Other/Otherness

The classification of Other and the demarcation of Otherness refer to an identification of difference based on race, ethnicity, sex/gender, often under the guise of the exotic and the strange. This Otherness can also be understood (and experienced) as forms of marginalization and exclusion. However, Othering differs from other forms of oppression as it explicitly calls attention to the power dynamics between the person/institution, defining the “Otherness” and the person/place experiences the classification of “Other.” In this entry, Edward Said's writings on Orientalism are used as a starting point for understanding how geographers working on issues of identity, urban space, power dynamics, postcolonialism and feminism approach, study, and critique the process of Othering.

Geography is drenched in imperial representations and colonial mappings of the Other. Explorations ...