AN EXERCISE IN WORLDMAKING 2009 - ISS

140 STEFANIA DONZELLI
that I will consider it relevant. This wariness aims not to “betray” Puntos’
point of view, with which I strongly sympathise.
The triangulation of the sources of data collection finds its justification
in the limits that I will experiment in grasping the different nuances
of Nicaraguan society, determined by my condition as an outsider.
Moreover, in analysing data I will inevitably use interpretative categories
typical of my context of origin, based on my personal experience and
identity. Combining this observation with the idea that a text may be
open to different interpretations (Eco, 1962) makes me evaluate primary
data as indispensable to offer depth and accuracy in this research.
WHICH EPISTEMOLOGY?
Although I consider likely to change my epistemological posture during
the process of researching, at this stage of the investigation I would like
to combine a feminist post-structuralist/post-modern position with elements
of Gramscian thought, more grounded towards a critical realistic
position in the epistemological spectrum. Notwithstanding that I am
conscious of the differences, and sometimes contradictions, of the epistemological
perspectives considered, I will try to make them work coherently,
since both of them have particular virtues that I appreciate.
Post-modernism argues that human beings get to know the world
through language: it is through language that perceived sensory impressions
are communicated, so language becomes the data to analyse in order
to know reality. Cameron states that ‘those claims to data constitute
knowledge for others and with knowledge comes a potential for the exercise
of power’ (Cameron, 2009: 4). This refers to Foucault’s conceptualization
of power/knowledge that Mills explains as follows: “the process
of exclusion that lead to the production of certain discourses [labeled as
facts] rather than others […] is a claim for power… the only between
facts and falsehood is power” (2003: 67-68).
The recognition of the operation of power in the production of
knowledge leads post-modernists to “deny any view of reality that assume
the independence of individual mental processes and intersubjective
communication” (Rosenau, 1992: 110-111). What follows is scepticism
about impossibility of knowledge closure on the past or the future,
rejection of any generalizations and celebration of contextual relativism
(Cameron, 2009).