Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

1) Should sites of participation happen as Habermas suggested, with equal participants in a rational discussion, or as Bhabha suggested, through intersections of control and resistance? What would those sites look like? How can we create them? 2) Is is possible to un-co-opt an organizational space for resistance after the mainstream neoliberal (or other dominant structure) has co-opted it?

The readings from week four had two distinct branches for me. One dealt with the construction and negotiation of pain, and the other with the need for participation and solidarity to improve life. How do we negotiate pain? For a vast majority of us, it may be safe to say that we think of the physical aspect of pain when we think about it. One can easily point to the location of pain, as in arms, legs, stomach etc. But can this pain be actually objectified? Most people would agree that we cannot see pain. Can pain be pin pointed? Perhaps not. Then how are we constructing it as a physical element? If we take a more post positivist approach we can perhaps define pain as electrical impulses to and from the brain. In that case, why do we not consider pain as a brain manifestation? I witnessed first hand the tendency among the Western doctors to quantify pain - tell me on a scale of 1 to 10, where your pain is right now. I wonder how effective such a statement can be, as it is easy to poke h...