broad classification and the gradual expansion of the meaning of the concept of "marginal", examples can be found in various areas of life:

• a vagabond who has neither housing nor work;
• a person who left to seek the meaning of life in India or Tibet;
• hippie, denying social hierarchy;
• world traveler living on the road;
• drug addict;
• hermit, asocial person;
• freelancer and any "freelance artist" not bound by corporate conventions;
• a bank robber who breaks the law and is forced into hiding;
• a multimillionaire whose lifestyle is significantly different from the vast majority of the representatives of society.

In a word, everyone who does not fit into the so-called "correct" social behavior can be called outcasts. Over time, the meaning of this term has changed significantly.

From social bottom to special group

By the end of the XX century. the term has lost its original, sharply negative meaning. Such phrases as “marginal literature”, “marginal theme”, “marginal culture”, “marginal movement”, “marginal worldview” began to appear in print, television and online media. In these, at first glance, very strange semantic combinations, the changed meaning of the word is manifested.

Now, in many cases, a marginal is a person whose way of life differs from the generally accepted one. Moreover, this can be both a difference with a minus sign (homeless, drunkard), and with a plus sign (hermit monk, billionaire).

It has also become common to use this word in the meanings: “belonging to a minority”, “little-known”, “low-influenced”, “incomprehensible, not close to the majority of society”.

Due to the transformation of the meaning of this term, it is becoming increasingly difficult to give an unambiguous answer to the question of who is a marginal. This word is gradually losing its original, unambiguously negative connotation, approaching a neutral sound. A marginal is someone who (voluntarily or not) does not fit into the traditional way of his social environment.

Marginal properties of items

In addition to the meaning related to human personality or social groups, this term expresses certain properties of the material world. For example, in explanatory dictionaries the following meanings of the adjective "marginal" are described:

• unimportant, secondary;
• insignificant, minor;
• written in the margins (books, manuscripts, etc.).

Foreign words with incomprehensible meanings surround us everywhere, but modern dictionaries help to understand them. So it is with the concept of "marginal", the meaning of which is diverse and often changes depending on the situation of use.