‘Learning from below’ is a tried and tired formula, particularly in development. For Spivak, despite its politically correct message, it results mostly in more of the same. Serious and meaningful learning from the subaltern requires an anterior step: learning to learn. I have to clear the way for both me and the subaltern before I can learn from her/him. In effect, this is the on-the-ground application of the above-mentioned unlearning process. It is suspending my belief that I am indispensable, better, or culturally superior; it is refraining from always thinking that the Third World is ‘in trouble’ and that I have the solutions; it is resisting the temptation of projecting myself or my world onto the Other (Spivak, 2002: 6). Spivak cautions, for instance, against assuming that such concepts as ‘nation’, ‘democracy’ or ‘participation’ are natural, good or uncontestable. To impose them unproblematically in the field is to forget that they were ‘written elsewhere, in the social formations of Western Europe’ (1993: 60).Unlearning means stopping oneself from always wanting to correct, teach, theorise, develop, colonise, appropriate, use, record, inscribe, enlighten: ‘the impetus to always be the speaker and speak in all situations must be seen for what it is: a desire for mastery and domination’ (Alcoff, 1991: 24; cf Spivak 1990a: 19). [italics and bold mine]
Reference: Kapoor, I. (2004). "Hyper-self-reflexive development? Spivak on representing the Third World Other", Third World Quarterly, 25 (4), p. 641.
