Thinking problem-space in studies of revolt and archival methods

Abstract

This article engages with Jamaican anthropologist David Scott’s conceptual analytic of problem-space and maps out the potential contributions problem-space thinking can make to geographical studies of revolt and protest as well as archival methods. Scott's theory is broadened spatially through the introduction of space-time geographies scholarship and in particular the spatial ontology of Massey. I suggest Scott's theory can compliment and advance the work of political and historical geographers seeking to produce more broadly spatialised and temporalised accounts of insurrections and political protests. Problem-space thinking also develops efforts to recover subaltern voices and political motivations in such studies both empirically and methodologically.