Marginality in the Social Order

Abstract

We have argued in this book that a materialist understanding of the individual must centre upon two aspects of the ensemble of social relations of which the person is constituted: the performance of labour and the incorporation of ideology. Through the economy, the family and the state, the individual is prepared for and maintained in productive and reproductive activity. For the great majority of adults this involves the selling of their labour power and the performance of domestic and nurturing activity which contributes to the reproduction of labour power. For a particular minority of capitalists, and their representatives, personality is formed from the activity of capital accumulation and reproduction and the ideology appropriate to such activity. But there are other minorities which we have not yet considered in our discussions. These minorities (some extremely large and growing) might be characterised as being outside the mainstream of productive activity and/or social reproductive activity. We might distinguish two kinds of minority here, both of which are on the margins or periphery of the central imperatives of the social order.