Pedagogy of ‘Refusing’ – commentary to Siriwardane-de Zoysa, Sreekanta, Mwambari, Mehta and Majumder

Abstract

This commentary is a critical response to the dialogic essay “The unruly arts of ethnographic refusal: power, politics, performativity” that unpacks the complex performances of hierarchies and violence as performed during ethnographic research works in anthropology. During ethno-graphic research works, the encounter between the researchers and the research participants are often underlaid with tensions that either compel the participants to speak in definite patterns to satisfy the demands of the researchers or force the researchers to conduct field works according to the advisable guidelines of the academic institutions, funding agencies and contact persons. On the basis of my personal experiences and the ethnographic experiences of the authors of the essay, this commentary argues how the performance and acknowledgment of ‘refusal’ can be adopted as a research methodology in anthropology and other academic disciplines to counter the colonial/Eurocentric parameters of knowledge production.