ABSTRACT
Ideas of difference and otherness have been central to feminist and postcolonialist debates and have attracted much attention in contemporary social policy and theory (Hetherington and Lee 2000). In a western world concerned to embrace diversity and multi-culturalism, it has become de rigueur to stand for all-embracing inclusion and recognition (Charles Taylor 1992). Under such inclusionary embrace, otherness seems to dissolve into a play of differences to be celebrated or remedied. Thus in the discourse of recognition, otherness is imagined either as an unfortunate position (a ‘less’ or lack) from which the Other no doubt wants to be saved, or as a resource (a ‘more’) to be preserved, cultivated, and added to the range of skills, cultural artefacts and experiences that make up the economic and social wealth of organizations or nations (as in the discourse of diversity popularized in the management literature, or of multi-culturalism ‘our’ western nations are keen to embrace). For example, women’s otherness within the context of work organizations has been imagined as a ‘lack’ (of confidence, or assertiveness) for which help is at hand in the forms of various special training or support facilities; or as an additional set of skills (‘soft skills’) that will make a valuable addition to organizations’ resources. In all cases, otherness calls for examination. It is assumed that if we could only break it open, strip the veil of otherness, differences could be understood, nurtured, or remedied, and the ‘Other’ could join ‘us’, maybe even be grateful for the privilege.
