Intellectual Extractivism. Colonial Data Collection and the Enquête as Encounter

How to account for the social interactions and relationships between surveyed people and observers? By which process do observers extract knowledge from the lifeworld of the people they observe? What kinds of relationships, formats, and encounters mediate between observers and the population they observe? And: Under what conditions are observed people able to express consent or to resist knowledge extraction? All these questions take on quite different meanings when the data are collected in colonial settings. How well does the enquete format travel?

The workshop will approach the enquête in past and present constellations as a specific type of interaction and social relationship, the characteristics of which still require further elaboration. Building on the workshop “Data at the Doorstep” the emphasis now lies with the enquête format overseas. One hypothesis is that the particular relationships established by colonial enquêtes facilitate (intellectual) extractivism. In particular, we will examine the role of intermediaries, go-betweens, translators, “assistants,” and “helping” hands of all kinds who created zones of contact between the observed people and the observers, but who have been invisibilized.