In this article, Dr Roy Huijsmans describes not only his research into mobilities in rural schooling in Laos, he also considers the value of 'compromised' research - the result of the circumstances and relations through which the research had to flow.
Published in the Journal of Political Sociology, the article discusses research carried out in a northern province in Laos.
Building on insights from mobilities studies and the anthropology of the state and development, the article creates conceptual space for thinking about diverse sets of mobilities underpinning and related to rural schooling and their social effects.
The data show that the diverse mobilities involving different sets of actors related to rural schooling are valued and recognized differently, in part because of their particular relation to constructs of remoteness, the state and visions about rural futures.
Why 'compromised'
The article also considers the nature of 'compromised' research, meaning research that must be carried out in partnership with government partners who bring to the table very different interests and position the research very differently in relation to those one was planning to work with?
Huijsmans sees this not so much as a hindrance but possibly as an opportunity to research the state from the inside out in its practice of government in rural remote spaces.
He argues that in this, mobilities are important. The way district officials talk about their trips to rural schools expresses important power differentials and it is precisely through these trips that the state as a social relation is realised in remote, rural settings.
Read the full article
Rethinking rural schooling in Laos: From a deficit perspective to patchworked mobilities, the state and the trop of remoteness Journal of Political Sociology (2024) Vol. 2 Issue 2.
- Associate professor
