Week 4’s ‘Power and Inequity in Research’ roundtable evoked in me a passion to combat invalidation of non-western knowledge systems on account of power differentials. It surprised me to note Sociologist Tracey Mcintosh’s discourse regarding societal scrutiny and surveillance over minority demographics pertained to research settings: “Overwhelmingly, the tendency is to have a downward gaze.” In the past, I have associated research processes with the affectation of progressive change to ideology and social practise. The presence of such disparity within research processes is thus disheartening, yet an empowering reminder to utilise alternative research strategies within my own projects.
Daniel Hernandez’s discourse proved to me that dominant research strategies cannot expect to be comprehensive when applied to culturally diverse investigations: “I try to present things in a quantitative fashion when I can … but it privileges a certain type of narrative in regard to fitting things in a box.” I believe that Dr. Nicole Perry exemplified an assimilative approach within her presentation, detailing German cultural appropriation using academic extrapolations from artistic material (Perry, 2006). Instead, I believe discourse and interpretations of Winnetou adaptations and Miss Chief’s visual texts by Native American peoples themselves would have been more pertinent. I do not believe the works of Perry nor Hernandez were successful in conveying research to the class without first fitting their content into an academically palatable framework.
Ann Bartos summarised this issue succinctly: “There are so many truths, and so many ways that we bring these truths to the table”. Given the value placed upon indigenous knowledge systems by each panellist, it stuns me that westernized research methodologies have not been ceded in place of alternative methods already (Jazeel & McFarlane, 2010). If achieved, this might better allow non-western knowledge to be proliferated using culturally appropriate means.
References:
Jazeel, T., & McFarlane, C. (2010). The limits of responsibility: a postcolonial politics of academic knowledge production. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 35(1), 109-124.
Kittel, B. (2006). A crazy methodology? On the limits of macro-quantitative social science research. International Sociology, 21(5), 647-677.
Perry, N. (2006). Karl May’s Winnetou: The Image of the German Indian, the Representation of North American First Nations from an Orientalist Perspective (Doctoral dissertation, McGill University).
