Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

One of the concepts that we have continually discussed in the culture-centered approach is the vitality of communication as the gateway to social change. The idea built into the culture-centered approach is fairly simple: that when communities at the margins that have been historically erased from the dominant structures find a space in mainstream platforms, their wishes and desires no longer remain the sites of erasure. Rather, the articulations of agendas of community members working individually as well as in communities as collectives become the reference points for structural transformations. Voices of community members when engaged in dialogue with policymakers, program planners, and mainstream audiences, offer entry points to change through the creation of nodes of listening in these policy and program platforms. This concept of listening to the voices of subaltern communities as an entry point to achieving change was beautifully elucidated at the PhotoVoice exhibit today that

C u ltural interpretations are both occasioned by and enter arenas of ideological conflicts. As is evident from the initial readings and the different blog posts,  its also about horizons and perspectives. Its about ontologies and epistemologies and what the person subscribes to or has been schooled in or maybe has found a comfort zone in, to live his/ her life.  Spivak brings out some aspects in her essay on politics of interpretation. Her account of Said's mothers' experience with the British authorities highlights a critical point...of interpretation, of your ideology and where you stand. Further, the comments made on her possible reasons for her inclusion/participation, in the Chicago symposium on "The politics of Interpretation" also underscores the cultural politics. In last semester, I mentioned very confidently about FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) in front of my African faculty who exploded in a burst of anger and corrected me passionately saying that I had n

The culture-centered approach discusses the possibilities for engaging in dialogue with subaltern voices. How do we as scholars engage in dialogue with those who have been traditionally silenced by mainstream communication platforms and discourses? How do we engage in dialogue with those subaltern groups whose subalternity is the very product of our existence as academics and our engagement in the academic process? Isn't the very act of academic engagement with subaltern communities marginalizing? What are the possibilities of dialogue when we impose our one-way research methods, data gathering techniques and methods of data analysis in order to explore subaltern voices? What are the possibilities for dialogue in the realm of the very journal articles in which we publish our work and the review processes we go through in order to publish our work? Ultimately, whom does this work serve? What are the opportunities for developing subaltern studies methods that offer opportunities for