I get reminded on a very regular basis, how marginal my research program is to Poli Sci. In a sense, I don’t feel like I have a home in Poli Sci. People ask me regularly why what I do counts as Poli Sci. And yet, even though it is unintuitive to most, it is fairly intuitive to me that my work is deeply political, even if it doesn’t directly concern states. For one, my work speaks to the literature in IR on international norms – development organizations for one spread norms about development and local governance. This also speaks to CP and democratization at the local level through these development organization’s practices. Yet, these norms are emotionally mediated by aid workers and aid bureaucrats, people who are seldom acknowledged by political scientists.
Anyways, even though I am pretty convinced my work is Poli Sci, it still feels extremely unsettling to be asked how what I am doing is PS, and when the narrative revolves not just around certain questions, but certain ways of answering them. Just earlier, I got a serious panic attack as to the uphill road ahead if I were to stay in PS. I think I write this, not to rant, but to reaffirm myself on my place in the discipline.
a moz quixote 