ABSTRACT
The chapter constructs a quasi-Bourdieusian conception of the stranger. From a Bourdieu perspective, estrangement comes into being in the first instance because of the unequal allocation of capital resources within society. Either the stranger has insufficient capital to enter the social field or their relative lack of capital means that they are unable to secure a position within the field; as such their position is not regarded as legitimate. This chapter explores the link that Bourdieu explores between practice and the precarious life. The term precariat describes a situation of estrangement generated by material and psychological vulnerability, exploitation and lack of security brought about by the changing nature of social inequalities. Strangers are individuals who are on the wrong side of the boundaries of the social field they find themselves in. And estrangement is the classification and placing of the Other as a person on to the other side of the border; a person who should be elsewhere not in their current field.
