De-Colonizing the Boundary-Object
通过重新审视边界对象概念，研究英语在国际发展组织报告中的主导地位如何维持新殖民权力关系，基于对印度一家国际非政府组织的多地点民族志调查。
What role does language play in disciplining subjects in the international development sector? Previous critiques of international development organizations have focused on the role of knowledge tools, such as reports, in reproducing dichotomies between developed and under-developed subjects. In this paper, I de-colonize NGO reporting through a reappraisal of the boundary-object concept. I utilize Ngugi’s (1986) problematization of language and translation to demonstrate how the boundary-object is experienced differentially across stakeholder groups and caste/class structures. Using findings garnered from a multi-sited ethnography of an international NGO in India, I examine the prominence of English language in NGO reports over indigenous languages. This paper therefore contributes to contemporary understandings of neo-colonial power relations as sustained by the English language within India.