25 © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 M. Robertson, P.K.E. Tsang (eds.), Everyday Knowledge, Education and Sustainable Futures, Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects 30, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0216-8_3 Chapter 3 A Conversation About the Politics of Everyday Knowledge at the Institute of Postcolonial Studies on the 14th of August 2014 Phillip Darby, Yassir Morsi, and John von Sturmer Abstract In this conversation, the speakers discuss the politics of knowledge in the context of the North-South relationship. Focussing on three areas – Australian Aboriginal societies, Muslim minorities in the West and the processes of change in the Asia-Pacific region – the conversation explores the relationship between so- called local and global knowledges. It raises questions about whether Western knowledge formations can engage productively with everyday knowledges in the formerly colonised world, especially bearing in mind the colonising tendencies of liberal and neoliberal thought. The speakers raise associated issues including the different ways of learning of some non-European people, whether the vitality of everyday life can be translated into modern ways of living, the sense of dislocation generated in some quarters by 9/11 and the clash of knowledges in the debate about development. Keywords Orientalism • Colonialism • Neoliberalism • Intervention • World order • Self-other • Politics of knowledge Phillip: A warm welcome to you all to this conversation about the politics of every- day knowledge. And a particular welcome to Margaret Robertson who is editing a book with Eric Tsang in Hong Kong on this subject to be published by Springer in the United States next year. Some time back I was approached by Margaret inviting P. Darby (*) Institute of Postcolonial Studies, Melbourne, Australia e-mail: postcol@netspace.net.au Y. Morsi Visiting Scholar, Institute of Postcolonial Studies, Melbourne, Australia e-mail: postcol@netspace.net.au J. von Sturmer Senior Fellow, Institute of Postcolonial Studies, Melbourne, Australia e-mail: postcol@netspace.net.au