Learning how to see development faithfully from another’s point of view: An essay on the study of the development episteme and technology in the (post)colonial world

Abstract

How might we faithfully study power relationships and how they construct the development of technology in the (post)colonial world? In this essay, I first discuss visions of the development episteme, then how these visions are operationalized through international organizations and development aid, and finally suggest an analytical approach that may help us scrutinize and decompose hegemonic narratives that are used to justify these visions and initiatives. I propose the perspective of situated knowledges as a complementing lens to vernacular systems and technology-in-use for the study of everyday life practices with and in technological systems. When we “learn how to see faithfully from another’s point of view” (Haraway 1988: 583), I suggest that we are better equipped to envision the multitude of visions and meanings of global and local development.