Local looking, developing a context-specific model for a visual ethnography a representational study of child labor in India /

by 1960- Varde, Abhijit

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of child labor in India. The child participants of this study work in the brick making industry in a small village in westcentral India. The descriptive outcome of the study will be presented in the form of an ethnographic film and an accompanying written report. This study hopes to accomplish three goals. First, to describe the lived life experiences of the working children; second, to develop an indigenous theory of visual representation by collaborating with the children in the making of the film and by eliciting their reactions to the methods and technology of film making; and third, to discover indigenous ways in which the ideals proclaimed in the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child are understood by comparing the lived life experience of the children to the United Nations charter. The study is conducted with the acknowledgement of globalization as the de facto condition of our world and the study is philosophically allied with goals of international human development. The underlying theme of this dissertation is to situate the artist and art educator within the discourse of the globalization debate with a concrete example of how artistic approaches can be employed for meaningful engagement with global social issues. Findings of the study are based upon a conceptually complete and edited rough cut of the proposed film. The final production of the film will be completed in the near future. ii