Processes of Dis–location and Re–location of Knowledge and Power

Abstract

The paper explores the concept of nomadism as a transitory state in a flux of dynamic processes of transfer of knowledge; the figuration of nomadic subject is described in its political, material and epistemological potentials, making the erring/nomadic subject act as an unstable entity escaping capitalistic norms and hierarchical patterns of the contemporary. Three diachronic ethnographic examples are described to support the revolutionary potential of the nomadic/erring entities: the case of scientific and technological transfer enacted by the British Empire to the institutions of the Raj during colonial times; the politics of expansion of a western corporation that dislocates its Research D the complex patterns of meanings and disciplinary competences converging to define the idea of Anthropocene. All three cases represent instances of dislocation and relocation of knowledge and its fundamental patterns, and show how the condition of nomadism, both intended as material and metaphorical, enables the acquisition of new visions and new empowering perspectives.