Why Othering should be considered in research on health inequalities: Theoretical perspectives and research needs

Othering broadly refers to various constructed notions of (non-)belonging and difference that engender marginality and structural inequality. Social-psychological approaches that conceive ingroup and outgroup formations as an interaction between cognitive, emotional, and conative processes are not sufficient to conceptualize Othering. It is important to include the social and historical imprint of Othering and the resulting power relations between ingroups and outgroups. In this paper we demonstrate that a postcolonial-intersectional perspective is needed to understand the social and discursive character of Othering and the historically grown formation of Self-Other power relations. Othering can be understood as a (multidimensional) social phenomenon that requires a critical perspective on difference to analyze the processes of making Others through difference construction.