Theoretical discussions on imaginations of strangeness and otherness

This study focuses on the concepts of the other and the stranger conceptually and theoretically. In the study, many articles in which otherness is studied in a related way such as modernism, nation-state and subjectivity are included. Later, the otherness ideas of Herbert Mead, Social Identity Theorists and Jürgen Habermas are included. Due to the flexibility of the concept of the Other, it provides perspective to see many usage forms of the concept. In addition, specifying the relation of otherness with the socialization process, group consciousness and nation-state state shows the usage areas of the concept. The views of Richard Sennett, Zygmunt Bauman, Robert Ezra Park and Georg Simmel are included on the concept of stranger. These theorists used the concept of stranger at various levels, different from the concept of the other, and also embodied the concept of stranger in a theoretical/terminus sense. The study, which touches on the background of the concepts of the other and the stranger with the concepts of category, representation and stereotype, later included the use of the concepts of other and stranger in the postgraduate studies in the field. Therefore, in this study, it is emphasized that the concepts of category, representation and stereotype are similar to the concepts of other and stranger. Afterwards, the study was carried out on what the concepts are by focusing on the existing studies in the literature on otherness and strangeness. As a result, the differences between the concepts of the other and the stranger are mentioned. These differences have revealed results such as the stranger being non-dominant, being involved in interactions with sharper boundaries than the other. In this study, it is aimed to touch on the differences in the meanings of the concepts. Along with the theoretical discussion, the study was carried out on the boundaries of the concepts of other and foreigner in the field of social sciences.