Introduction to Special Section on the Politics of Knowledge in Development

The twenty-first century search of offering alternatives to the hegemonic development paradigm, whilst responding urgently to climate change, seeks to answer a specific question. What kind of knowledge of production in society could possibly be the best to opt for, to develop at this point in history? It is not the first time that this question has either been asked or an answer to it, attempted. Scholarly debates on the relevance and significance of ‘traditional’ or ‘indigenous’ knowledge for development, wherever the failure of modern knowledge was clearly in evidence, had taken place earlier. Then why now, again?

This Special Section of the SIP argues that in the last five decades, or so, several streams of practice on the ground have worked on this possibility to demonstrate a tangible significance of ‘traditional’ or ‘indigenous’ knowledge as ‘alternative’ systems of knowledges to those of the modernist, capitalist knowledges of production and, therefore, deserve careful analysis. Second, that studies of how these have evolved towards contemporary relevance show a complexity of contestations at several levels and spaces that make it possible—namely, historical context, state policy, political economy, collective action and institutions. It is clear from the ground that all of these spaces actually contribute to the making of the epistemology of knowledge systems. Therefore, to understand whether already existing knowledge systems can contribute to contemporary processes of ‘development’ or ‘well-being’, it would be helpful to analyse how all these spaces actually transform or reconstitute them. So the debate on knowledge, which has focused in the main, on the realm of epistemology, needs to extend well beyond that—whether in the natural or social sciences. For this, an analytical frame that enables an understanding, analysis and interpretation of this process of transformation of these knowledges of production through all the above five spaces is required.

The first article offers precisely this, naming it the ‘Politics of Knowledge’, as also offering a new term for ‘traditional’ or ‘indigenous’ knowledge, namely, ‘already existing knowledge’. Using this frame as a point of reference, two articles are offered, each of which will take up a specific knowledge system and present an analysis of how that knowledge has adapted to the contemporary, helping it qualify as an alternative to the modernist/technicist/capitalist ones. These two articles are on seeds and flood management. Each of these has been selected because they are very important aspects of the essentials of people’s lives, forming a core component of ‘development’. They analyse how these five spaces interact in order to produce the structures of power these knowledges are located in. Together, these constitute the arguments of the politics of knowledge in development, though in a summary format. They also provide a framework of how other such knowledges may be studied. The intent is to offer another three articles on three other knowledge systems in subsequent issues of the journal, within the same framework.

On Methodology

Given that these articles are exploring knowledge dynamics in diverse realms, different methodologies to study them are inevitable. The historical context will explicate the manner in which these knowledges were dealt with in the colonial period and the extent to which the post-colonial state broke with or continued those positions. Next then, post-colonial state policies are studied through a discourse analysis of policy documents and implementation, providing analytical insight into the functioning of policy. Political economy perspectives examine the current structures of production (technologies), distribution (markets) and consumption (positioning and pricing) through which these knowledges operate. Finally, the institutional spaces in which the contestations over the epistemology of these knowledge systems are produced are studied through the kinds of research and publications actively promoted, and those neglected. Each of these sections also tries to incorporate a short insight into the probable alternative frames in which already existing knowledges may better operate. Clearly then, the politics of knowledge framework is an inter-disciplinary study, bringing in methodologies and perspectives from different disciplinary stand points, studied through the lens of the political.