Oltre la stigmatizzazione. Verso una sociologia della reazione ad eventi spiazzanti

On the basis of a recent book dealing with this issue, this article illustrates the concept of coping, which defines the discursive and action strategies adopted by actors with the purpose of dealing with, dominating and responding to a stressful life event, represented by a stigma. In particular, it is argued that the concept of coping allows space for questioning a deterministic and reductive concept of social control which only recognises the relevance of the processes and mechanisms of social definition and categorisation realised by the actors of control, and their effects on the moral and relational career of the stigmatised subjects. On the basis of this perspective, the deviant or marginalised person become a mere epiphenomenon of social construction processes. Referring to the concept of coping, on the other hand, means underlining the interactive dimension of processes of stigmatisation, which never move in only one direction, and emphasising the reaction and adaptation strategies used by an actor, who is the victim of a labelling process, in order to counteract it.

Odillo Vidoni Guidoni, Oltre la stigmatizzazione. Verso una sociologia della reazione ad eventi spiazzanti in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL DIRITTO " 1/2003, pp , DOI: