This presentation was made to the EADI Directors' Meeting on 11 October 2018 in Vienna, Austria. It first provides a critique of knowledge production in the field of development studies, focusing on academic journals and the status of local knowledge. Next, it provides an overview of some opportunities and possibilities in terms of academic publishing, research processes, information practices and discourses. This was an invited talk to start a discussion on new modes of knowledge production.

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NEW APPROACHES TO KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION
BEYOND TRADITIONAL RESEARCH
Sarah Cummings
EADI DIRECTORS’ MEETING, VIENNA
11 October 2018
@sarahcummings

2. ‹#› Het begint met een idee
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 Development + knowledge
 ‘Knowledge ecologist’
 Activist-researcher-consultant
 Research associate, VU
 Networks
- EADI
- IKM Emergent
- KM4dev
- K4DP and the Agenda Knowledge
for Development
WHY ME?

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 Current system of knowledge
production
> Scientific publishing
> Local knowledge
 Opportunities and possibilities
> New approaches to scientific publishing
> New transdisciplinary research practices
> New information practices
> New discourses
 What can we do to support
change?
OVERVIEW

4. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
 Increasing emphasis on ‘publish or perish’ within universities
 System of academic journals based on hyper-commercial journals (George Monbiot, The
Guardian)
 Academic publishing favours elite institutions in developed countries and men (Burgess
and Shaw 2010)
 Development research taking place in a silo:
‘We have the development practitioners, who can't afford £2,000 for a journal, and academics, who are
working separately.’ (Duncan Green)
 Marginalization of Southern academics (Dahdouh-Guebas et al 2003)
 Open access does not help Southern academics (Dr Williams Nwagwu, CODESRIA)
CURRENT SYSTEM – ACADEMIC PUBLISHING

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1. In which academic fields is the level of representation of Southern authors higher when
research is focusing on LDCs?
 Social and human sciences, including development studies?
 Life sciences, including medicine?
 Basic and applied sciences, including engineering?
1. Is this pattern influenced by the fact that the research is seen as development
cooperation or not?
2 Faculty of Science / Athena Institute / CDA of the private sector
QUIZ QUESTIONS

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 Representation of Southern academics in journals as authors and editorial board
members (2015 paper with Paul Hoebink)
 Author study
> Study of 10 ‘well-known’ journals in the field of development studies
> Analysis of 2112 articles over the 2012-2014 period using WoS
> 43% were from the UK and the USA, 43% from other developed countries and 14% from developing
countries
 Editorial board study
> 329 editorial board members from their websites
> 62% in the USA or the UK, 31% in other developed countries
> 9% in developing countries
> 30% women (12%-50% variation)
PUBLISHING PATTERNS IN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

9. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
 Reasons why this might not matter
> ‘Location’ of many authors hides many Southern authors located in the North
> Southern authors have their own journals
> Editorial boards do not have a gatekeeper function
 Why it does matter…
> ‘Academic imagination’ is important to the South
> Perspective of responsibility and equity
> Dearth of institutional collaborations in the social science and humanities
> What is development?
‘…the synergy among millions of innovative initiatives people take every day in their local societies,
generating new and more effective ways of producing, trading, and managing their resources and their
institutions. The work of policy makers and development agencies may contribute greatly to the success of
those initiatives, may shape them, or may undermine those efforts’ (Sebastiao Ferreira, 2009: 99)
DOES THIS MATTER?

10. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
 Perspectives on knowledge and the SDGs
> ‘the overriding mentality is still that developing countries are vessels to be filled with knowledge and
ideas’ (Ramalingam, 2015)
> failure to recognise that development needs to be based on developing countries’ experiences and
realities (Leach, 2013)
 Critical discourse analysis of knowledge in the SDGs
> Adapted Fairclough’s methodology to take into account sub-discourses and the history of past
discourses
> Two discourses: technical-scientific-economic discourse and the pluralist-participatory discourse
> knowledge and knowledge societies are very marginal to the SDGs
> Only one reference to local knowledge as ‘traditional knowledge’ in Goal 2: End hunger
> Techno-scientific-economic discourse is the dominant discourse
> Implementation, goals and targets appear to represent business as usual
CURRENT SYSTEM - LOCAL KNOWLEDGE AND THE SDGS

11. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
 ‘…reflection upon knowledge societies and how to build them makes it possible to
rethink development itself’ (UNESCO 2015)
 New approaches to scientific publishing
 New transdisciplinary research practices
 New information practices
 New discourses
OPPORTUNITIES AND POSSIBILITIES

12. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
 JUMP initiative of EADI is supporting participation of Southern academics
 Development studies journals should take a new look at the participation of
Southern based academics as authors and editorial board members
 Recognise that the peer review process is not only about excellence: it’s also
about social network
 New ethical standards needed for institutional collaboration and co-authorships
when publishing with/about developing countries
NEW APPROACHES TO SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING

13. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
 Focus on real world and ‘wicked problems’
 Multiple actors involved, including general public
 Explicit, tacit, academic, experiential, community and local knowledge combined
 Transformative: research for change
 Emergent design
 New spaces, new practices and new partnerships
NEW TRANSDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH PRACTICES

14. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
 New ways of visualizing and mapping knowledge
 New participatory methodologies
 Awareness of a development knowledge ecology or ecosystem
NEW INFORMATION PRACTICES

15. Mapping Knowledges

16. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
 ‘Agenda Knowledge for Development’ designed to complement the SDGs from the
perspective of knowledge
 Knowledge is ‘under the radar’
 Three year process of developing Knowledge Development Goals, complemented
by 130 personal visions of knowledge society
 Working closely with UN organizations
 Providing a new discourse on knowledge:
> Knowledge ecology/ecosystem approach
> Local knowledge and indigenous knowledge
> Universities
> Arts and culture
> Communities of practice
NEW DISCOURSES: AGENDA KNOWLEDGE FOR DEVELOPMENT

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 EADI
 Institutions
 Individual researchers
WHAT CAN WE DO TO SUPPORT CHANGE?