[Urbanstudy] Re: Nangla Machi

[gaurav dikshit]

Hi, this Nangla Machi discussion is once again threatening to become 
esoteric. With due regards to Nietzsche, as original a thinker as any, let 
me humbly declare a very everyman kind of discomfort with jargon. Some very 
nice people have complained that there seems to be no attempt here not to 
"bore" readers used to different "discursive strategies."
A generous dose of empathy, and a sharply honed ear for the 'la parole' of 
the subject, in this case the poor--can take a field researcher much farther 
than the methodological cul de sacs most of recent critical theory leads 
into. Reflexivity, garbed in a moral texture that is at best ambivalent, is 
being stretched into an ever-growing spiral. hope this obsession with 
"helplessness"  gives way to a much more creative politcal intervention on 
the part of academia.

"The rain persisted like remorse"

gaurav


>From: anant m <anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk>
>To: shveta at sarai.net, Sanjay Srivastava <sanjays at deakin.edu.au>
>CC: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net
>Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] Re: Nangla Machi
>Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 18:59:09 +0100 (BST)
>
>Dear Sanjay, Shveta and Sebastian,
>   I spent a whole year in a less celebrated slum in a less celebrated city 
>and I am now licking my wounds. So I want to press further on two issues 
>that resonate with me.
>   a) messiness can surely be thought about as a strategy of the poor and 
>nobody can stop us from evaluating its effectiveness. but i find it more 
>productive to think about messiness as our conceptual tool. that would be 
>be more modest, but perhaps more useful because the 'poor' I suspect dont 
>give a damn what  WE think.
>   b)  the missing old man is a good instance to think about the politics 
>of  visibility. who is to decide how and when the old man is to become 
>visible ? how would that decision be taken ? for sebastian, naming the old 
>man is the most obvious thing to do. is that how his friends at nangla 
>machi want to do it ? what kind of space are we trying to make him visible 
>in ? what are the ethico-political issues at stake here ? i know these are 
>not questions that can be easily answered over email exchanges, but may be 
>there is something to be gained from these less deliberate acts of 
>reflection and interrogation and of course the concrete details are always 
>quite helpful.
>   anant
>
>
>   shveta at sarai.net wrote:
>   Dear Sanjay,
>
>As long as a quote can compel you to adress your communication to one
>intended, rather than be dismissive, I am satisfied ;) Your claim to
>better reading, incidentally, is humbly accepted :)
>
>
>
>---------------------------------
>To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! 
>Security Centre.


>_______________________________________________
>Urbanstudygroup mailing list
>Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City
>
>To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit 
>https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup