Otherness

Relational Process

Otherness is a notion that implies a relationship among the particular qualities of an I and those of an Other, as tacitly realized by the former. These relational qualities, grasped as such by the I, yield up implicit comparisons about similarities and differences that touch their corporeality and consciousness as human beings. At the level of similarities, in the relational process to which the notion of otherness is concerned, each person tacitly knows and feels the other as very similar to him or her with respect to the fact that the Other is also a corporeal, conscious, and self-reflective human being. The similarities with respect to these aspects make possible not only their communication but also and mainly their sharing about what happens to them in their world. However, as part of this same process, at the level of differences, each partner also knows and feels that the Other is very different from him- or herself with respect to those same dimensions: There are differences with respect to their corporeality and consciousness, what sometimes puts each one as a stranger for the Other, in respect to their desires, expectations, values, and actions. Therefore, from the perspective of the differences, otherness puts in doubt the I's and the Other's possibilities of communication and, perhaps more important, of sharing about life events in their worlds. In such a way, otherness may be better understood as a permanent issue touching similarities and differences between an I and an Other.

Contemporary Issues

The issue of otherness is closely linked with other, no less important issues of our contemporary world, for instance, those of constructing personal identities, citizenship, social mobility, and belongingness to cultural and political groups. As argued by Anthony Giddens, in our contemporary societies, the timing of changes is faster and its scope is widest when compared with premodern societies. More important, there is nowadays a rupture in the former tight bonds among time, space, and [Page 1280]people. In terms of our everyday life, this means that we cannot always count on having access to information or being able attend to it. Direct information about important matters is related to us at every moment. Lots of facts concerning us, either being indirect or directly addressed to us, happen simultaneously, in different places, in ways that we cannot follow or interfere with personally. It is what Giddens calls the phenomenon of detanglement or detachment among time, space, and people. As far as this process is yielded and developed by a plurality of persons in many different places, it makes our proper humanity more and more settled in diversity, instead of in sameness. Following Giddens's ideas, we can say, then, that our humanity is being more and more attached and demanded by the process of producing and dealing with diversity, that is, dealing with otherness as a matter of fact in our world.

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