Creating Postgraduate Collaborations

In a globalized world characterized by modes of economic production requiring the ongoing production of new knowledge, Africa will only compete if it is able to participate as more than a producer of raw materials for ‘reinvented’ goods. In order to do this, Africa needs to increase its research production. This will only be achieved if more doctoral graduates are produced and if its existing scholars are supported to work at the cutting edges of disciplines and subject areas. However, the need for economic development is not the only reason for an increase in research production. Knowledge contributes to the stability of democratic societies as does the opening up of the capacity to be involved in research production to those who have been previously marginalized. This project differs from many others aimed at increasing research capacity by focusing not on the development of structures, such as programmes, units or policies but by working in the ‘cultural domain’ to foster the development of research rich environments in which academics and postgraduate students can thrive. Social scientists constantly remind us that culture is as important as structure but it is the ‘softer’ cultural elements that are often overlooked. The project does this by fostering scholarly engagements intended to share African scholarship and thought and provide role models and practices for others to emulate. A second element of the project involves adapting a highly successful course on postgraduate supervision so that it too addresses the cultural domain and makes supervisors aware of covert assumptions and elements of practice that may exclude rather than include.Finally, the project fosters collaborations amongst partners aimed at developing the capacity to manage and plan research in culturally sensitive ways which draw on best practices but which are nonetheless cognizant of multiple ways of experiencing the world.