Comp. by: LElumalai Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 9781405132879_4_P Date:1/4/09
Time:15:20:45 Filepath:H:/00_Blackwell/00_3B2/Gregory-9781405132879/appln/3B2/re-
vises/9781405132879_4_P.3d
has come under strong critique, not least
within anthropology. However, attentiveness
to the quality of relationships necessary to
access contextual knowledge, the central
concern of participant observation, remains
central to a post-positivist or hermeneutic
social science.
Michael Burawoy (see Burawoy, Burton,
Ferguson and Fox, 1991) frames participant
observation against bothpositivismand cul-
turalrelativism, as a method defined along
two axes: a scientific or theory-data axis,
which arrays objects from self-evident to sub-
jects of theoretical scrutiny, and a hermeneutic
axis, which arrays ‘observer’ and ‘observed’
across a range from estrangement to immer-
sion. Burawoy stresses the importance of
choice in locating oneself across both axes in
the process of ethnographic research (seeeth-
nography). Self-consciousness about location
in both these senses is crucial in analysis of
what Donna Haraway (1991c) callssituated
knowledges: products of perpetually tenuous
relationships that cannot be resolved by claims
to objectivity through familiarity or the crypto-
religiosity of omniscient science.
Burawoy’s analytic can be pushed farther by
asking how objectification on the scientific axis
presumes the translation of only some aspects
of local knowledge into ‘universal’ science,
through specifically raced and sexed practices
of intimate affiliation. As Hugh Raffles (2002)
eloquently argues, most local knowledge
remains in the not-universal, not-scientific,
ethnographic context: a realm of intimate
knowledge that is embodied, spatialized,
affective (seeaffect) and relational. Raffles’
challenge is to represent this broader affective
geography through attention to multiple forms
of participant theorization, on differentiated
terms set by unequal access to broader intel-
lectual, social and spatial resources. A key
challenge of participant observation today is
to find ways of representing the political eco-
nomic, cultural, textual and affective resources
through which knowledge is actually negoti-
ated in context. This method can then defend
the way in which specific products of partici-
pant observation become scientific evidence,
not through Malinowsky’s suppression of sub-
jugated knowledges, but through norms of
accountability that contend with the unequal
conditions of production of scientific know-
ledge. Such an approach also allows for
ongoing claims to responsibility and redress
for human subjects and their geographies,
through evidence that explicitly shows reliance
on the nature of ‘participation’. scparticipatory democracy A system of gov-
ernment in which those being governed partici-
pate directly in decision-making and/or policy
formation. It is contrasted with representative
democracy, in which those being governed
elect representatives to an assembly that takes
decisions on behalf of the voters. Participatory
democracy is usually thought to have origin-
ated in ancient Athens, where decisions were
made by an assembly comprising all citizens.
Although full participatory democracy is diffi-
cult to implement for large populations, popu-
lar participation in decision-making remains
an aspiration for many social movements.
However,communityparticipation in govern-
ance has also been criticized for its association
with neo-liberal policies (Herbert, 2005). (See
alsoradical democracy.) jpaSuggested reading
Barber (2004).partition Inrecenttimes,theideaofpartition
(connected to the interaction between compet-
ing diverse notions of statehood and nation-
hood) has attracted fresh attention as the
inevitable, though not ideal, solution to pro-
tracted ethnic conflicts. Before the First World
War, partition was a tool of the empires, divid-
ing territories between themselves or using
them to strengthen their rule. After the war,
partition took place either in the devolution of
authority granting independence tonationsor
as a solution to ethnic conflicts perceived to
be irreconcilable. Even then, the ‘solutions’
proved to be volatile and precarious since the
territoriesthey created were not culturally
homogeneous, as the partition of Palestine
through the creation of the state of Israel or
the successive partitions of India and Pakistan
(with East Pakistan eventually becoming Ban-
gladesh) have shown. In the ‘short partitions’,
such as Vietnam and Germany, the nationalist
journey might succeed without much difficulty,
whereas in the ‘long partitions’, (marked by a
long history of the politics ofothernessand its
persistence) the nation often fails thestate.
The project of harmonizing the nation with
the state becomes nearly impossible.
According to a critical geopolitical perspec-
tive, ‘partition’ is not the end (product) of a
geopolitical conflict or rivalry but, rather, a
means of resolving or managing that conflict,
accepted by various parties either as a matter
of choice, or due to persuasion or pressure. In
other words, partition is to be seen not as an
inevitable consequence of actual or imagined
predestined differences but, rather, as aGregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_P Final Proof page 520 1.4.2009 3:20pmPARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY