Speaking Without Voice: Participatory Planning, Acknowledgment, and Latent Subjectivity in Barbados

Abstract

As elsewhere, participatory planning in Barbados aims to give more people a say in planning. Yet, there is a difference between people having the opportunity to speak and them having discovered a voice. This article examines the precarious relationship between voice, acknowledgment, and latent subjectivity in Barbadian fisherfolk during participatory planning. It is influenced by Stanley Cavell, pragmatic planning traditions, and postcolonial literature. Structurally, the analysis is split into four sections. First, the theme of fisherfolk exclusion from the west coast of Barbados is contextualized. Attention is given to the Folkestone Marine Park and Reserve (FMPR) participatory planning initiative. Second, the article analyzes how fisherfolk express alienation. A series of examples demonstrate how fishers become victims of their own words, because the signature of their linguistic authority always seems to lie elsewhere, with something or someone else. The causes analyzed include discourses of development and modernity; the culture of Barbados's political independence from the United Kingdom in 1966; a lack of political alternatives; the nature of creolization; Afrocentrism and negritude; how civil servants behave during participatory planning projects; and perceptions of fishing communities. A coherent story builds as the article progresses, of the linguistic authority of fishers' words being beyond their control. Finally, the article analyzes how empirical research influenced pragmatic solutions developed by fisherfolk with the author. These involved working with British High Commissions to change thinking about what Caribbean development consultancy means.

一如其他地方, 巴贝多的参与式规划目的在于让更多人在规划过程中得以发声。但被给予机会陈述意见者和自我发声者之间仍有所差异。本文检视巴贝多渔民在参与式规划过程中, 意见表达、承认与潜在主体性之间的不稳定关系。本文受到史坦利·卡维尔 (Stanley Cavell)、务实规划传统以及后殖民文献所影响, 在结构上分为四大分析部分: 第一部分将脉络化巴贝多西岸渔民所遭受的排他性, 并关注福克斯通海岸公园保留区 (Folkestone Marine Park and Reserve) 参与式规划的创始。一系列的案例将证明渔民们如何成为自身话语的受害者, 因为他们的话语权特征似乎总是位于他处、属于其他的人、事、物。我们所分析的导因包含发展与现代性的论述、巴贝多自 1966 年独立于英国的政治文化、混杂的本质、非洲中心主义与黑人自豪感、公务员在参与式规划方案过程中的表现, 以及渔村的观点。随着本文的发展, 渔民无法掌握其话语权的连贯故事逐渐成形。文末将分析经验研究如何影响渔民与作者共同发展出的务实解决方案, 包含与英国最高专员公署合作, 以改变思考加勒比发展顾问的意义。

Como ocurre en otras partes del mundo, la planificación participativa en Barbados busca mayores oportunidades de intervención de la gente en la planificación. Al respecto, existe una diferencia entre decir que la gente tenga la oportunidad de hablar a que ellos hayan descubierto la manera de hacerse oír. Este artículo examina la precaria relación que existe entre vocería, reconocimiento y subjetividad latente entre los pescadores de Barbados en términos de planificación participativa. El artículo es influido por Stanley Cavell, las tradiciones de planificación pragmática y la literatura poscolonial. Estructuralmente, el análisis se divide en cuatro secciones. Primero, se contextualiza el tema de la exclusión de los pescadores de la costa oeste de Barbados. Se le presta atención a la iniciativa de planificación participativa del Parque y Reserva Marina de Folkestone (PRMF). Segundo, el artículo examina la manera como los pescadores expresan su alienación. Una serie de ejemplos demuestra cómo los pescadores se convierten en víctimas de sus propias palabras, por cuanto la firma de su autoridad lingüística siempre parece encontrarse en otra parte, a cargo de algo o de alguien más. Las causas que se analizan incluyen cosas como los discursos sobre desarrollo y modernidad; la cultura de la independencia política de Barbados del Reino Unido en 1966; una falta de alternativas políticas; la naturaleza de la criollización; el afrocentrismo y la negritud; el modo como los servidores públicos actúan en los proyectos de planificación; y las percepciones de las comunidades de pescadores. A medida que se avanza en el artículo se va construyendo una historia coherente en la que la autoridad lingüística de las palabras de los pescadores aparece fuera de su control. Por último, el artículo analiza de qué manera la investigación empírica influyó las soluciones pragmáticas desarrolladas por los pescadores con el autor. Aquellas implicaron trabajar con las Altas Comisiones Británicas para cambiar el modo de pensar sobre lo que quiere decir la consultoría sobre el desarrollo caribeño.

Key Words:

• Barbados
• participatory planning
• Stanley Cavell
• voice
• Wittgenstein.

关键词:

• 巴贝多
• 参与式规划
• 史坦利·卡维尔
• 发声
• 维根斯坦。

Palabras clave:

• Barbados
• planificación participativa
• Stanley Cavell
• voz
• Wittgenstein

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Patsy Healey, Ali Madanipour, Howie Baum, Jim Throgmorton, Janice Barry, Romola Sanyal, Clive Gabay, Alison Williams, Marcia Burrows, and The Mighty Gabby for their help in developing this article. Particular thanks go to Richard Wright and four excellent anonymous reviewers. Finally, I give a special mention to Kevin Grove, whose critically constructive comments were invaluable. The responsibility for any substantive mistakes is, of course, my own.

Notes

1. Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) PhD studentship 1998–2001 (R00429834850); ESRC three-year Fellowship 2002–2004 (R00271204); United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office regional program “Developing Institutional Capital in the Fisherfolk Communities of the Caribbean” (2003); Research Council United Kingdom Fellowship 2005–2010 (EP/C509005/1); School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Research Fund, Newcastle University (2011).

2. All interviews referenced were conducted by the author, unless otherwise stated.

3. It is beyond this article's scope to address gender. Further study should examine how fishermen seem more willing to express their alienation publicly than fisherwomen. This is while two recent presidents of the Barbados National Union of Fisherfolk Organisations have been women. Any analysis might draw on Lugones's (2007) systematic understanding of gender constituted through colonial and modernity in terms of multiple relations.

4. Mainly Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Togoland, and Dahomey.

5. By comparing Wittgenstein's ordinary language philosophy with Shakespeare, I have elsewhere developed some related ideas on how language can bewitch and hold the listener captive (Pugh 2012).

6. In this regard we found Healey, de Magalhaes and Madanipour (1999) to be useful. They focus on three related ways of understanding capacity building: knowledge, relational, and mobilization qualities. Knowledge resources include four things: the range of knowledge and underlying conceptions shaping the flow of information; the frames of reference; the extent to which these first two are integrated into wider societal relationships; and the openness and learning capacity of relationships to absorb new ideas. Second, relational resources include the range of key players; the shapes of networks and linkages; the extent to which relational webs integrate with each other; and power relations. Finally, mobilization resources emphasize the opportunity structures developed through the instability of governance processes; the arenas where resources and regulatory power lie; the repertoires of mobilization techniques; and the presence of skilled change agents.

7. Covered by Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation Evening News in 2003 and 2004; a series on the Caribbean Starcom Network 2003 and 2004; Smith (2003); and “Six Men's Backbone” (2003).