Paul George, MAHA alumnus (2018) recently published a story, “Who is local?” on CDA Collaborative’s blog. Paul reflects on his early career experiences in India and discusses how he sees the localization agenda playing out. His post begins:

“My first paid job was doing research on the post-conflict recovery strategies of communities in India’s remote northeast, which has a history of insurgencies and ethnic violence. When I went to those communities, I did so with a translator, looked nothing like them, and understood nothing of their culture beyond what I learned in my literature review.

My lived experience as a 22-year-old man from southern India with a Master’s degree was closer to someone living in a middle-income European country than someone who lived a subsistence lifestyle deep in the forests of Assam, looking after his slash-and-burn crops and young family. Despite all of this, and the fact that our homes were separated by 3500 kilometers, the fact that we were both Indian citizens qualified me as a “local” researcher/actor…”

Read the full post here.