| Publication |
2009.
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| Summary/Abstract |
From Hegel to Sartre to Levinas, the 'Other' has populated the pages of philosophy. Gender studies has enlisted the term to denote the manner in which male-dominated culture relates to women. Perhaps most commonly-with Edward Said leading the way-the 'Other' has taken on the meaning of the colonized, the inferior and the alien. The 'Other' has taken its place alongside 'narrative', 'paradigm', 'discourse', multi- and post-most-anything in the de rigueur vocabulary of contemporary social science.
In its common academic sense, 'Others' refer to specific collectives whose characters are clear and delimited-women, homosexuals, ethnic minorities and so on. Being an 'Other' in today's sociological discourse entails belonging to a group with unmistakable traits, a group whose distinct character is the source of the prejudicial treatment it suffers.
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