An award controversy

Anthropology, architecture, and the robustness of knowledge

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2391037
AutoresStewart Allen (0000-0003-0079-0738, Max Planck Institute for History of Science, Berlin, Germany, autor de correspondencia)
Año2014
Volumen19
Número2
Páginas169-184
Fecha de publicación2014-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1359183514522121
OpenAlexW2008219674
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas29

Despite the universal presence of architectural forms in human societies, architecture, as a serious topic of anthropological enquiry, has been somewhat overlooked by the discipline as a whole. This article draws upon an anthropology of architecture as 'process' to explore the controversy involved in a disputed architectural award presented to a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Rajasthan, India. The author follows the manner in which the actors involved in the controversy define and construct the situation, in the process bringing to light normally overlooked aspects of development and architecture. In this conceptualisation, the built form is imagined as neither exclusively social nor material but rather processual, in which the currents and paths of myriad relationships turn static constructions into complex spaces of conflict and negotiation. The article concludes that only by paying attention to the material forms of such processes can we account for how certain narratives triumph over others

Construct (python library · Epistemology · Linguistics · Narrative · Negotiation · Process (computing · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Computer Science · History · Philosophy · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Architecture