Conference Report: The New Discovery of Margins: Theory-Based Excursions in Marginal Social Fields

• Main Authors: Babette Kirchner, Jule-Marie Lorenzen, Christine Striffler
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: FQS 2014-05-01
• Series: Forum: Qualitative Social Research
• Subjects: sociology of knowledge; marginal social fields; social constructivism
• Online Access: http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/2195

At this year's spring conference of the Sociology of Knowledge Section of the German Sociological Association, a diverse range of theoretical concepts and multiple empirical insights into different marginal social fields were presented. As in everyday life, drawing a line between center and margin can be seen as an important challenge that must equally be faced in sociology. The socially constructed borderline appears to be highly variable. Therefore it has to be delineated or fixed somehow. The construction of margins is necessary for society in general and smaller social groupings alike to confirm one's own "normal" identity, or one's own membership on the fringes. The different contributions exemplify what was established at the beginning of the conference: Namely that society and its margins are defined differently according to the empirical as well as conceptual focus. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1402148