Welcome to the inaugural issue of Othering & Belonging: Expanding the Circle of Human Concern. We are delighted you are here and hope the insights and information you find here will usefully inform your thinking and work. This new publication is produced by the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at the University of California, Berkeley. Our vision is to bring together researchers, community members, policymakers, and communicators to identify and challenge the barriers to a just, inclusive, and sustainable society, and to catalyze transformative change.
This new forum is one expression of our vision. We believe building a world where we recognize and work to meet the needs of all people requires that we promote Belonging and impede Othering. The anchor piece of this first issue, by our Director john a. powell and Assistant Director Stephen Menendian, examines what we mean when we refer to Othering and Belonging. While Othering processes marginalize people on the basis of perceived group differences, Belonging confers the privileges of membership in a community, including the care and concern of other members. As powell has previously written, “Belonging means more than just being seen. Belonging entails having a meaningful voice and the opportunity to participate in the design of social and cultural structures. Belonging means having the right to contribute to, and make demands on, society and political institutions.”
Read Issue 1 on our Othering and Belonging website here.
