ABSTRACT
Sociology of the new marginality would examine the negotiation of boundaries between the various institutional orders, the aggregations of resources that make some institutions 'macro', the socialization of new participants in macro versus micro organizations, and the formation of newly politicized interest groups within the macro/micro structure. A sociology that is adequately developed for the analysis of such processes should enable people to use such micro-world resources rationally, rather than expressively only or in a self-destructive way. As twenty-first century sociologists take up the study of the various differentiated social institutions, the important themes for inquiry can be expected to derive from the relationship between macro and micro institutions. The sociology of education will need to portray the contrasts between the formal socialization of the cosmopolitan elite and that of the masses. Marginality can be the setting for what can be termed opaque oppression. Traditional oppression was an overt political practice.
