Centre for Discourse Analysis
May 14th, 2007
Methodological, Conceptual and
Theoretical Reflections when doing
Research among/with Ethnic Minority
Groups
Annette Kanstrup-Jensen
Centre for Development and International Relations
Faculty of Social Sciences, AAU
1
PhD:
”Development Theory and the
Ethnicity Question – The Cases of
the Lao People’s Democratic
Republic and Thailand”
(Research Framework: Education and
Human Development)
2
Indigeneity:
”Indigenous populations are composed of the existing
descendants of peoples who inhabited the present
territory of a country wholly or partially at the time
when persons of a different culture or ethnic origin
arrived from other parts of the world, overcame them,
and by conquest, settlements or other means, reduced
them to a non-dominant or colonial situation; who today
live more in conformity with their particular social,
economic and cultural customs and traditions rather than
with the institutions of the country of which they now
form a part, under a state structure which incorporates
mainly the national, social and cultural characteristics of
other segments of the population which are
predominant”
(Karena Shaw 2002: ”Indigeneity and the International”, Journal of
International Studies Vol.31 No 1,pp.55-81)
3
Methodological Reflections
”reversals in learning”
”have you come to ask me, normally they come and tell us what to do”

(Sohtou, Ban Houaytoumay, Lao PDR)

“ whose side are we on”
- authenticity in the relationship
- trustworthiness
- the dichotomy of knowledge
- power equalisation
- ethics
- political process
4
Conceptual Reflections:
The Dichotomy between Western Paradigms and Indigenous
Epistemology
1.
Cultural ethnocentrism:
Modern
traditional
(”stereotypification” of non-Western cultures)
(linguistic and conceptual ignorance of non-Western cultures)
(reification of researched groups)
2.
Epistemological ethnocentrism:
Education equates schooling
(de-legitimisation of non-Western learning)
(hierarchy of knowledge /horizontal vs. vertical ordering of
different but equally valid systems)
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Theoretical Reflections (1)
”Theory is always for some one, and for some purpose”
(Robert Cox)

Marginalised populations groups
Heterogeneity in so-called developing countries
“Human Rights
Rationale Theories”
_________________________
1.
Why do established theories fail to explain the situation of
indigenous peoples?
2.
How do ideas from grounded theory offer help in re-visiting the
concept of theory?
6
Theoretical reflections (2)
Ad 1)
 conceptual and cultural arrogance
 atomisation of modes of explanation
Ad 2)
 the raison d’être of theories is about making sense of the
world
 collected data constitute the pivotal point in any study
(not how but who should build the theory)
7
How to avoid a methodological, conceptual
and theoretical void ?




de-colonisation of development theories
dissolution between theory and methodology
validation of indigenous discourses (endogenous..)
accept of cultural heterogeneity as a counterhegemonic
reality
”…pour qu’ils aient du contact avec la civilisation”
(General Director of Primary Education, Lao PDR)
“…il ne faut pas les laisser dans des musées”
(Vice-minister of Education, Lao PDR)
8