Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

In our advisee group meeting today (Zhuo Ban, Uttaran Dutta, Vicky Ortiz, and Shaunak Sastry, October 30, 2010), we discussed the idea of solidarity through reflexivity (see Dutta & Pal, 2010. As we participate in culture-centered processes of change, how do we articulate projects of solidarity that work toward change and are simultaneously critical of the dominant articulations of emancipation in global discourses of neoliberalism? How can we create avenues for discussing meaningful local participation in global scapes that celebrates the agency of local participation even as it works toward points of critique, both of processes of neoimperialism and the processes of local hierarchies that carry out the marginalization of the subaltern? Solidarity is at once a journey of friendship and a reflexive process that is critically aware of the locations of power one inhabits and the silences attached to these locations. This critical awareness by turning the lens on the self creates entr...

I am reflecting on a very stimulating conversation I had with a student of mine at coffee today...It was a filled out room, there were other familiar faces, and the tables were situated pretty close by, so we had to somewhat monitor how loud we could get, and also watch our language/content somewhat, given the setting and our topic "Reflexivity, the postcolonial moment, dialogue, and proselytizing missions." This was an extension of an earlier class discussion where I had noted that "I feel more violated when someone is trying to convert me religiously than when a right wing republican says something really offensive about one of my ideals." The discussion in class was fruitful but for the sake of time, we had to move ahead to other topics. Our coffee conversation today was beautiful as it recognized for me once again the potential for dialogue as transcendental...When we explored ideas such as faith, the limits it places on dialogue, the openings it creates for dia...

One of the fundamental tenets of CCA is its struggle against academic opportunism and clientelism that are established in academic structures and the bureaucracies tied to these structures. The critiques offered by earlier CCA projects have continually drawn attention to the middle class elitism and clientelism of mainstream campaigns that continue to use the subaltern contexts as grounds for doing research, gathering data, and publishing papers, without really the commitment to actually listening or making a difference. This albeit is a theme that is continually articulated through CCA projects where communities discuss their marginalization and exploitation in the hands of researchers. It is precisely in this backdrop then that I find myself negotiating the lines of co-optive politics as the language of CCA is turning more toward fundable options. People that trashed ideas of community knowledge or community dialogue are all of a sudden interested in the conversation because there is...

One of the basic arguments of the Subaltern Studies project draws attention to the (im)possibilities of dialogue. There always has to be the acknowledgment that the fundamental essence of dialogue is brought into question by the project. Dialogue therefore is both contingent and fragmented, always open to re-interpretation. And also, it is precisely at this moment of dialogic intersections that the culture-centered approach outlines the relevance of engaging with the dominant structures, of challenging them, or bringing them to question, and of continually finding avenues for structural transformation. The politics of representation that must participate in aggregation in order to bring material change is itself situated amidst fragmented interpretations and dialectical tensions.

Reflexivity is a complex and challenging process, and much easier said than done. It is ultimately played out in praxis, as we negotiate the several points of privilege through which we as scholars secure access to public discourses. Being aware of one's power both as a privilege and as an entry point for change also has to come with an awareness of how one engages this power. The articulation of power in one context might be a positive entry point for change, and yet in another context might constrain the articulations of diverse worldviews. On one hand, listening to the "other" becomes a communicative process for engaging with this power; on the other hand, this act of listening has to be connected with praxis that is directed at change. And it is precisely at that moment of praxis (which is where our continuous commitments ought to be) that we come face-to-face with the tensions and paradoxes imbued in particular courses of action. When we make choices, these choices a...

Mahuya and I just heard today that our piece "Dialog theory in marginalized settings: A Subaltern Studies approach" has just been published as the lead article in Communication Theory . This is a piece that took a great deal of love, care, commitment and honestly, work. We started working on this in 2007, three years ago, and the piece went through many iterations to get to its current form in Communication Theory. As the piece evolved, it also tracked our trajectory as writers/thinkers/collaborators. As we grappled with the piece, we wondered: what really are the possibilities of participating in dialogues with the subaltern sectors, especially when the discourses of possibility, participation, empowerment, and democracy are so often co-opted into the neoliberal framework. The one thing that amazes me the most these days is the gross appeal of terms such as participation and democracy, which have simply become ways for co-opting the subaltern into the profit making agendas o...