PNM Theory: A Theory of Narrating from Presence, Built on the Philanthropic Narrator Method

Abstract

PNM Theory sets out the theory behind the Philanthropic Narrator Method (PNM), a field method in which a researcher pairs one photograph they took themselves with a short public narrative of about 200 words and an open record of how the piece was made. The theory starts from one claim: a researcher's own physical presence in a place is a source of evidence, and it becomes more useful to readers when the conditions of that presence are reported. From this claim the paper draws a stance, a six-stage presence cycle and six testable propositions about presence, disclosure, compression, the body, consent and local voice. It keeps the theory, the methodology and the method as separate layers and shows how they fit together in one framework. Each proposition states what would count against it, and the paper sets out its scope, how it can be tested and its limits. It has not yet been tested beyond the author's fieldwork in Nepal. This paper is the theory companion to the published PNM methodology.