Sociologie cizince: prožitek jinakost

Currently the theme of the relationship to the other and to foreigners as representatives of otherness in the sociál world has become a centrál focus of attention in philosophy and sociology, and especially the philosophy and sociology of postmodernism. With only slight exaggeration we could speak of the emergence of a new sociological disciplině, for which Georg Simmel laid the foundations at the beginning of the last century and which has been developed by such figures as Alfred Schutz, Norbert Elias, Zigmunt Bauman, Julia Kristeva and Tzvetan Todorov – i.e. the sociology of the foreigner. Their works include analysis of the foreigneťs experience, and they agree on six basic features characterising the figuře of the foreigner. First and foremost the foreigner is not tied to any geographic place. By losing home and roots, he also abandons his past and so becomes a „person without a past“. A foreigner is also a person who does not understand – either the language, models of behaviour or rules of the new culture. This can, however, bring him certain advantages: greater freedom and objectivity in his view of the others and society. The foreigner is also characterised by his low sociál status and often by the specific forms of economic activity reserved for foreigners in a given society.