Malini Ranganathan's Paper
In summary, the project seeks to understand issues from where they are occurring. A universal approach of inquiry, instead of a dichotomous one.
We looked at environmental justice and urban political ecology. The differences, of location and theory, teach us as much as the similarities.
The paper contributes to comparative studies and also adds to pedagogical corpus on North-South literature.
It made me think how can our inquiries bring together ideas from different literatures. A recent write-up on necro-politics made me go through many fields. Slave literature, especially work on 'social death'. I looked at 'bodies as instruments' an idea that looks at labor conditions and policy issues. They allowed me to say things I knew I could say but didn't have any 'grounding'. I looked at the distances between what the law says and what people go through in everyday life, so rule-of-law became another aspect that came to use.
An honest engagement with such ideas, in my case, would mean thinking about them during the day. Making them a part of the everyday. Appreciating them, or in some cases, moving past them to other ideas.
Some questions: What kind of theoretical notions does policy benefit from? How does theory lead to a change in the way activists, practioners etc. go about their work?