The term othering is used to describe prejudicial actions towards a specific individual or group of people who do not fit in with one’s own social norms. Simply put, it describes the formation of majority and minority groups.
As quoted in an article by Other Sociologist Dr Zuleyka Zevallos, Polish sociologist and philosopher Zygmunt Bauman wrote, ‘Woman is the other of man, animal is the other of human, stranger is the other of native, abnormality the other of norm, deviation the other of law-abiding, illness the other of health, insanity the other of reason, lay public the other of the expert, foreigner the other of state subject, enemy the other of friend’.
The apparent problem with othering, is that society then constructs a stereotype for these groups of ‘others’ with positive or negative associations. Therefore, according to commentators othering is a contributing factor to racism, sexism, ableism and any other ‘ism’ you can think of.
Why do people engage in othering?
It has been suggested that people may engage in othering due to a prehistoric, natural instinct to form close groups and protect themselves from the threat of outsiders in order to survive. The term for this natural response is in-group bias, which is expressed in the evaluation and treatment of others.
Today, participation in othering can often be caused by social influences, poor education, personal beliefs and biases or culture.
What is interesting is that, in many cases, people ‘other’ individuals who they do not actually know. Of course, there are cases where people ‘other’ those who they do know – such as students at school, or colleagues in the workplace.
Examples of othering
Let’s consider the workplace. Examples of othering could include:
How to create an inclusive workplace
An interesting article by Edutopia – a website published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation – promotes ‘upstander culture’ in schools.
Upstanders, the opposite of bystanders, are those who interrupt othering in the form of negative or harmful behaviour and bias speech. This concept could also be applied in the workplace, with a leader or person in charge taking on the role of upstander.
Edutopia uses the following example of a pattern of upstander behaviour:
Interrupting hurtful speech.
Engaging in conversation with the offender to let them know that what they said is hurtful.
Offering them an opportunity to reconsider their words.
Reinforcing positive behaviour.
Encouraging peers to speak up as an upstander, rather than allow the behaviour as a bystander.
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