A Study in Xenological Phenomenology: Alfred Schutz’s Stranger Revisited

This keynote takes a fresh look at Schutz’s essay on “The Stranger” of
1944. After a brief reflection on the probably universal topos of the stranger,
it discerns three different kinds of strangeness in that essay: 1. the otherness
of the other and the inaccessibility of the other’s experiences; 2. the strangeness
vs. familiarity of elements of knowledge; and 3. the social acceptance by
the in-group. Then some methodological implications of Schutz’s approach
are pondered, his somewhat hidden offer of an alternative sociology and the
postulate of adequacy. Subsequently, two critical issues are discussed: Schutz’s
handling of values and value-relations and his complete omission of affects
and emotions in spite of all the hardship the (Jewish) immigrants at that time
suffered from. An outlook on future Schutzian research concludes the paper.