Reflections about one's own positionality in relating to others and making sense of the world - both in being, working, living, but especially in (re)searching - has been a recurring theme in our convivial discussions and engagements over the past years. There's no easy answer, but we feel that being in conversation and challenging each other helps to be self-reflective in a productive and non paralysing manner. If you want to read up, feel free to delve into the website, here and here for example. The latest contribution to the debate features in this week's rai. Julia Schöneberg, Arda Bilgen and Aftab Nasir share pitfalls and challenges of their PhD journey and why power and positionality are central in 'development' research.
Solidarity,
Your Convivial Thinkers
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Have you wondered what raï means? Find out.
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In this week's raï, Julia Schöneberg, Arda Bilgen and Aftab Nasir write on "Why positionalities matter and what they have to do with knowledge production". Reflecting about they PhD journeys and 'field work' experiences, they realise a "lack of confrontation with the centrality of power and positionality in ‘development’ research (or any kind of research for that matter) – and a disregard of the colonial legacy in the way knowledge is created and considered legitimate." Julia, Arda and Aftab point out three issues especially that were the cause of discomfort in their PhD research: 1) The seperation between the West and the Rest, 2) The production of 'development experts, 3) The difficulty of being insider, outsider, or both.
The blog post first appeared on DevelopmentResearch.eu. Please check them out, too! |
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The Reading Group starts a new book on 28 April. For the next couple of sessions we will read and discuss bell hooks' 'Feminist Theory". Everyone is welcome!
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This workshop was planned for March, but had to be postponed. So, if you'd missed it before: no is your chance to join. Registration is open.
The workshop builds on an ongoing blog series seeking to explore how postdevelopment approaches can inform, infuse and potentially transform the study of EU (development) policies and relationships with the Global South. The aim of the series and the workshop is to stimulate thinking about different imaginaries of ‘another Europe’ and alternative role(s) the EU could/should play, inspired by insights from postdevelopment thinkers.
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