SOCIAL AND CULTURAL OTHERNESS - DIFFERENT IATING THE EXPERIENCE OF OTHERNESS AMONG EAST-GERMAN ACADEMICS

This article takes Simmel's classic text Der Fremde as a point of depa rture for a systematic differentiation of the experience of otherness. Otherness is considered here as a specific form of social relationshi ps, which can be characterized by the simultaneous presence of categor ies like near and far, together and apart. Within such a complex relat ionship the experience of otherness can reveal positional and cognitiv e dimensions. The experience of cultural otherness, centered on the en counter with a different order of reality, belongs to the cognitive di mension. The ''meaning of otherness'' of this type may be experienced by the individual as is pragmatically unfamiliar and may lead to assim ilation or delimitation. Social otherness is revealed in a positional dimension, which is determined by an experience of not belonging; a pe rson or group is positioned beyond the limits of the self. The second part of the article is an illustration and differentiation of the theo retical aspects of the construction of otherness based on interviews c onducted with East German academics.