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...

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...