LIST OF PANELS

This panel will aim to explore the possible ways in which the practice track of policy works, by enabling a dialogue between academic researchers working on on an issue and experienced practitioners on it, such that a clearer understanding on the manner in which pluriversal knowledges are actually operational on the ground, emerges. For many of these knowledges, there is clear state policy, but how they have been framed and then operationalised are best understood through this kind of dialogue.

What kinds of policies have been framed on the pluriversal knowledge in question and what were the factors that contributed to them? Which voices were not expressed?

What are the striking issues in the operationalising of this policy, which are not normally visible, or discussed?

Given the manner in which pluriversal knowledges have been expected to engage with forces of modernity—whether through overall state policy on the area in which they operate, or industrial technologies of production, new patterns of consumption and distribution, or through academic contestations on their philosophical foundations-- these knowledges have offered significant counterpoints through systematic responses from the ground. The responses have been varied – in at least three ways:  some focused on surviving, even if it in terms set by the forces of modernity, others casting themselves completely within them and others engaging with knowledges of modernity in dynamic and innovative ways. These are trends already visible over the last hundred years, in the work and experience of a large number of practitioners. At today’s point in history, when we are looking for serious pathways to combat the climate crisis, the pathways traversed by pluriversal knowledges provide valuable insights for the future.  

In this panel, given it is for a track on practice, the expectation will be of conversations that cover the gamut of theoretical and empirical issues,  stemming from the experience of the practitioners. It will be designed in a dialogic fashion, between the researcher and the practitioner of that relevant field, guided by an open set of questions, agreed upon by them both.

Already identified possible papers, the titles of the dialogues and the names of authors with their affiliations.

1. Abhishek Handa(PhD, Political Science, Faculty at the NCWEB, DU) in dialogue with G. Harirammurthi (Retd from Transdisciplinary University, Bangalore): The Process of Legitimation for the Knowledge of Local Health Practitioners across India

2. Pankaj Jha (Asst Prof, Motilal Nehru College, DU) in dialogue with Dr. Dinesh Mishra ( activist of repute on floods and water management): Is 'Living With Floods' a Policy Possibility for India?

3. Madhulika Banerjee (Prof DU)in dialogue with Sujata Khandekar (founder of Community Of Resource Organisations, Bombay, India): What lessons do People's Knowledge and Practice Have for Welfare Policies in India?