[Reader-list] tracing spatial technology

[ritika at sarai.net]

Dear Muthatha,

Hello,  I am scribbling some of my random thoughts.

I liked your rather short but thoughtful posting on the list.However, 
it'll be nice to read some of your own process that you've been 
following for producing this set of knowledge. I mean the range of 
people u're inteacting with, how forthcoming they are in talking, do u 
also follow some exclusionary and inclusionary methods for deciding whom 
to interact with, the work environment, the NGO.

Further, i am not too sure what methodology you're adopting to follow 
your work, but perhaps it could be of some relevance for you if you 
could follow the life and work of people involved in the entire project. 
The soil scientist seems like a good beginning to deepen the thought 
that you wish to engage with.

The second example seems more like your distillation of observations and 
perhaps also interviews from the field, which also reflect on how 
knowledge is produced. Howveer, it'll be nice to get a sense of how 
'effective' these memory based works have been. What are the 
possibilites of errors in such situations. There would surely be some 
review meetings happening before the 'final' map etc is produced. How 
'careful' are the knowledge producers in such meetings?

Further - are we trying to glorify 'their' work as that of 'knowledge 
producers'? DO they understand what they are doing?Or for them, it is 
just their work?

> My research approach, following some recent work in Science and 
> Technology Studies (authors like Latour and Bowker) is based on the 
> claim that we not make invisible the spaces and actors involved in the 
> technical stages of knowledge production, and instead maintain the 
> linkages from the phenomenon to be represented (e.g. the agrarian 
> landscape) to the objects of representation (e.g. a land use map) and 
> it’s use. 

WOuld it be possible for u to send me the exact reference of the two 
authors u emntioned? Your query is interesting and this article will 
help me as well to understand issues better.

Thanks
In anticipation

ritika