Our Voice on Learning to Learn from Below

In January 2026, we wrote a blog about Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's essay Can the Subaltern Speak? It asked us hard questions about who gets heard, and what we are really doing when we say we are “listening.” Since then, we've been listening to something new. In June 2025, Spivak sat down in Oslo for a conversation called “Learning From Below,” as part of the Holberg Prize. In it, she goes further into one word: subaltern. What it means. Who it applies to. And what it asks of people like us, who do research and outreach for a living. This blog doesn't repeat what we said last time. It goes deeper into just one idea, so we can be clearer and more careful in how we use it.

Published

August 2026

Pages

Topic

Design Justice

Summary

Spivak agitates and disrupts our understanding of subaltern from the start. She urges us to reconsider Gramsci’s position, to re-examine how we frame subaltern. She presses upon us that it doesn't mean “marginalised group.” It means something more precise: a position, with no real access to citizenship rights. She says "Subaltern is a position without identity. It's not really people." This matters for us. At People Street, we often talk about communities who are excluded, under-served, or seldom heard. Spivak's point sharpens that language.

Key findings

- A position, not a person - You can't copy and paste a method - Learning to learn, not just learning - Structure and texture: the art of darning - Not a solution, a direction

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