NORTH AND SOUTH FEATURE


One consequence of the dearth of publications from authors based in the South in top journals is that it is sometimes challenging to put together geographically-balanced reading lists of high-quality publications. Students have complained about this situation and called for the ‘decolonisation of curricula’ from South Africa to the UK. The decolonisation movement is demanding that universities recognise the structural and epistemological legacy of colonialism in academic curricula and take steps to correct them. Even if the decline in many universities, especially in Africa, occurred after the end of colonial rule, the legacy of colonial attitudes and the sidelining of Southern voices tends to persist. While correcting the under-representation of scholars from the Global South requires broad structural changes in the global economy, some steps can be taken to address this crucial issue.


“ Even when African-based


authors manage to publish, their articles are less likely to be cited


First, the adverse effects of shifting funding from elite institutions of higher learning to primary education need to be more fully appreciated. Primary education should be a right for everyone, but if there is insufficient support for higher education and research, who will represent marginal populations and who will set political and social agendas? Governments and development agencies need to give greater priority to the role of higher education and provide more technical and financial support to research in poor countries. Second, scholars in privileged positions


in Northern-based institutions can encourage academic diversity by citing colleagues based in universities in the South and engage with their contributions to the field. Although some journals and presses have taken exemplary steps in the right direction, by, for instance, organising writing workshops in countries in the Global South, it is essential to promote more geographically- representative editorial boards. Finally, universities and research institutes in


the North need to re-examine incentive structures for academic recruitment and promotion that have an adverse impact on greater equality. Currently, these tend to undervalue mentoring work directed at the capacity building of more junior scholars— whether from the North or the South. There is also a privileging of publications which appear in highly select journals and big university presses, none of which include Africa-based publishers. The marginalisation of other perspectives


hinders intellectual diversity and distorts our understanding of major fields of knowledge and entire regions of the world. At a recent conference on Decolonising Development Studies organised at the University of Sussex, one attendee questioned:


”


“Would we find it acceptable if scholarly knowledge on women’s conditions and gender inequality were produced almost entirely by men? To what extent would this influence the kinds of perspectives presented?” If we accept the link between positionality and perspectives, it is critical to tackle inequality in academic publishing and to expand the sources of knowledge for scholarship and practice. On a small scale, CPAID, together with the


Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa (FLCA) at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) has been proactively forging new links with African scholars and institutions to increase the visibility of Africa in the LSE’s teaching, research and policy engagement. FLCA builds on a wide range of ongoing programmes and activities such as coordinating research on Africa, the Programme for African Leadership (PfAL), the LSE Africa Summit, the Africa Talks series, the African Visiting Research Fellowship Programme and its Africa at LSE blog. One of the centre’s projects, a podcast series called ‘Citing Africa’, aims to provide advice to young African-based scholars on the publishing process. Episodes include topics such as ‘Dealing with rejection’ and ‘Selecting the right journal for your work’. Academic writing workshops have been held in the UK, Belgium, the US, South Africa, Kenya, South Sudan, the DRC and Uganda, with another currently being organised in Sierra Leone. These are small steps, and much more needs to be done, but it has already been so rewarding. The activities have brought together scholars from the South and the North, and the capacities of the latter has been enhanced at least as much as the former. n


i


The Centre for Public Authority and International Development (CPAID) explores how forms of public authority shape and are shaped by global challenges that affect international development and inclusive growth.


CPAID is led by Professor Tim Allen at the LSE and funded by the ESRC through the Global Challenges Research Fund.


Tin Hinane El Kadi is a political economy researcher at the LSE. Web lse.ac.uk/cpaid @CPAID_LSE


WINTER 2018 SOCIETY NOW 15


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