The epistemic politics of ‘academography’: navigating competing representations of Africa’s university futures

Abstract

This paper investigates the epistemic politics at work in radically contrasting academic representations of African university futures. Euro-American policy entrepreneurs and research funders call for major investments in Africa's scientific research training capacity to strengthen the continent's integration into a global knowledge system. Meanwhile, African social scientists and humanities scholars critique the epistemological hegemony of 'Western' models of the academy, and call for the decolonisation of African universities.This paper sets out a three-step approach to dealing with the politicization of 'academography' (Thorkelson 2016) in this decolonial moment. The first step is to acknowledge how epistemic power relations shape all analytical moves. The second is to recognize that 'generative antagonisms' (Burawoy 2004) are inherent to disciplinary knowledge production. The third is to develop an ethnographic sensitivity to everyday academic practice within these institutional worlds and epistemic cultures. Together these moves offer space for dialogue between different visions of African higher education.

On Politics in Comparative and International Higher Education

“…Politics play a crucial role in shaping the epistemic nature and social structure of higher education. Scholars act as political actors when they define the ideas and methods that are prioritised, sponsored and investigated in universities (Mills 2020;Walker 2020). In major world-class research universities, they also frame the nature of stakeholder support, and determine the order of priorities in teaching, research and service (Cantwell, Coates, and King 2018;Oleksiyenko 2019).…”