Culturalism of Exclusion in an Established-Outsider-Figuration

Abstract

This paper paradigmatically deals with the problem of understanding and explanation of established-outsider-figurations which have been mostly grasped in the dominant research, public understanding as well as political debates under the category ‘cultural differences.’ Further, I am going to evaluate the concept of an established-outsider figuration of Norbert Elias as much more adequate to understand group conflicts and their dynamics in time. In this paper, using the example of the “Sarrazin debate,” I would like to work out how the differences in power ratios could be perceived in an established-outsider-relationship as differences of human beings in terms of their quality as well as their values as groups and as individuals. This connection is conceptualised by Norbert Elias and John L. Scotson as “the logic of the emotions.”