“Interactive production” as a decolonizing methodology

Abstract (English)

This presentation proposes “interactive production”--a concept derived from theories and practices of sociality in a rural Mexican community--as a contribution to efforts at decolonializing methodologies. Through my ethnographic research in Tepetlaoxtoc, Mexico, I learned of a practice of production that is inherently interactive and social: actions and value are created through a working-together in which people motivate the actions of others. This interdependence results in products without individual ownership. Moreover, processes and their sociality are valued over final products. I will suggest that this theory and its practice could be adopted by anthropology and other academic disciplines to help rethink our methodologies and move beyond certain colonialist and capitalist binds. For example: how to bring together the divergent trends in anthropology--and in particular of the anthropology of Mexico--of focusing on connectiveness or political economy versus difference and cultural or ontological particularities. In interactive production, connectiveness is unimaginable without difference and vice versa: an other is not an object, but rather a subject that can only be “seen” or “known” through interaction. Further, productivity can only be realized through interaction with a different other. Also, the proposal would be applicable to not just what we do in the field, but in the academy as well, helping to break down this false dichotomy. In this sense, interactive production constitutes not only an alternative manner of understanding what occurs in our field research, but also what we do in our educational institutions and publication processes. In other words, it suggests an understanding and practice of academic work that looks beyond the illusions of individual productivity and ownership derived from capitalist ideology. In contrast to the academy’s ever-increasing obsession with productivity conceived as things displayable on individuals’ CVs, Tepetlaoxtoc’s residents would quickly point out that all that we do, including writing, publishing and teaching, involves the interactive efforts of multiple people. The application of this proposal would mean fighting for a change not just at the disciplinary level of how we understand what we do in the field, but also of the whole academic project: a considerable but necessary challenge in efforts at decolonization, but one potentially aided by this concrete ethnographic example.