As such ‘we’ cannot belong to any group unless ‘they’ (other people) do not belong to ‘our’ group. It just so happens that such criteria are socially-constructed (that is, created by societies and social groups). Just as when we formally join a club or an organisation, social membership depends upon fulfilling a set of criteria. Identities have some element of exclusivity.

Ideas of similarity and difference are central to the way in which we achieve a sense of identity and social belonging.

We adjust our behaviour and our self-image based upon our interactions and our self-reflection about these interactions (this is also known as the looking glass self). Mead’s work shows that identities are produced through agreement, disagreement, and negotiation with other people. George Herbert Mead’s classic text, Mind Self and Society, established that social identities are created through our ongoing social interaction with other people and our subsequent self-reflection about who we think we are according to these social exchanges. These social categories shape our ideas about who we think we are, how we want to be seen by others, and the groups to which we belong. Social identities reflect the way individuals and groups internalise established social categories within their societies, such as their cultural (or ethnic) identities, gender identities, class identities, and so on. Rather than talking about the individual characteristics or personalities of different individuals, which is generally the focus for psychology, sociologists focus on social identities. Identities are often thought as being natural or innate – something that we are born with – but sociologists highlight that this taken-for-granted view is not true. In order to understand the notion of The Other, sociologists first seek to put a critical spotlight on the ways in which social identities are constructed. This is because the representation of different groups within any given society is controlled by groups that have greater political power. The idea of ‘ otherness’ is central to sociological analyses of how majority and minority identities are constructed. I will also include examples and resources for people interested in learning more about otherness. This page provides a sociological definition of otherness and how it works in societies.

Imperialism 2 paul the tall