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The
Philosophy of Progress and Zimbabwe - 'Progress' in Zimbabwe Conference
Amanda
Atwood, Kubatana.net
November 08, 2010
'Progress' in
Zimbabwe Conference index
page
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Speaker:
John Hoffman
Discussants: Amanda Hammar, Colin Stoneman
The opening
session set out to discuss the concept of progress. In his opening
paper, John Hoffman described progress as a "contradictory
notion" and outlined some of the different writing and ideas
around what progress means. Borrowing from Alex de Toqueville's
Democracy in America, he said the progress was a "momentum
concept," one which had a dialectical view and no final, attainable
end. Progress is not about perfection, Hoffman argued, but about
moving towards a goal we will never reach.
Listen
Responding to Hoffman's paper, Amanda Hammar
argued that the concept of progress was not simply "contradictory,"
but "paradoxical." That is, there is a spontaneity of
simultaneous contradictory dynamics and effects. She also said that
progress was a momentum concept - we move forward, but there
is no fixed end point. It is also dialectical - a continuous
progress of struggle, creation, destruction, struggle, and creation
again.
Hammar also
urged the conference to think about the substance of progress, not
just the philosophical idea of it. Different versions of progress,
she argued, have in common the notion of change, but there are different
versions of change. She asked what do we have to confront in different
versions of progress, such as the tangible (livelihoods, incomes)
concerns, spiritual progress, political freedoms and independence,
and scientific notions of progress. When these different ideas of
progress are at odds, Hammar argued, we enter a problematic situation
in which there is a hierarchy of prioritised ideas of "progress,"
and who decides what gets first priority. As active citizens, Hammar
said, we need to encourage collective, open discussion that engages
different versions of progress. We need a process that refuses hierarchies
and polarities that pit one important dimension of progressive change
against another.
Listen
Discussions
from the floor responded to the opening presentation, and also asked
wider questions about the purpose of the gathering, and the idea
of "progress" and how it relates to Zimbabwe today.
For example, Brian Raftopoulos asked people to refect on whether
the discourse that has emerged in the last decade been one of anti-modernity
or contested modernity. This will determine our idea of progress,
and where we're deriving this idea of progress from. He also
asked what has happened to the language of progress and politics
in Zimbabwe over the past 10 years. He pointed out that there has
been a deep fracture between ideas of redistribution and those of
human rights and law, and both sides of that fracture have been
impoverished by the break. He hoped that participants would begin
to find ways to suture those elements in a new language which begins
to speak beyond the present blockages that we have. He asked where
there are elements of agreements, and where does contestation remain.
Where the contestation remains, he asked, how do we resolve it.
Listen
Blessing Karumbidza
told a story of his family in which his uncle sees getting a PhD
as progress, whilst his father looks at other family members who
are earning more money, and thus providing more income for the family,
as making more progress. He asked should progress provide freedom,
or if progress should be not just about opening the democratic space
and people remain hungry. What is the relationship between hunger
and freedom in terms of progress? Is there progress in the urbanisation
of the rural poor? Or does it represent a lack of progress, in terms
of enhancing the ability to make a living in the rural areas.
Listen
John Saul raised
the difference between national liberation and liberation that includes
issues of gender, race and democratic voice. He asked who gets to
talk about progress and liberation, and asked what is it that people
in Zimbabwe want to be fully free. Is freedom progress? Is liberation
progress? What kind of liberation?
Listen
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