The article by Shobha Reghuram creatively combines and adds to previous contributions to the Newsletter by Paul Hoebink and myself. There are many helpful features in her perspective, examples and arguments. For example, she reaffirms the importance of recognizing multiple knowledges and their locations for social change, rather than a single type of knowing. She highlights the critical need to find the ‘right’ level of reductionism for the issue and context at hand. This tricky judgment is needed to avoid the generic and easily prejudicial generalizations, for example, an over-simplified contention of about the merits of mutual support through a state welfare system.
The text is particularly compelling in exposing the ways in which knowledge and language are woven together by those with more power in ways that make articulation of alternatives to mainstream views very difficult. The better methods employed to shape and direct public debates are subtle. Their power is often masked by a superficial respect for ‘other voices’ which still give primacy to the knowledge of experts and the ‘truth’ of scientific interpretations. Teasing out what is really meant requires so much energy that we simply succumb to conventional meanings.
Shobha’s linking of imagination to knowledges and languages is important in putting a finger on an under-explored source of energy and driver of social processes. Imagination is a distinguishing and limitless feature of human development anywhere in the world. The way that communication of knowledges and their translations across languages act as a comparative catalyst to new images spurring action in different locations is therefore an interesting avenue to explore.
Another idea to take these insights forward would be to create a vocabulary of accurate translations of key terms used in ‘aid speak’. What are the literal translations into English of words like participation, project, empowerment, civic, civil society, etc for speakers of Hindi, Vietnamese, Swahili, Hausa, ……..etc? Literal translations can convey significant insights about how images and meanings are constructed by different peoples. This lesson came home to me when a book I had written was translated into Russian. The glossary explaining terms I took for granted required many pages. Even if it will not reduce the pervasive utility of the English language in and beyond aid, such a resource could ‘empower’ by reducing the dominance of Anglo-Saxon concepts and ideas as implicit ‘standards’.
Alan Fowler
Alan Fowler is an affiliate professor at the Institute of Social Studies, honorary research professor at the University of KwZulu Natal, former president of the International Society for Third Sector Research and past board member of Civicus, the Global Alliance for Citizen Participation
Knowledges and languages - a comment
Knowledges and languages - a comment
The article by Shobha Reghuram creatively combines and adds to previous contributions to the Newsletter by Paul Hoebink and myself. There are many helpful features in her perspective, examples and arguments. For example, she reaffirms the importance of recognizing multiple knowledges and their locations for social change, rather than a single type of knowing. She highlights the critical need to find the ‘right’ level of reductionism for the issue and context at hand. This tricky judgment is needed to avoid the generic and easily prejudicial generalizations, for example, an over-simplified contention of about the merits of mutual support through a state welfare system.
The text is particularly compelling in exposing the ways in which knowledge and language are woven together by those with more power in ways that make articulation of alternatives to mainstream views very difficult. The better methods employed to shape and direct public debates are subtle. Their power is often masked by a superficial respect for ‘other voices’ which still give primacy to the knowledge of experts and the ‘truth’ of scientific interpretations. Teasing out what is really meant requires so much energy that we simply succumb to conventional meanings.
Shobha’s linking of imagination to knowledges and languages is important in putting a finger on an under-explored source of energy and driver of social processes. Imagination is a distinguishing and limitless feature of human development anywhere in the world. The way that communication of knowledges and their translations across languages act as a comparative catalyst to new images spurring action in different locations is therefore an interesting avenue to explore.
Another idea to take these insights forward would be to create a vocabulary of accurate translations of key terms used in ‘aid speak’. What are the literal translations into English of words like participation, project, empowerment, civic, civil society, etc for speakers of Hindi, Vietnamese, Swahili, Hausa, ……..etc? Literal translations can convey significant insights about how images and meanings are constructed by different peoples. This lesson came home to me when a book I had written was translated into Russian. The glossary explaining terms I took for granted required many pages. Even if it will not reduce the pervasive utility of the English language in and beyond aid, such a resource could ‘empower’ by reducing the dominance of Anglo-Saxon concepts and ideas as implicit ‘standards’.
Alan Fowler
Alan Fowler is an affiliate professor at the Institute of Social Studies, honorary research professor at the University of KwZulu Natal, former president of the International Society for Third Sector Research and past board member of Civicus, the Global Alliance for Citizen Participation