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

Cultures of Care

OBI is proud to launch Cultures of Care, a collection of profiles of people who are practicing collective care in affirmative, unconventional and even insurgent ways. Click above to experience the project, watch the videos, listen to the podcast, read up on our interviews and essays, and use the learning guides.

Featured Work

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  • Blog
  • May 18, 2022
Six Actions to Make Belonging Real in Tech
What would it take to collectively own our data? How could we regulate the environmental impact of resource-intensive technologies? These are just some of the big questions about technology facing us on a global scale. In our 2021 landscape scan on...
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We're hiring a deputy director!
We're seeking a Deputy Director of Strategy & Program to lead our organization’s program team. The new Deputy will work across the organization to lead, align, and manage the Institute’s programs for greater impact.
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Our Work on Belonging
At its core, structural belonging requires mutual power, access, and opportunity among all groups and individuals within a shared container (such as a society, organization, club, etc). Operationalizing belonging means that all groups and individuals...

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
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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

Bridging to Belonging Case Series

This case series captures real-world examples of bridging to belonging through written cases and podcast interviews. In this series, we analyze a range of breaking moments and bridging opportunities across different scales and contexts, such as schools, movements, governments and communities. They “show and hear” how these concepts play out on the ground. We hear from leaders implementing the work, and individuals who have experienced the transformation of bridging to create belonging.

Featured Publications

inclusiveness index map of the world

Study: Hawaii most inclusive state for 4th straight year; Sweden tops global rankings

BERKELEY: Hawaii is the most inclusive state in the country, a new study from UC Berkeley's Othering & Belonging Institute finds, followed by Nevada and Rhode Island. The rankings for 2021, released Tuesday, gave Hawaii the top spot for the fourth...
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The Structural Racism Remedies Repository

This a repository of policy-based recommendations for addressing structural and systemic racism or advancing racial equity drawn from a vast array of published material.
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A residential Oakland skyline with a HOLC redlining map in the background

What the 2020 Census reveals about segregation

As part of our ongoing research into racial residential segregation, we offer two new reports based on the latest demographic data of the San Francisco Bay Area and nationally using the recently-released 2020 Census. We've also significantly revamped our interactive web tool.
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Explore Othering and Belonging

An illustrated laptop depicts floating shapes and images
  • Video
  • August 12, 2021
Animated Explainer Video Series
Our animated explainer videos break down some of the key principles that guide our work at the Othering & Belonging Institute. Follow the links below to view the videos, to read transcripts of the audio, and to learn more about each concept.
Community Policing
May
16
  • May 16, 2022, 2pm PT / 5pm ET
Community Policing Uncovered: How Surveillance, Displacement and Counterinsurgency Happens in Our Cities
Our communities know how brutal our police systems are and have been rising up to demand new visions of community safety and care.
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  • Newsletters
E-Newsletter Archive
An Archive of past issues of our bi-weekly newsletter.