Subalternity

The notion of subalternity is associated with the subaltern, in other words marginalized individuals or groups who are disenfranchised because they are not part of the hegemonic power structure of a society or colony. It means belonging to or being the subaltern. The word subaltern has a long history of usage. The perspective of the marginalized, or the study of cultures ‘from below’, has been part of colonial histories and literature from the eighteenth century onwards. The term as it has come to be used today, however, has its origins in Gramsci's writings on the proletariat or working-class struggles. The concept was appropriated in a particular way in post-colonial theory in India by Ranajit Guha, who was highly influential in the development of subaltern studies, offering a new site for scholars to explore studies of nationalism, societies, histories and cultures from below. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, in 1988, broadly referred to subalternity as the interrogation of a voice that could not be heard since it was structurally written out of the imperialist or colonial narrative. While confined originally to post-colonial theory, cultural theory, literary theory, cultural anthropology and nationalism, the notion of subalternity has influenced the nature of research in many other domains of study and research, such as policy studies, developmental studies and sociolinguistics. It is included here since a consideration of subalternity in action research contexts has the potential not only to ensure a critical site for inclusion of marginal perspectives within scholarship but also to give voice and discursive space to individuals and communities that we partner in collaborative research and in the production of co-generative knowledge.

In policy studies, for example, the notion of subalternity may need to be included in the interpretation of data collected from individuals and groups, since it denotes in a particular way the social actors who become the crucial agency that affects and shapes the way a certain social policy is implemented.

In sociolinguistics, and in the study of language policies in multilingual contexts in particular, perspectives on how macro language policies are being implemented increasingly include subalternity as a research variable to gauge the efficacy of implementation in local contexts. A recent sociolinguistic study by Pol Cuvelier, Du Plessis, Meeuwis, Vanderkerckhove and Webb (2010), for example, provided a forum for [Page 738]scholars in different countries to examine language policy implementation in multilingual contexts from the perspective of the subaltern; that is, those who rather than submissively implement policy, modify it, renegotiate it and re(de)fine in on the ground.