The Indigenous Knowledge Systems Policy of 2004: Challenges for South African Universities

Abstract

South Africa's Indigenous Knowledge Systems Policy was approved by Cabinet in 2004, and the National Indigenous Knowledge Systems Office (NIKSO) was opened in the Department of Science and Technology in 2006. Proposing the integration of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in the arenas of education, commerce, agriculture, the sciences, law, languages, arts, social sciences, and health, the policy document implies several challenges to the idea of knowledge at the postcolonial university, and has significant implications for research and innovation in South Africa. Yet will a dramatically increased budget for research on Indigenous Knowledge Systems bring the kinds of insights and ideas that are needed in order to bring the sciences into dialogue with indigenous knowledge? While arguing for the importance of engaging with the IKS debate, the first part of this paper offers a critique of the conceptual tools contained within the IKS Policy and associated calls for research. The second part of the paper focuses on the question of how universities might approach the task of supporting researchers who are exploring IKS. Arguing that a strong intellectual presence is needed in the implementation of the policy nationally, the paper argues that dedicated IKS research units within universities may be counter-productive to the task of integrating indigenous knowledges with the sciences. However, neither the sciences, nor sociologies of knowledge alone can provide an adequate intellectual home for research on the topic. Rather, if South African universities are to respond productively, there is a need for university executives to remove impediments to teaching and research across faculties and disciplines and between universities, and to stimulate emerging dialogues about the nature of knowledge in the postcolony.     

Utopianism and pragmatism in interprofessional education

Definitions of interprofessionalism tend either to be vague and ambiguous or to ignore key stakeholders such as service users. The authors suggest that a combination of unsound theorising and lack of empirical data mean it is time to introduce a new approach to the study of interprofessional education. They argue that the search for a single factor common to all members of the interprofessional 'family' should be abandoned in favour of a re-conceptualisation of interprofessionalism as a 'family' of similarities and differences. This Wittgensteinian approach is used to look at the different ways programmes of education and training address interprofessional identities and cross-boundary roles and relationships. The centrality of one or the other is seen as indicating a certain kind of philosophical scaffolding within the educational culture of a programme and two case studies are used to explore the impact of Pragmatism and Utopianism. The case studies are drawn from the authors' experiences as teachers and examine how educational culture is shaped by primary philosophical positions. Finally, the implications of this for the future development of social work education are briefly considered.     

Prejudicial Attitudes Toward Older Adults May Be Exaggerated When People Feel Vulnerable to Infectious Disease: Evidence and Implications

Prejudice against elderly people ("ageism") is an issue of increasing social concern, but the psychological roots of ageism are only partially understood. Recent theorizing suggests that ageism may result, in part, from fallible cue-based disease-avoidance mechanisms. The perception of subjectively atypical physical features (including features associated with aging) may implicitly activate aversive semantic concepts (implicit ageism), and this implicit ageism is likely to emerge among perceivers who are especially worried about the transmission of infectious diseases. We report an experiment (N = 88) that provides the first empirical test of this hypothesis. Results revealed that implicit ageism is predicted by the interactive effects of chronic perceptions of vulnerability to infectious disease and by the temporary salience of disease-causing pathogens. Moreover, these effects are moderated by perceivers' cultural background. Implications for public policy are discussed .     

An experiment in helping social work practitioners to design and conduct research

A twelve-week short course, “Understanding Social Work Practice through Research” was conducted for experienced social work practitioners during the Spring of 1982. The course, experimental in character, began with the practice interests of individual course members and used the resources of the class members and the course tutors to help each person to devise a research design suitable to his or her personally declared practice interests. The work was supported by handouts (e.g., “Turning an interest in a practice issue into one or more researchable questions”; “Decisions required when constructing a research design”; etc.) and by worksheets.

Eight persons attended all or most sessions (one dropped out early in the sequence) and all of these completed a research design and indicated an interest in implementing it. Optional follow-up sessions were provided in the form of group support meetings held at four-month intervals and individual consultation as required. In addition to producing a viable research design, members gained increased confidence in themselves as researchers as well as practitioners, clarified their understanding of the relationship between research and practice, and in some cases emerged with a renewed enthusiasm for social work practice.     

What Money Cannot Buy: The Distinctive and Multidimensional Impact of Volunteers

Although it is assumed that volunteers make an extremely important contribution to organizations and the community, studies that examine their direct impact are scarce. Using quantitative and qualitative data collected from clients, volunteers and staff at the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House, examined is the impact of volunteers on the organization, the clients and on themselves. Volunteers had a high direct and indirect impact on recipients, including on their attitudes toward volunteering and their future behavior. Volunteers gained intrinsic and extrinsic benefits and, as expected, their participation had a positive impact on the organization. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on social impact and volunteering.     

Idle No More,Facebook and Diffusion

The indigenous-led movement Idle No More leapt into public view during the winter of 2012–2013, bringing round-dance flash-mobs and blockades to communities across Canada and internationally, becoming a symbol of twenty-first century indigenous resistance. This profile examines the first two months of the movement by analysing the structure of social networks being mobilized, by breaking down the Facebook architecture and interface into its various elements, and by examining how these influence diffusion and its constituent sub-processes. It argues that the combination of dense clusters and weak ties in indigenous social networks leveraged the way Facebook facilitated the movement.     

Fear of Crime and Collective Action: An Analysis of Coping Strategies

Recent research addressing fear of crime largely concerns the causes of that fear; this article expands our understanding of fear of crime by examining whether people cope with their fear individually or collectively. Our guiding questions were two: Do coping strategies differ by those individual-level characteristics established in the fear-of-crime literature? And do strategies differ based upon conceptually distinct types of fear? This research, based on a 1995 telephone survey of a random sample of New Orleans residents, suggests that the answer to both questions is yes. Commodified, individual-level precautionary techniques are explained primarily by characteristics that reflect differential abilities to pay for such precautions. Conversely, collective-level coping strategies are predicted primarily by degree of affective fear based on emotional reactions, regardless of actual levels of victimization.