[P2P-F] an evaluation of the flok

[Andreas Wittel]

I hesitate to comment on this project, as I have only followed this from a
distance. However a good number of comments in this threat make me really
nervous. I am reading that 'seeds have been planted', that the FLOK
research papers can become part of the commons movement in Equador, that
lessons have been learnt and that it is all about doing it better next time.

I'd rather see this as a one-off project and hope sincerely there is no
next time where a bunch of experts are aiming to create profound changes in
a society they are not really familiar with. This is a post-colonial
approach and should be rejected. It is as easy as that.

Every undergraduate anthropology student knows that it is highly
problematic to conduct western research in non-western spaces. This is
about otherness and authority, about who speaks and who is being
researched. All this is common knowledge since the 'writing culture' debate
in the mid 1980s.

How much more dubious and arrogant is the FLOK approach, which was not just
about researching another (indigenous) society, but about so called experts
giving advice for a better living in a country they don't know well. This
is so naïve, it is actually embarrassing. It is us who should learn from
them.

Sorry for these harsh words addressed to researchers that I respect a great
deal. But nobody has made this critique so far. I cringe at the idea that
lessons are being learnt so we can do it better next time. For me this
project was politically and ethically wrong. Digital technologies don't
make localities disappear. Let's please support p2p structures and the
commons movements where we live and where we struggle.

 All best,

andreas
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