Otherness

For me, the 'construction' (expectational negotiation) of the 'Other' or 'Otherness' involves two (enclosing) discursive strategies working together:

a) Semantic closure: the assumption that what we say or think about what happens corresponds exactly to what happens, and

b) Separation: the discursive equation of difference as separateness (e.g. the 'them' part of certain kinds of attitude often implicated in the phrase 'them and us')

'Othering', for me, also often involves 'Saming', which relies on a) as well:

c) Saming: the discursive equation of similarity as identicality (e.g. the 'us' part of certain kinds of attitude often implicated in the phrase 'them and us')

So, I don't think of 'otherness' as a necessary aspect of our existence, as people often do when they ground our understandings of anything in 'self-other' relationships, for example. I would also suggest that subject-object (any?) dichotomies tend to rely heavily on the discursive politics of 'othering'. I'm not a big fan of othering.