Can the Subaltern Research? II

Session Submission Type: Traditional (Closed) Panel

Abstract

This panel questions research on ‘the subaltern’ by focusing on processes whereby established theory can reinscribe acts of domination and erasure of options, in a variation on Spivak’s query, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” (1988) We point out three possible entry points: 1) The subaltern researcher. Xavier Polanco (1985) used the expression “domestic brain drain” to identify “a cognitive position assumed by Third World and Latin American scientists, who without emigrating from their countries guide their scientific work in terms of research fronts, reward systems and publication of developed countries.” The ambivalences between simultaneously copying and rejecting the models of European civilization often lead subaltern colonized-colonizers who are approaching modernity to a hindrance. 2) Dialogue with the subaltern. A second entry point comes at the intersection of two seemingly accepted claims within the STS community: “science is capable of dialogue only on its own terms,” and “a respectful enough story is all one needs to go to trial with.” The first will require that subaltern claims to knowledge be expressed and subjected to evaluation following scientific practices. On the second, “respectful enough” means producing a set of inscriptions which, by means of their juxtaposition, stabilize the story as an entity, that is, as something formed by a detachment from of the flux of (an ever moving) reality. 3) Conflicts and limits of authority. A third entry point would be any situation where there is a conflict between the authority of scientific knowledge or fact and the authority of a local popular non-expert knowledge that scientists classify as “mere belief.” On the one hand, the (colonizer) scientist, engineer or project manager is clearly privileged in determining the scientific or technological reality of what is at stake. On the other hand, subalterns may resist and evade the definition of their reality by others in numerous and sometimes quite effective ways. The panel thus welcomes any research that investigates the stakes and dynamics in such encounters between expert and subaltern knowledges and realities.

Sub Unit

• 4S Annual Meeting

Chair

• Anita Chan, U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, ICR

Individual Presentations

• Research Excellence in Africa: Policies, Perceptions and Performance - Erika Kraemer-Mbula; Robert J W Dr Tijssen, Cwts Univ Of Leiden

• "Almost White, Almost Black" in Brazilian Academic Research - Márcia Regina Barros da Silva, Universidade de São Paulo - USP

• Can the Subaltern Propose a New Subject? The Ibero-American Networks on Psy and STS Studies - Arthur Arruda Leal Ferreira, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ); Jimena Carrasco

• The Mapping of Grief in Peixinhos: Combining Story Telling and Geo-Processing Techniques to Confront Official Maps of Violence - Catarina Morawska Vianna, Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar)