I am struck by the observation shared by one of our CARE team members while doing fieldwork. He shares his observation of a popular activist blogger talking to a migrant worker. The blogger, let's call him Ben, talks condescendingly to the worker, hurriedly collecting his story, recording it, and making notes to put up the story on his blog. The worker story fits nicely into the critique that he wants to offer of the violations of worker rights. He hardly spends ten minutes in jotting down the story before moving on to the next injured worker with the next story. Ben's attitude toward the migrant worker is a top-down attitude, one that reflects his colonial mentality. He has already predetermined what he wants to find. He has a conceptual map that he wants to lay on the life of the worker. He therefore picks and choses specific stories that fit within this predetermined framework. The worker becomes the story. His body becomes the narrative account that fits into the
This blog offers Mohan Dutta's reflections on the theoretical framework of the culture-centered approach, examining the interplays among Structure, Culture, and Agency in shaping marginalisation and the ways in which communities at the margins challenge structures. Writings on the blog are continually being revised to reflect the organic analysis of structure and agency.