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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Africa and knowledge production: Towards a new perspective
| Panel |
9. Setting a New Agenda for African Studies
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| Paper ID | 405 |
| Author(s) |
Staps, Monique
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| Paper |
View paper (PDF)
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| Abstract | This paper provides a new perspective on knowledge production about Africa by applying insights from intercultural approaches in science. Since the truth of science has been derived from a ‘North-Atlantic’ point of view, indigenous knowledge systems have been moved to the background. In this article, we state that knowledge systems and solutions are culture-based and argue that perspectives of the indigenous people should be included. We will illustrate the impact of our knowledge systems on the continent and continue towards a new method which shows more respect for indigenous knowledge. This perspective consists of a combination of different elements provided by, e.g. Weick (1995) and Pennink (2004), whereas the work of Terence Jackson (2004) is in the centre of the framework. The method will be explained in this paper by including an empirical example from a Tanzanian organization. This example will show that science in future research can apply this method of knowledge production to several subjects and integrate knowledge from the African minds.
Key words:
- Africa
- Science & knowledge systems
- Culture
- Terence Jackson
- Perceptions
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