A cutout of john powell speaking at an event, his arms are raised and forward in a slight gesture. Behind him is a circle made of OBI's colors.
WE ALL BELONG IN THE CIRCLE OF HUMAN CONCERN

Othering is the problem of our time. Belonging is the solution.

The Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley advances groundbreaking approaches to transforming structural marginalization and inequality. We are scholars, organizers, communicators, researchers, artists, and policymakers committed to building a world where all people belong.

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Featured Content

African Just Transitions

In our research for this paper, we focus on how African climate, agri-food, and environmental organizations are combating the drivers of the climate crisis, managing the impacts of the climate crisis, and forging strategies to build climate resilience.

Featured Work

john a powell speaking
  • Video
  • April 8, 2023

john a. powell at Bioneers: 'We need a more complex story'

In an April 8 keynote at the Bioneers conference in Berkeley, OBI Director john a. powell spoke about the importance of recognizing our interconnected relationship to both nature, and fellow humans. Against the separations that society has...
Illustration of a teacher drawing figures on a whiteboard
  • Blog
  • March 28, 2023

Equity vs. Equality: What's the Difference?

There is a clip of US Senator Bernie Sanders making the rounds from a recent episode of Bill Maher’s HBO program, in which the host asked Senator Sanders to distinguish “equality” from “equity.” Senator Sanders explained that “equality” refers to...
Illustration

California Reparations Task Force: A Collection of Expert Testimonies

Here we have gathered the complete collection of presentations and testimonies given before the California Reparations Task Force, which have been organized by topic because we think teachers, students, researchers, community activists and others will find incredible value in these videos and written statements.

Areas of Work

The faculty, staff, researchers, and affiliates of the Othering & Belonging Institute work together with multidisciplinary approaches to learn, research, and construct solutions for society's most pressing issues. Our programs and initiatives are all designed to effect transformative change.

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Areas of Work

The faculty, staff, researchers, and affiliates of the Othering & Belonging Institute work together with multidisciplinary approaches to learn, research, and construct solutions for society's most pressing issues. Our programs and initiatives are all designed to effect transformative change.

SEE ALL AREAS
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Arts and Cultural Strategy
People targeted by facial recognition software
Technology & Belonging
Illustration of two hillsides — one tinted blue, one green — descend on a waterway from opposite sides. The hillsides are close but do not touch; instead, they are connected by a small bridge.
Bridging & Belonging
Painting of indigenous people belonging to the Lummi Nation looking to the horizon. The figures at the foreground face away from the viewer, and we see colorful traditional garb. In the background is a dim, blue-grey body of water and a thin line of mountains far beyond.
Climate Justice
Flattened stylized illustration of three people — one woman with black hair, another woman with a white hat and brown hair, and a Black man with cropped black hair — all wearing masks with smiles printed on them.
Health
Watercolor illustration with the earth at the center with various foods — chicken, corn, peppers, mangoes, and so on — revolving around it. We see mostly South America, Africa, and the Atlantic Ocean as well as partial views of Europe and North America.
Food Systems
The San Francisco Bay is reimagined in a temporally collapsed manner; in the foreground, indigenous Ohlone people gather on marshland and in boats, smoke from fires rising above their village. In the background, we see the present-day skyline of San Francisco filled with skyscrapers and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Housing
microsite banner islamophobia
Islamophobia
Close-up illustration of a large hand writes with a pencil; four small figures including one person in a wheelchair hold the hand up
Narrative Power
An illustration featuring tens of people ascending an escalator at four different levels. The escalator zig-zags left and right, alternating at each level. The illustration is on a bright yellow background and blue foreground.
Targeted Universalism
Featured Content

Zoning Reform Tracker

The Othering & Belonging Institute is proud to launch the Zoning Reform Tracker, which is meant to serve as a hub for documenting zoning reform efforts across the United States. There are two components to the Zoning Reform Tracker: a sortable database, and an interactive webmap.

Featured Publications

Image grab from structural racism video.

Structural Racism Explained

The “Structural Racism Explained” video draws upon many varied sources in formulating specific definitions for different types of racism. The video and prompts provided in this video and teaching guide are designed primarily for teachers to help students clarify and sharpen their understanding of the material.
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Mini graphics illustrating the 13 crises described in the essay

Deconstructing the 'Housing Crisis'

For a several years now I’ve observed with growing alarm, then despair, as California’s housing woes—astronomical prices, skyrocketing rents and rates of annual appreciation, knee-jerk opposition to new housing, an epidemic of displacement and...
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Rebuilding Public Power

This 90-minute workshop dives into the history of how corporate power is organized in the United States and contemporary cases of how growing corporate power has rolled back successful gains in democratic rights, environmental justice, migrant...
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In the Media

Homeless man in Anchorage

Bloomberg News: Biden Administration Adopts Targeted Universalism in Homelessness Plan

The Biden administration has adopted a philosophy known as targeted universalism, a concept that originated at the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley. A 2019 primer by Stephen Menendian, Wendy Ake and Haas Institute director john a. powell...
New Pluralists logo

New York Times: This Group Has $100 Million and a Big Goal... To Fix America

This past summer, they brought together a group of grantees for a retreat in Atlanta in an attempt to foster relationships among them. They included the civil rights thinker john powell of the Othering & Belonging Institute and Rachel Peric of...
Housing crisis scale

The New York Review: A Housing Crisis in Paradise

California is embarking on this somewhat unorthodox arrangement because it is mired in a historic housing crisis. That statement is so obvious and widely repeated that it can sound trite—and yet it still somehow understates the gravity of the problem...