Introduction: The Social (Re)production of Diversity

As a mutual constituent of sameness, otherness defines belonging by demarcating the boundaries of what is similar and acceptable against what is different and, eventually, unacceptable. Mobilized to establish the limits of inclusion and exclusion, otherness transforms over time depending on contextual relations of power. As such, through history, selected groups of people have come to be represented as dangerous ‘others’ – and eventually as a threat for everyone else’s safety and security. Accordingly, while minorities had both to adapt or resist marginalization and exclusion, others concurrently reinforced their political, economic, cultural and social positions of power through their strategic mobilization of alterity.