On turn on the nineteenth millennium, German sociologist Georg Simmel ([1908] 1971 , 143) canonized the figure associated with the stranger as tied to urban modernity and embodying some setup period and room:
If wandering, considered as a state of detachment out of every considering point in space, will be the conceptual reverse of accessory to virtually any aim, then sociological type the a€?strangera€? provides the synthesis, since it comprise, of both these land. (that is another indication that spatial interaction not just were identifying ailments of connections among guys, but are additionally symbolic of these relationships.)
By uniting a a€?detachmenta€? and an a€?attachmenta€? to area, the complete stranger for Simmel symbolizes the point that someone can be an associate of a bunch in spatial terminology not a member sociallya€”in the group not of it (lumber, 1934 , 45). The complete stranger are a synthesis with the overseas additionally the common, indifference and involvement, nearness and remoteness, in a fashion that can make point crucial but additionally brings a temporal dimensions. The stranger that Simmel has an interest in is not necessarily the a person who goes through, a€?who will come today and goes tomorrowa€? (Simmel, [1908] 1971 , 143), but rather the stranger that remains in the same location, and just who moves within our circles.