Social theories refer to various opinions and arguments that intend to explain how and why human societies come to be formed, change and develop over some time. Wright Mills and Georg Simmel were both social theorist who tried to explain how different factors affected society. Mills documented his work in the book, White Collar: The American Middle Class, while Simmel’s work on the theory of the stranger is found in the book, Soziologie. This essay will be a comparative and contrasting essay that will discuss various factors that define the two theorist's works. Among the major points addressed include the definition of the main character referenced in each of the theories (the salesperson and the stranger). Nonetheless, the essay will focus on the main characteristics that define the two characters before proceeding on to discuss the various roles and effects the characters pose in their respective environment.
A salesperson is a person who assists a customer to attain a certain commodity. Mills book on White Collar Worlds talks about social alienation in the modern world (Mills, 1951) . in the book, Mills focus on explaining how the personality market arises when employees' services are traded for money. Similarly, Mills argue that the marketing mentality dominates the modern society and that the shift from skills with things to skills with a person; from small informal to large organized firms; and from local markets to large anonymous markets have a significant result in levelling salespersons.
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A stranger is a person with whom we are unfamiliar with. According to Georg Simmel, a stranger is an individual who is in constant relation with the individuals of the particular group. However, they remain distant from other members of the group as they do not belong to the group initially ( Stoetzle, 2020) . The stranger possesses characteristics that are distinct to those portrayed groups (Simmel, 1971) . Furthermore, Simmel argues that a stranger is far different from a wanderer because a stranger has the main intention of maintaining their presence.
In contrast, the wanderer comes today and goes tomorrow. The state of being categorized as a stranger is mainly determined by the specific level of nearness and extent of fairness they have with the group's individuals with whom they maintain their presence. Simmel identifies that a stranger is considered near to a group if they possess the same characteristics that make up the group like nationality language or social position. However, the stranger is referred to as being far from a group if the common characteristics possessed not only define the group but further connect many great people.
The two theories compare because both of the characters presented, the salesperson and the stranger, have common characteristics that define them. Wright, in his theory, explains that the supply and demand market define how a salesperson should be at a particular time. Thus some of the major characteristics that define a salesperson include: they should possess good traits like friendliness and kindness furthermore a salesperson should maintain a positive mental attitude, have the power to oppress thoughts that cannot substantiate into ideas.
Salespersons are quick character analyst as they are trained on the various methods of approaching a client (Mills, 1951) . Mills adds that for a salesperson to attain the above characteristic, they are required to constantly practice on sharpening their minds as this is the main instrument used in all sales activity. Mills also explains the method of how to maintain a positive attitude where he states that the best time to fix a positive idea into the subconscious mind is before going to sleep.
Simmel on his side, identifies that Strangers possess various common characteristics that identify and separates them from other native members of a group (Simmel, 1971) . Some of these defining characteristics include mobility. In explaining the concept of mobility Simmel argues that, since the stranger is not bound through developed bonds of kinship, locality, or occupation with any group members the stranger has the freedom and ability to come into contact with every single factor that propels for the group's unification (Levine, 2017). Another common characteristic is the stranger confronts all the factors that constituent and dispositions the group with an objective attitude. In explaining this concept Georg states that since the stranger lacks common ties to the group which could affect their perception, understanding and assessment of data, then the stranger has the freedom and ability to treat even his closest relationships in a neutral and unbiased way.
A comparison arises between Mills theory on the personality market and Simmel’s theory of the stranger as the two theorists explain that the character they represent in theory, the salesperson and the stranger both have a specific role that they are entitled to perform. In Mills theory, the salesman role is to ensure that they bridge the gap between goods that are mass-produced with the large anonymous urban market (Mills, 1951) . Mills explains that the personality market requires that the salespersons should possess a range of personality traits like courteousness, self-control, be positively minded, and be friendly when handling clients or customers. This personality trait intern affects on the sells realized and the increase in the level of loyalty between the employer and employee.
Simmel, on the other hand, perfectly illustrates to us that strangers also have special roles that they carry out. These roles arise due to the unique position they hold in a group. One of the roles of strangers is the ability to participate in foreign trade effectively (Simmel, 1971) . Trading has the potential of opening up untapped resources; furthermore, trade allows for the exchange of knowledge when compared to native group members who relied on their known circle of customers and who are bound to an area; thus they lack mobility; thus strangers become more suited to perform trading activities because of the freedom they possess (Bathon, 2018). Due to their objective nature in performing their activities, strangers are more suitable to proclaim judgement on group members.
Contrast is evident in how the stranger in Simmel's theory is treated to the way a salesperson is treated in Mills theory. Mills explains that by being an employee, one accepts the fate of allowing themselves to be controlled by the supply and demand markets (Rousselle, 2019). Being submissive to the market forces the employee to sacrifice their time, power, and energy and further sacrifice themselves to a multitude of customers or clients. The sacrifice allows the salesperson to change into an instrument of their appearance and personality. An example to support this argument is the illustration of a salesgirl in the store (Phillips, 2019). The salesgirl has to maintain a constant smile while serving the stores customers furthermore the sales girl has to maintain a friendly attitude in addition to being polite. The management, on the other hand, employs personnel shoppers who check-up and make reports on the salesgirl personality.
Mills also shows a contrast between his theory and that of Simmel in the point of how the salesman is treated. He explains that the salesman is treated positively as they are further educated on the ways of reducing the distance factor between them and their clients (Smith, 2017). The main agenda for educating the salesman is to increase the familiarity between the salesperson and the customer as they are strangers to each other (Mills, 1951) . Wright furthermore provides methods of how sells persons are educated on the various personality skills that are required for the personality market.
Example of the methods provided by Mills is: people have resorted to taking personality courses so that they can increase on their levels of friendliness, courtesy and how they can genuinely show interest to their clients or customers when delivering services. Also, public schools have resolved to include the teaching of personality trait in the school curriculum ( Pyyhtinen, 2016) . By teaching personality traits to students, schools directly influence the personality market by supplying it with personnel who have the required traits. Likewise, institutions like the one in Milwaukee have been established to teach employees on the art of pleasant, courteous prompt and efficient services.
Simmel's theory, on the contrary, only shows the negative effects that can arise in how a group treats a stranger. Since the stranger is treated as being indirectly related to the group, although, in contrary, they are direct members of the group (Simmel, 1971) , their presence provokes for a rise in tension which builds up in-group members. This tension results in people overlooking the common qualities they may have with the strangers and thus focus more on the differencing factors that the stranger possesses, which might be common with other strangers. This negative treatment results in the strangers being treated as non-individuals or aliens. An example of the effects of negative treatment is the story of the Jews who lived in Germany ( Hjortshøj, 2020) . The Jews, although being residents of the land were required to pay a definite tax amount while other people paid, a varied amount of taxes that were calculated from what they owned. German society viewed Jews as strangers; thus, they were differently treated.
In conclusion, the salesperson can be viewed as a superior evolution of the stranger. In this case, they are equipped with techniques that allow them to reduce the gap between the differentiating factors which result in a person being referred to as a stranger while increasing their familiarity and nearness to a group. This concept has clearly been explained by the above theorists’ works.
References
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Hjortshøj, S. B. (2020). Boundaries of the Stranger: Rootlessness and the Jewish Question in texts by Georg Simmel, Georg Brandes and Henrik Pontoppidan. European Journal of Scandinavian Studies , 50 (2), 335-354.
Levine, D. N. (2017). Simmel’s Stranger and His Followers. In Social Theory as a Vocation (pp. 101-116). Routledge.
Mills, C. W. (1951). The personality markets. In C. W. Mills, White Collar: The American Middle Classes (pp. 182-188). Oxford: Oxford university press.
Phillips, B. (2019). Sociology’s Next Steps?. Contemporary Sociology , 48 (4), 382-387.
Pyyhtinen, O. (2016). The Real as Relation: Simmel as a Pioneer of Relational Sociology. The Anthem Companion to Georg Simmel , 101-120.
Rousselle, D. (2019). On Strangers. In Jacques Lacan and American Sociology (pp. 61-75). Palgrave Pivot, Cham.
Simmel, G. (1971). The Stranger. In G. Simmel, Individuality and social forms. Chicago: Unversity of Chicago Press.
Smith, G. (2017). Georg Simmel. In The Interactionist Imagination (pp. 41-70). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Stoetzle, M. (2020). Strangers who are from here: Georg Simmel. In Beginning classical social theory . Manchester University Press.
