Relational Othering: critiquing dominance, critiquing the margins

Abstract

In this paper, I propose a critical approach that attunes attention to networks that connect forms and degrees of Othering, refusals of Otherness, and formations of dominance. I call these networks processes of “relational Othering.” Drawing from anti-racist praxis, critical race feminism, Indigenous studies, and postcolonial theory, I propose three lines of inquiry to critically track relational Othering. I then apply the tool of relational Othering to a contemporary case study of the relations between particular Indigenous nations, Chinese temporary workers, and the Canadian state over liquefied natural gas development. This case study illustrates that relational Othering provides a way to evaluate multiple systems of rule and control that operate for the purposes of variously governing subjugated Others.