Doing Governance Research at The Northern Ins4tute Charles Darwin University Australia Helen Verran Why research on governance? Why a@empt to reconcile doing data and doing stories? Why re-­‐imagine poli4cs in governance as poli4cs of dissensus? Social engineering of ‘normalising’ Indigenous Australia in a 4me of small government and big economy…. •  Began with “ The Interven4on” 2007 in part a military opera4on (conserva4ve neoliberalism) •  Con4nued and massively expanded under a social democra4c ordoliberalism intervening to invent new markets in services “Close the Gap” •  Radically re-­‐ins4tuted under a new doctrinaire conserva4ve neo-­‐liberalism in 2014. “Indigenous Advancement Strategy” Why research governance? Contemporary Indigenous Knowledge and Governance Provision of services in infra conceptual interven4on—doing stories and mul4plicity •  h@p://www.cdu.edu.au/centres/yaci/ •  h@p://www.cdu.edu.au/centres/groundup/
index.html Develop The North! Develop The North: Invent new markets for provision of development services by the Australian State In the context of normalizing Indigenous communi4es… •  Turn provision of services to Indigenous communi4es in the north into a thriving market economy •  Develop capacity of Indigenous corpora4ons to par4cipate in that market economy •  Develop a market in services to ensure good governance in Indigenous corpora4ons Research (and services delivery) in Governance Capacity Development Services in Remote Northern Indigenous Communi4es •  A huge market in data assemblage services •  A huge market in ‘top down’ governance capacity building services In actuality… amongst public servants there is a recognized need for provision of services in infra conceptual interven4ons…. The recognized need for provision of services in infra conceptual interven4ons…. •  The context in which YACI and GroundUP thrive •  Infra conceptual interven4ons (doing on4cs) insists on stories and the mul4plicity they allow as a crucial informa4on form in good governance •  Does not preclude working with data and its plural singulari4es in good faith (and bad will) A local exemplar of doing ‘Stories and Mul4plicity’ together with ‘Data and Singulari4es’ in good faith and bad will The Governance Research Lunch4me Discussions Collec4ve Enac4ng a Poli4cs of Dissensus in its Governance •  An open forum where researchers and services deliverers focusing on governance are invited to tell stories about their research •  The stated aim is to collect stories told in the mee4ngs together as a book of edited stories to be published as open source •  The stories of researching and delivering services around governance variously narrate doing data or doing stories Re-­‐imagining contemporary governance as a poli4cs of dissensus •  Inver4ng a poli4cs of consensus •  Exemplifying consensus: Rancière’s retelling of the fable of Roman patricians and plebians: “the posi4on of the intransigent patricians [that] there is no place for discussion with the plebs for the simple reason that plebs do not speak” … …contrasted with that of the Roman Senate’s secret council of wise old men who conclude that, since the plebs are now recognizable as creatures of speech, there is nothing leg to do but talk to them… “It is a ques4on of some kind of progressive revela4on that can be recognized by its own signs and against which there is no point figh4ng.” Re-­‐imagining contemporary governance as a poli4cs of dissensus •  social scien4sts cul4va4ng a capacity to work in the infra conceptual (do data and stories together…) •  no guarantee that any interven4on made out of infra conceptual analysis which a@empts to imagine a poli4cs of dissensus recognizing mul4plicity and the role of storying will precipitate a different sort of poli4cs. •  It is perhaps just as likely to render the social scien4st open to being a scapegoat •  Storying and mul4plicity—worked with data and singularity can generate analyses that introduce a dissensual torque into ins4tu4onal collec4ves Thankyou