Other

Geography has been by no means alone in the social sciences in viewing marginalized or excluded groups (by disability, ethnicity, gender, lifestyle, sexuality, and so on) as Other; with the implication that they are different from, inferior to, and less deserving than, another group. The categories used to denote different groups rests on the ‘basis of perceived differences based upon certain characteristics. People are laden with assigned meanings and placed into stereotypical categories…These representations are constructed from our partial knowledge of these people, gained through social mediation and the media’ (Kitchin, Geography 84). S. Pile (in S. Pile and S. Keith (eds.) 1997) suggests that society is organized into a series of nested social hierarchies, with different groups ‘othering’, and maintaining power relations over other groups. And the judgements on who is felt to ‘belong’ or felt not to ‘belong’ have important consequences on the shaping of social space.