[Reader-list] tracing spatial technology

[Punam Zutshi]

Hello Muthatha!

Read your mail with interest especially when you write :

<<<  However a preliminary thought is that processes of making data or
knowledge available is linked to
the epistemology and cultures of practice/learning/memory…
In following different stages in the production of knowledge reasons for
choices about representation, documentation and sharing such as cultivating
an interpretive process of knowledge productive, or one that relies and
values memory are revealed. Studies that focus solely on institutional
aspects and the politics of representation generally tend to point to power
and control as factors that influence choices in the production of
knowledge. I am not arguing that power is not an important variable in my
case, but instead that paying attention to the details of actual practice of
knowledge construction yields other insights that are valuable for a more
enabling process of knowledge sharing.>>>

Let me think aloud : I think that the focus on knowledge construction is
very important and that the account of the soil scientist provides for
interesting ethnography,
as do your reflections on the culture of memory that the scientists
stressed.

But for the big picture to emerge it may be important to keep records of
1)  the problem areas/controversies/differences within the group
2)  the differences between competing paradigms

The thought experiment that needs to be carried out is :  What will fall
outside the expert's frame of analysis? That is to say what are the kinds of
features that the soil scientist will not draw upon, regardless of the tacit
knowledge that he possesses.Figuring out this tacit knowledge will be task
enough, but you will be able to establish the boundaries of his paradigm.

You speak about knowledge that empowers : could you provide an example?

Foucault allowed us to see that discourse rests on non discursive
practices.The so called agenda, the project that guides the soil scientists
/GIS groups would be a lynch pin in the analysis.You are aware of the
questions of power but what are the implications of the exercise being
carried out in your field of study?

Clarification : What is the relationship between the exercises of  soil
classification undertaken by the soil scientist and the remote sensing
agencies ? Is there a division of labour? What happened to traditonal
/native comprehensions of the soil or the cosmos? Is this something that has
somehow fallen out of the exercise?

Regards,

Punam