Sociologia distanţei.
Sociology of Distance.

Summary/Abstract: Traian Herseni (1907–1980) was an illustrious personality of the Sociology School of Bucharest. Among Dimitrie Gusti’s collaborators, Tr. Herseni was less than others confined to narrow monographic research and studies; he was equally concerned in general sociology questions and managed to elaborate his own perspective on social life synthesized in a treatise on sociology published posthumously (Sociology. General Theory of Social Life, 1982). The foundation of the treatise was laid by the studies published in the Cluj journal “Societatea de mâine” [Tomorrow’s Society] in the 30s, including the one whose text is given bellow, focused on social distance. Distance phenomena are, according to Tr. Herseni, a significant constitutive element in social relationships. Social distance and the related issues should be approached and analyzed in scientific studies, and become a topic of research in social sciences. As far as social distance is concerned, Tr. Herseni has identified the following categories: 1) space distance, generating issues related to the sociology of space, namely social acts that can be fully or partially understood or explained but by nearness and/or remoteness in space (traveling – ways and means of communication; nearness – social phenomena generated by space proximity: vicinity and its forms of manifestation); 2) social distance, namely the distance between social strata, classes, castes, and various social categories, a purely emotional distance manifested by disdain, envy, class struggle, etc.; 3) personal social distance, that is the distance originating in individual features, generating authority, prestige, fear, submission, etc.; 4) psycho-social distance, an “in reverse” distance, such as manifested in case of respect, love, etc. (master-disciple, master-apprentice, father-son relationships); 5) social distance to strangers, which raises several sociological questions (hospitality, assimilation, boycott, etc.) and, in his opinion, is a kind of fusion of the previous four.

• Details
• Contents