New world order for learning
21 September 2008, 15:06
A fundamental rethinking of how universities should function in the 21st century is under way. Traditional elite universities - all located in the North - are opening branches and establishing joint programmes with universities in the South.
China, India, countries in the Persian Gulf and other Asian states are investing billions of dollars in the creation of new intellectual centres. Outdated curricula are being revamped. Scholars are being encouraged to think outside their disciplines and invest in emerging fields of inquiry.
Radically new international learning experiences are being offered to staff and students. With the use of videos, podcasts, blogs, live chats, webcams, wikis and online courses and seminars, digital technologies are revolutionising traditions of study and research.
In spite of the fragmented and uneven distribution of the resources for learning, teaching, and cultural criticism, marginal regions of the world are no longer simply producers of data or test sites for the theory mills of the North. Theory itself is no longer seen as naturally metropolitan and Western.
Today, complex networks structure the circulation of intellectual ideas worldwide. A new transnational academic public sphere and culture has emerged during the second half of the 20th century.
Western-born academics are moving to other parts of the world in growing numbers, while southern-born ones are filling many faculties in northern universities.
This newfound mobility tends to blur the old distinction between the North and the South. But whether the denationalisation of academic discussion has brought a truly global perspective to conventional Western theory and criticism remains to be seen.
In South Africa, we are entering a new phase of competition among major South African research universities - competition for staff, funds, students, international recognition.
Recent examples in the social sciences and the humanities include the setting up of various new research centres at the University of Johannesburg (including the Centre for the Study of Democracy in collaboration with Rhodes University) or the launch of the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa at the University of the Witwatersrand. Plans for a new inter-faculty outfit at the University of Cape Town are under way. A Centre for Advanced Study has been established at the University of Stellenbosch and it includes a small section devoted to the humanities and social sciences.
Nationally, the University of the Witwatersrand is still known as the premier centre for studies in the humanities and social sciences on the continent. It has areas of long-standing disciplinary strengths which have given it a well-deserved international reputation for academic distinction. Its research units are among the most creative in the country.
Elsewhere, individual scholars in anthropology, sociology, history, critical theory, literature, media studies, architecture and the arts enjoy a high degree of international recognition.
To these well-established scholars should be added a cohort of emerging others who, given the appropriate support and integrated into international networks, could easily establish themselves in their respective disciplines.
But South Africa as a nation needs to do more in the humanities, social sciences and the arts. We need to break with a technocratic vision of national development that is blind to the opportunities created by the new global cultural economy.
In order to compete with other nations, new national funding schemes such as the establishment of a national endowment for the arts, social sciences and the humanities should be explored.
For our universities to adapt creatively to this age of mobility and to the new realities of "brain circulation", academics themselves must set up intellectual platforms to attract local and international scholars. This is how we will contribute to the expansion of our international presence.
We also need to invest in theory and criticism - a critical area of human inquiry we have surrendered to the North. The use of the new digital technologies, with the goal of translating academic research into "information" available to the broader public, is vital.
China, India, countries in the Persian Gulf and other Asian states are investing billions of dollars in the creation of new intellectual centres. Outdated curricula are being revamped. Scholars are being encouraged to think outside their disciplines and invest in emerging fields of inquiry.
Radically new international learning experiences are being offered to staff and students. With the use of videos, podcasts, blogs, live chats, webcams, wikis and online courses and seminars, digital technologies are revolutionising traditions of study and research.
In spite of the fragmented and uneven distribution of the resources for learning, teaching, and cultural criticism, marginal regions of the world are no longer simply producers of data or test sites for the theory mills of the North. Theory itself is no longer seen as naturally metropolitan and Western.
Today, complex networks structure the circulation of intellectual ideas worldwide. A new transnational academic public sphere and culture has emerged during the second half of the 20th century.
Western-born academics are moving to other parts of the world in growing numbers, while southern-born ones are filling many faculties in northern universities.
This newfound mobility tends to blur the old distinction between the North and the South. But whether the denationalisation of academic discussion has brought a truly global perspective to conventional Western theory and criticism remains to be seen.
In South Africa, we are entering a new phase of competition among major South African research universities - competition for staff, funds, students, international recognition.
Recent examples in the social sciences and the humanities include the setting up of various new research centres at the University of Johannesburg (including the Centre for the Study of Democracy in collaboration with Rhodes University) or the launch of the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa at the University of the Witwatersrand. Plans for a new inter-faculty outfit at the University of Cape Town are under way. A Centre for Advanced Study has been established at the University of Stellenbosch and it includes a small section devoted to the humanities and social sciences.
Nationally, the University of the Witwatersrand is still known as the premier centre for studies in the humanities and social sciences on the continent. It has areas of long-standing disciplinary strengths which have given it a well-deserved international reputation for academic distinction. Its research units are among the most creative in the country.
Elsewhere, individual scholars in anthropology, sociology, history, critical theory, literature, media studies, architecture and the arts enjoy a high degree of international recognition.
To these well-established scholars should be added a cohort of emerging others who, given the appropriate support and integrated into international networks, could easily establish themselves in their respective disciplines.
But South Africa as a nation needs to do more in the humanities, social sciences and the arts. We need to break with a technocratic vision of national development that is blind to the opportunities created by the new global cultural economy.
In order to compete with other nations, new national funding schemes such as the establishment of a national endowment for the arts, social sciences and the humanities should be explored.
For our universities to adapt creatively to this age of mobility and to the new realities of "brain circulation", academics themselves must set up intellectual platforms to attract local and international scholars. This is how we will contribute to the expansion of our international presence.
We also need to invest in theory and criticism - a critical area of human inquiry we have surrendered to the North. The use of the new digital technologies, with the goal of translating academic research into "information" available to the broader public, is vital.
- This article was originally published on page 8 of The Sunday Independent on September 21, 2008
Pretoria
