Out of the Native Pigeonhole: Westernness, Knowledge Production, and Symbolic Capital

Several decades ago, Gayatri Spivak asked the pertinent question about whether subaltern can speak. 1 Posed in distinct context of Western colonial empire, her interrogation remains relevant to this day: Can those confined lower rungs an informally hierarchical, Western-dominated liberal international order be expected speak, and heard, ways that respect their agency? The 2020 war around Nagorno-Karabakh raised issue stark relief. In media reports, think tank analyses, seminar conference panels, policy pronouncements, clear hierarchies appeared at play.