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59-436: The presence of a stranger can throw an established social order into question, "because the stranger is neither friend nor enemy ; and because he may be both". The distrust of strangers has led to the concept of stranger danger (and the expression "don't talk to strangers"), wherein excessive emphasis is given to teaching children to fear strangers despite the most common sources of abduction or abuse being people known to

118-436: A social contract . Social theorists (such as Karl Marx , Émile Durkheim , Talcott Parsons , and Jürgen Habermas ) have proposed different explanations for what a social order consists of, and what its real basis is. For Marx, it is the relations of production or economic structure which is the basis of social order. For Durkheim, it is a set of shared social norms. For Parsons, it is a set of social institutions regulating

177-488: A Christian family may celebrate Christmas . Other cultural differences such as language and cultural rituals identify members of different status groups. Smaller groups exist inside of one status group. For instance, one can belong to a status group based on one's race and a social class based on financial ranking. This may cause strife for the individual in this situation when they feel they must choose to side with either their status group or their social class. For example,

236-441: A central government's control. These stable expectations do not necessarily lead to individuals behaving in ways that are considered beneficial to group welfare. Considering this, Thomas Schelling studied neighborhood racial segregation. His findings suggest that interaction can produce predictability, but it does not always increase social order. In his researching, he found that "when all individuals pursue their own preferences,

295-558: A concept is unknown, such as describing a contentious subject as "no stranger to controversy," or an unsanitary person as a "stranger to hygiene". A stranger is typically represented as an outsider, and a source of ambivalence , as they may be a friend, an enemy, or both. The word stranger derives from the Middle French word estrangier , meaning a foreigner or alien. The boundaries of what people or groups are considered strangers varies according to circumstances and culture, and those in

354-635: A form of corporatism whose proposers affirm or believe that corporate groups should form the basis of society and the state. This principle requires that all citizens belong to one of the various officially designated interest groups (usually on the basis of the economic sector), the state also has great control over its citizens. The term statism is sometimes used to refer to market economies with large amounts of government intervention, regulation or influence over markets. Market economies that feature high degrees of intervention are sometimes referred to as " mixed economies ". Economic interventionism asserts that

413-747: A museum. We need to teach our kids things are actually going to help them if they are in trouble." This was echoed by sociologist, and director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center, David Finkelhor , writing in The Washington Post : We'd do much better to teach them the signs of people (strangers or not) who are behaving badly: touching them inappropriately, being overly personal, trying to get them alone, acting drunk, provoking others or recklessly wielding weapons. We need to help children practice refusal skills, disengagement skills and how to summon help. In their review of

472-487: A preference for strangers if they are near their own age. However, this preference may reverse in situations which include fear-producing stimuli. The severity of stranger anxiety may be affected by individual temperament, capacity for self-regulation, and caregiver anxiety. Stranger anxiety may be mitigated through a number of techniques, including positive interaction between the stranger and companions, and arranging for familiar surroundings. For older children, instruction

531-492: A room that is hot and crowded, have been shown to increase negative attitudes toward strangers. Laboratory evidence has indicated that individuals are likely to behave less modestly when meeting face-to-face with strangers, when no friends or acquaintances were present. As explained by Joinson and colleagues, "they tend to present more of their ideal self-qualities to strangers than they do to friends." However, this appeared to be reversed when two strangers met one another online in

590-506: A society abides by a set of personal values or the group's norms all the time. For this reason, it is generally deemed necessary for a society to have authority. The adverse opinion holds that the need for authority stems from social inequality. In a class society , those who hold positions of power and authority are among the upper class . Norms differ for each class because the members of each class were raised differently and hold different sets of values. Tension can form, therefore, between

649-565: A stranger is someone who is neither one's friend nor acquaintance. Although they overlap, the two meanings are not synonymous: a stranger is often a foreigner, though not necessarily (he may live just around the corner); most foreigners are also strangers, though not necessarily (one can have foreign friends). Foreignness implies passports and questions of citizenship or national belonging, in addition to evoking personal feelings of acceptance or rejection (“how exotic, how foreign” or “foreigners keep out!”). Strangerhood can also involve legal status, but

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708-516: A wealthy African American man who feels he has to take a side on an issue on which the opinions of poor African Americans and wealthy white Americans are divided and finds his class and status group opposed. Values can be defined as "internal criteria for evaluation". Values are also split into two categories, there are individual values, which pertains to something that we think has worth and then there are social values. Social values are our desires modified according to ethical principles or according to

767-594: Is Oprah Winfrey, an African American woman from poverty who worked her way to being a billionaire. Two different theories exist that explain and attempt to account for social order. The first theory is "order results from a large number of independent decisions to transfer individual rights and liberties to a coercive state in return for its guarantee of security for persons and their property, as well as its establishment of mechanisms to resolve disputes," as stated in Theories of Social Order by Hechter and Horne. The next theory

826-679: Is a civic nationalistic ideology, but it is an ideology that reduces Hong Kong 's autonomy and justifies the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party . Also, Soviet nationalism in the 20th century combined civic nationalism with [state] authoritarianism. Japanese ultranationalism (ex: Shōwa statism ) is often described as "state ultranationalism" ( Japanese : 超国家主義 ) because it values state unity around Emperor of Japan . Italian fascism and Francoism are also classified as types state nationalism. Kemalism can also be referred to as Turkish state nationalism . State feminism

885-475: Is a nationalism that equates 'state identity' with ' nation identity ' or values state authority. 'State nationalism' is considered a form of ' civic nationalism ' and there are similarities between the two, but this also has to do with illiberal, authoritarian and totalitarian politics; Italian fascism is the best example, epitomized in this slogan of Benito Mussolini : "Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato" ("Everything in

944-809: Is an acquaintance or family member. According to one estimate, "classic stranger abductions" accounted for only 0.014% of total missing children annually in the United States, or about 14 per 100,000. Furthermore, of all abductions by non-family members, the majority (59%) were of teenagers, rather than children. In similar statistics reported by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), only about 1% of abductions were from non-family members, while 91% of those abducted were classified as endangered runaways .   This has led to calls to de-emphasize stranger danger, as Nancy McBride of NCMEC told NBC News , "let's take stranger-danger and put it in

1003-426: Is another form within the spectrum of statism. Authoritarian philosophies view a strong, authoritative state as required to legislate or enforce morality and cultural practices. Totalitarianism is that which prefers a maximum, all-encompassing state. Political theory has long questioned the nature and rights of the state. Some forms of corporatism extol the moral position that the corporate group, usually

1062-399: Is gained on the basis of merit or in other words by achievement and hard work or it can be ascribed, which is when a person position is assigned to individuals or groups without regard for merit but because of certain traits beyond their control, such as race, sex, or parental social standing. An example of ascribed status is Kate Middleton who married a prince. An example of achieved status

1121-497: Is generally more weighted toward the affective: the “stranger in our midst” is not always a foreigner; he or she may carry our pass- port and still be considered—both subjectively and by others—as not belonging, not “one of us” (or, from the stranger's point of view, “one of them”). According to Chris Rumford, referencing the work of sociologist and philosopher Georg Simmel, "people who are physically close by can be remote and those who are far away may in fact be close in many ways". With

1180-490: Is generally referred to as stranger anxiety or stranger wariness. According to one review, the reaction to strangers may differ somewhat according to gender. While there were no gender differences observed at three months of age, girls appeared to exhibit stranger fear at an earlier average age than boys, at about eight to nines months old, although boys quickly caught up, and examinations of nine to 17 months old recorded no differences. Studies have shows that infants tend to show

1239-741: Is indeed crucial information in the evaluation of strangers and others about whom one knows very little. It is the kind of information that strangers quickly glean from one another as they size one another up and anticipate future interactions. It is the kind of information that people fall back on when they know little else about the other who is being observed. Infants will generally be receptive to strangers until after they achieve object permanence and begin forming attachments . Thereafter stranger anxiety typically emerges, and young children will normally exhibit signs of distress when presented with unfamiliar individuals, and will tend to prefer those with whom they are familiar rather than strangers. This reaction

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1298-444: Is not related to me by blood or marriage, not a member of my tribe or ethne, and not a fellow citizen." Another asserts that "[i]t has been argued by many a philosopher that we are all strangers on earth, alienated from others and ourselves even in our own country". The state of being a stranger may be examined as a matter of degrees. For example, someone may be a partial stranger in cases where they are unable to communicate, or another

1357-401: Is often provided in schools and homes on so called "stranger danger". This often stems from public fears regarding stranger offenders, individuals who may approach children in public places with the intention of abduction or abuse , possibly due in part to their perception of children as vulnerable targets. Statistically, children who are abducted are much more likely to be taken by someone who

1416-623: Is often used in reference to Soviet-type economic systems of former communist states and, by extension, those of North Korea , Cuba , and the People's Republic of China . Critics of state socialism argue that its known manifestations in Soviet-model states are merely forms of state capitalism , claiming that the Soviet model of economics was based upon a process of state-directed capital accumulation and social hierarchy. Politically, state socialism

1475-431: Is often used to designate any socialist political ideology or movement that advocates for the use of state power for the construction of socialism, or to the belief that the state must be appropriated and used to ensure the success of a socialist revolution . It is usually used in reference to Marxist–Leninist socialists who champion a one-party state . State nationalism, state-based nationalism, or state-led nationalism

1534-504: Is smaller religions based in the U.S., such as the Amish . Many Amish live together in communities and because they share the same religion and values, it is easier for them to succeed in upholding their religion and views because their way of life is the norm for their community. In every society, people belong to groups, such as businesses, families, churches, athletic groups, or neighborhoods. The structure inside of these groups mirrors that of

1593-443: Is that "the ultimate source of social order as residing not in external controls but in a concordance of specific values and norms that individuals somehow have managed to internalize." also stated in Theories of Social Order by Hechter and Horne. Both arguments for how social order is attained are very different. One argues that it is achieved through outside influence and control, and the other argues that it can only be attained when

1652-406: Is that people associate social honor with the place a person occupies with material systems of wealth and power. Since most of the society finds wealth and power desirable, they respect or envy people that have more than they do. When social honor is referred to as social status, it deals with the rank of a person within the stratification system. Status can be achieved, which is when a person position

1711-478: Is the doctrine that the political authority of the state is legitimate to some degree. This may include economic and social policy , especially in regard to taxation and the means of production . While in use since the 1850s, the term statism gained significant usage in American political discourse throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Opposition to statism is termed anti-statism or anarchism . The latter

1770-449: Is unable to understand aspects of an individual, their perspective or experiences. Alternatively, one may be a moral stranger to another who acts "out of fundamentally divergent moral commitments", even though the person may be a close friend or family member. A stranger with whom a person has previously had no contact of any kind may be referred to as a "total stranger" or "perfect stranger". Some people who are considered "strangers" due to

1829-475: Is usually characterized by a complete rejection of all hierarchical rulership. Statism can take many forms, from small government to big government . Minarchism is a political philosophy that prefers a minimal state such as a night-watchman state to protect people from aggression , theft , breach of contract and fraud with the military , police and courts . This may also include fire departments , prisons and other functions. The welfare state

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1888-554: The State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State"). In the East Asian cultural sphere , including China , "state nationalism" and "statism" are both written as 國家主義, making the distinction between the two unclear. Also, in the East Asian cultural sphere, state nationalism is often contrasted with ethnic-based national liberation movements . Chinese state nationalism

1947-423: The absence of friends, which elicited the most modest self-presentation, more so than online interactions with strangers conducted in the presence of friends. In willingness to disclose information, researchers have identified what has been dubbed the stranger-on-the-train phenomenon , wherein individuals are inclined to share a great deal of personal information with anonymous individuals. This may be influenced by

2006-408: The broad social territory between strangers and intimates. The term was coined by Karen L. Fingerman and further developed by Melinda Blau, who collaborated with the psychologist to explore and popularize the concept. A stranger is not necessarily a foreigner , although a foreigner is highly likely to be a stranger: A foreigner, the dictionary tells us, is someone not from one's own country, while

2065-401: The certain knowledge that neither of us would see each other again. This may be helpful in eliciting self-disclosure in the context of therapy or counseling, and can encourage openness and honesty. However, research also suggests that this phenomenon is mediated by the expectation of future interaction with the stranger. The New Testament Greek translation of "stranger" is xenos , which is

2124-404: The child. A stranger is commonly defined as someone who is unknown to another. Since individuals tend to have a comparatively small circle of family, friends, acquaintances, and other people known to them—a few hundred or a few thousand people out of the billions of people in the world—the vast majority of people are strangers to one another. It may also more figuratively refer to a person for whom

2183-437: The conglomeration of populations into large cities, people now have a historically high propensity to "live among strangers". Adopting a statist view, strangers may be seen as a chaotic challenge to the order imposed and sought by the nation-state , which is then faced with the challenge of assimilating the stranger, expelling them, or destroying them. Although this view may overlook important issues of what authority defines

2242-400: The existing social structure is accepted and maintained by its members. The problem of order or Hobbesian problem , which is central to much of sociology , political science and political philosophy , is the question of how and why it is that social orders exist at all. Thomas Hobbes is recognized as the first to clearly formulate the problem, to answer which he conceived the notion of

2301-405: The fields of sociology and philosophy in a variety of broader contexts. According to sociologist and philosopher Zygmunt Bauman , every society produces its own strangers, and the natures of "strangeness" is "eminently pliable [and] man-made". Alternatively, Lisa Atwood Wilkinson has written that "[b]y definition, whoever is a stranger to me is someone who is not a philos: a stranger is a person who

2360-404: The group, we associate with: friends, family, or co-workers. Norms tell us what people ought to do in a given situation. Unlike values, norms are enforced externally – or outside of oneself. A society as a whole determines norms, and they can be passed down from generation to generation. An exception to the idea of values and norms as social order-keepers is deviant behavior . Not everyone in

2419-541: The heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt". Some other translations use "foreigner" instead of "stranger". There is a concept in sociological literature of the "professional stranger", the person who intentionally maintains an intellectual distance from the community in order to observe and understand it. The examination of different theories of the stranger has underscored that certain types of strangers develop special powers of observation due to their spatial and social position. ... Theories of

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2478-414: The individual willingly follows norms and values that they have grown accustomed to and internalized. Weber's insistence on the importance of domination and symbolic systems in social life was retained by Pierre Bourdieu , who developed the idea of social orders, ultimately transforming it into a theory of fields. Statist In political science , statism or etatism (from French état 'state')

2537-688: The lack of a formally established relationship between themselves and others are nonetheless more familiar than a total stranger. A familiar stranger is an individual who is recognized by another from regularly sharing a common physical space such as a street or bus stop, but with whom one does not interact. First identified by Stanley Milgram in the 1972 paper The Familiar Stranger: An Aspect of Urban Anonymity , it has become an increasingly popular topic in research about social networks and technologically-mediated communication. Consequential strangers are personal connections other than family and close friends. Also known as "peripheral" or "weak" ties, they lie in

2596-589: The major aspects of the economy , either directly through state-owned enterprises and economic planning of production, or indirectly through economic interventionism and macro-economic regulation. State capitalism is a form of capitalism that features high concentrations of state-owned commercial enterprises or state direction of an economy based on the accumulation of capital, wage labor and market allocation. In some cases, state capitalism refers to economic policies such as dirigisme , which existed in France during

2655-413: The outcome is segregation rather than integration," as stated in "Theories of Social Order", edited by Michael Hechter and Christine Horne. Social honor can also be referred to as social status. It is considered the distribution of prestige or "the approval, respect, admiration, or deference a person or group is able to command by virtue of his or its imputed qualities or performances". The case most often

2714-406: The pattern of action-orientation, which again are based on a frame of cultural values. For Habermas, it is all of these, as well as communicative action. Another key factor concerning social order is the principle of extensiveness. This states the more norms and the more important the norms are to a society , the better these norms tie and hold together the group as a whole. A good example of this

2773-633: The root word of the English xenophobia , meaning fear of strangers and foreigners alike. Strangers, and especially showing hospitality to strangers and strangers in need is a theme throughout the Old Testament , and is "expanded upon — and even radicalized — in the New Testament. In the King James Version of the Old Testament , Exodus 23:9 states: "Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know

2832-474: The second half of the 20th century and to the present-day economies of the People's Republic of China and Singapore , where the government owns controlling shares in publicly traded companies . Some authors also define the former economies of the Eastern Bloc and Soviet Union as constituting a form of state capitalism. State corporatism, corporate statism or simply "corporatism" is a political culture and

2891-471: The sociological literature, Semin and Fiedler concluded that the perception of strangers tends to be based primarily on group membership, and their identity as a member of an out-group , because a stranger is, by definition, not known individually. This may magnify the perceived motives or intentions of the stranger, but may also vary greatly according to the circumstances and the environment. Among environmental factors, physical uncomfortably, such as presence in

2950-430: The state has a legitimate or necessary role within the framework of a capitalist economy by intervening in markets, regulating against overreaches of private sector industry and either providing or subsidizing goods and services not adequately produced by the market. State socialism broadly refers to forms of socialism based on state ownership of the means of production and state-directed allocation of resources. It

3009-651: The state, is greater than the sum of its parts and that individuals have a moral obligation to serve the state. Skepticism towards statism in Western cultures is largely rooted in Enlightenment philosophy. John Locke notably influenced modern thinking in his writings published before and after the English Revolution of 1688 , especially A Letter Concerning Toleration (1667), Two Treatises of Government (1689) and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690). In

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3068-402: The stranger as Other or foreigner. Social order The term social order can be used in two senses: In the first sense, it refers to a particular system of social structures and institutions . Examples are the ancient, the feudal, and the capitalist social order. In the second sense, social order is contrasted to social chaos or disorder and refers to a stable state of society in which

3127-457: The stranger have alluded to in-between strangers such as ambivalent people, the genius, the marginal man and the cosmopolitan, who develop a type of hybrid knowledge or hybrid consciousness that challenges conventional knowledge... they are professional strangers because there is an unequal one because the construction of meaning and understanding is skewed towards the former. ... These in-between strangers, however, are not always associated with

3186-533: The stranger, and how that determination is made. Interactions with strangers can vary widely depending on the circumstances and the personalities of the people involved. Some people have no difficulty striking up conversations with strangers, while others experience strong discomfort at the prospect of interacting with strangers. At the opposite end of the spectrum, some people are excited by engaging in sex with strangers . Psychologist Dan P. McAdams writes: Knowing where somebody stands on extraversion or neuroticism

3245-407: The stratification system. That is, societies tend to include a hierarchy of status groups, some enjoying high ranking and some low." One example of this hierarchy is the prestige of a university professor compared to that of a garbage man . A certain lifestyle usually distinguishes the members of different status groups. For example, around the holidays a Jewish family may celebrate Hanukkah while

3304-419: The temporary nature of their relationship, and the knowledge that the stranger themselves have no access to an individual's wider social circle . As one author put it, the phenomenon is ironically best described by the words of travel writer Paul Theroux , saying: The conversation, like many others I had with people on trains derived an easy candour from the shared journey, the comfort of the dining care, and

3363-440: The text of 1689, he established the basis of liberal political theory, i.e., that people's rights existed before government; that the purpose of government is to protect personal and property rights; that people may dissolve governments that do not do so; and that representative government is the best form to protect rights. Economic statism promotes the view that the state has a major, necessary and legitimate role in directing

3422-445: The upper class and lower class when laws and rules are put in place that do not conform to the values of both classes. The order does not necessarily need to be controlled by the government. Individuals pursuing self-interest can make predictable systems. These systems, being planned by more than one person, may actually be preferable to those planned by a single person. This means that predictability may be possible to achieve without

3481-432: The whole society. There are networks and ties between groups, as well as inside of each of the groups, which create social order. " Status groups " can be based on a person's characteristics such as race , ethnicity , sexual orientation , religion , caste , region , occupation, physical attractiveness , gender , education , age, etc. They are defined as "a subculture having a rather specific rank (or status) within

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