Download or read book The Scientific Imagination in South Africa written by William Beinart and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-20 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An innovative three hundred year exploration of the social and political contexts of science and the scientific imagination in South Africa.

Download or read book African Journal of Science Technology Innovation and Development written by Muchie Mammo and published by . This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Science Communication in South Africa written by Weingart, Peter and published by African Minds. This book was released on 2020-01-18 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do we need to communicate science? Is science, with its highly specialised language and its arcane methods, too distant to be understood by the public? Is it really possible for citizens to participate meaningfully in scientific research projects and debate? Should scientists be mandated to engage with the public to facilitate better understanding of science? How can they best communicate their special knowledge to be intelligible? These and a plethora of related questions are being raised by researchers and politicians alike as they have become convinced that science and society need to draw nearer to one another. Once the persuasion took hold that science should open up to the public and these questions were raised, it became clear that coming up with satisfactory answers would be a complex challenge. The inaccessibility of scientific language and methods, due to ever increasing specialisation, is at the base of its very success. Thus, translating specialised knowledge to become understandable, interesting and relevant to various publics creates particular perils. This is exacerbated by the ongoing disruption of the public discourse through the digitisation of communication platforms. For example, the availability of medical knowledge on the internet and the immense opportunities to inform oneself about health risks via social media are undermined by the manipulable nature of this technology that does not allow its users to distinguish between credible content and misinformation. In countries around the world, scientists, policy-makers and the public have high hopes for science communication: that it may elevate its populations educationally, that it may raise the level of sound decision-making for people in their daily lives, and that it may contribute to innovation and economic well-being. This collection of current reflections gives an insight into the issues that have to be addressed by research to reach these noble goals, for South Africa and by South Africans in particular.

Download or read book Transient Workspaces written by Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of technology in Africa from an African perspective, examining hunting in Zimbabwe as an example of an innovative mobile workspace. In this book, Clapperton Mavhunga views technology in Africa from an African perspective. Technology in his account is not something always brought in from outside, but is also something that ordinary people understand, make, and practice through their everyday innovations or creativities—including things that few would even consider technological. Technology does not always originate in the laboratory in a Western-style building but also in the society in the forest, in the crop field, and in other places where knowledge is made and turned into practical outcomes. African creativities are found in African mobilities. Mavhunga shows the movement of people as not merely conveyances across space but transient workspaces. Taking indigenous hunting in Zimbabwe as one example, he explores African philosophies of mobilities as spiritually guided and of the forest as a sacred space. Viewing the hunt as guided mobility, Mavhunga considers interesting questions of what constitutes technology under regimes of spirituality. He describes how African hunters extended their knowledge traditions to domesticate the gun, how European colonizers, with no remedy of their own, turned to indigenous hunters for help in combating the deadly tsetse fly, and examines how wildlife conservation regimes have criminalized African hunting rather than enlisting hunters (and their knowledge) as allies in wildlife sustainability. The hunt, Mavhunga writes, is one of many criminalized knowledges and practices to which African people turn in times of economic or political crisis. He argues that these practices need to be decriminalized and examined as technologies of everyday innovation with a view toward constructive engagement, innovating with Africans rather than for them.

Download or read book The Next Generation of Scientists in Africa written by Beaudry, Catherine and published by African Minds. This book was released on 2018-11-23 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Young scientists are a powerful resource for change and sustainable development, as they drive innovation and knowledge creation. However, comparable findings on young scientists in various countries, especially in Africa and developing regions, are generally sparse. Therefore, empirical knowledge on the state of early-career scientists is critical in order to address current challenges faced by those scientists in Africa. This book reports on the main findings of a three-and-a-half-year international project in order to assist its readers in better understanding the African research system in general, and more specifically its young scientists. The first part of the book provides background on the state of science in Africa, and bibliometric findings concerning Africa’s scientific production and networks, for the period 2005 to 2015. The second part of the book combines the findings of a large-scale, quantitative survey and more than 200 qualitative interviews to provide a detailed profile of young scientists and the barriers they face in terms of five aspects of their careers: research output; funding; mobility; collaboration; and mentoring. In each case, field and gender differences are also taken into account. The last part of the book comprises conclusions and recommendations to relevant policy- and decision-makers on desirable changes to current research systems in Africa.

Download or read book African Indigenous Knowledge and the Sciences written by Gloria Emeagwali and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-07-08 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an intellectual journey into epistemology, pedagogy, physics, architecture, medicine and metallurgy. The focus is on various dimensions of African Indigenous Knowledge (AIK) with an emphasis on the sciences, an area that has been neglected in AIK discourse. The authors provide diverse views and perspectives on African indigenous scientific and technological knowledge that can benefit a wide spectrum of academics, scholars, students, development agents, and policy makers, in both governmental and non-governmental organizations, and enable critical and alternative analyses and possibilities for understanding science and technology in an African historical and contemporary context.

Download or read book Transforming Research Methods in the Social Sciences written by Angelo Flynn and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2019-03-01 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social science researchers in the global South, and in South Africa particularly, utilise research methods in innovative ways in order to respond to contexts characterised by diversity, racial and political tensions, socioeconomic disparities and gender inequalities. These methods often remain undocumented – a gap that this book starts to address. Written by experts from various methodological fields, Transforming Research Methods in the Social Sciences is a comprehensive collation of original essays and cutting-edge research that demonstrates the variety of novel techniques and research methods available to researchers responding to these context-bound issues. It is particularly relevant for study and research in the fields of applied psychology, sociology, ethnography, biography and anthropology. In addition to their unique combination of conceptual and application issues, the chapters also include discussions on ethical considerations relevant to the method in similar global South contexts. Transforming Research Methods in the Social Sciences has much to offer to researchers, professionals and others involved in social science research both locally and internationally.

Download or read book Innovation Intellectual Property written by Jeremy De Beer and published by University of Cape Town Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Open African Innovation Research and Training (Open A.I.R.) project focused on the intersection of innovation, intellectual property (IP), and development in Africa and this book offers its research findings. Its case studies cover nine African countries--Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, Botswana, and South Africa--looking at IP rights in a range of sites of innovation: agricultural production, biofuel technology, traditional medicine, research collaboration, automotive manufacturing, music production, and scholarly publishing.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the South African Economy written by Arkebe Oqubay and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-20 with total page 1153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While sharing some characteristics with other middle-income countries, South Africa is a country with a unique economic history and distinctive economic features. It is a regional economic powerhouse that plays a significant role, not only in southern Africa and in the continent, but also as a member of BRICS. However, there has been a lack of structural transformation and weak economic growth, and South Africa faces the profound triple challenges of poverty, inequality, and unemployment. Any meaningful debate about economic policies to address these challenges needs to be informed by a deep understanding of historical developments, robust empirical evidence, and rigorous analysis of South Africa's complex economic landscape. This volume seeks to provide a wide-ranging set of original, detailed, and state-of-the-art analytical perspectives that contribute to scientific knowledge as well as to well-informed and productive discourse on the South African economy. While concentrating on the more recent economic issues facing South Africa, the handbook also provides historical and political context. It offers an in-depth examination of strategic issues in the country's key economic sectors, and brings together diverse analytical perspectives.

Download or read book African Women and ICTs written by Ineke Buskens and published by IDRC. This book was released on 2009-04 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on the outcome of an extensive research project, this book features chapters based on original primary field research undertaken by academics & activists who have investigated situations within their own communities & countries.

Download or read book Sub Saharan African Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics Research written by Andreas Blom and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2015-12-21 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes Africa's current performance in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) research, as well as future trends. It looks at Africa's research performance over a decade, what it means for the continent's development and how it can benefit the growing number of young people who leave university each year looking for jobs. The book focuses on research output and citation impact, important indicators of the strength of a region's research enterprise. These indicators are correlated with the region's long-term development and important drivers of economic success. Moreover, research is a key ingredient for quality higher education. The research performance of these regions is compared to that of South Africa, Malaysia, and Vietnam; the latter two countries had a comparable research base to the SSA regions at the beginning of the period of analysis.

Download or read book Genetic Afterlives written by Noah Tamarkin and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-11 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1997, M. E. R. Mathivha, an elder of the black Jewish Lemba people of South Africa, announced to the Lemba Cultural Association that a recent DNA study substantiated their ancestral connections to Jews. Lemba people subsequently leveraged their genetic test results to seek recognition from the post-apartheid government as indigenous Africans with rights to traditional leadership and land, retheorizing genetic ancestry in the process. In Genetic Afterlives, Noah Tamarkin illustrates how Lemba people give their own meanings to the results of DNA tests and employ them to manage competing claims of Jewish ethnic and religious identity, African indigeneity, and South African citizenship. Tamarkin turns away from genetics researchers' results that defined a single story of Lemba peoples' “true” origins and toward Lemba understandings of their own genealogy as multivalent. Guided by Lemba people’s negotiations of their belonging as diasporic Jews, South African citizens, and indigenous Africans, Tamarkin considers new ways to think about belonging that can acknowledge the importance of historical and sacred ties to land without valorizing autochthony, borders, or other technologies of exclusion.

Download or read book Technology and the African American Experience written by Bruce Sinclair and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The intersection of race and technology: blackcreativity and the economic and social functions of the myth ofdisengenuity.

Download or read book Transforming Agriculture in Southern Africa written by Richard A. Sikora and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-11-27 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a synthesis of the key issues and challenges facing agriculture and food production in Southern Africa. Southern Africa is facing numerous challenges from diverse issues such as agricultural transformations, growing populations, urbanization and climate change. These challenges place great pressure on food security, agriculture, water availability and other natural resources, as well as impacting biodiversity. Drawing on case studies from Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the chapters in this book consider these challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective, covering key areas in constraints to production, the most important building blocks of good farming practices, and established and emerging technologies. This book will be a valuable support for informing new policies and processes aimed at improving food production and security and developing sustainable agriculture in Southern Africa. This informative volume will be key reading for those interested in agricultural science, African studies, rural studies, development studies and sustainability. It will also be a valuable resource for policymakers, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, and agricultural practitioners. This title has been made available as Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CCBY-NC-ND) license and can be accessed here: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429401701

Download or read book Transforming Research Excellence written by L. Wallace and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern-day science is under great pressure. A potent mix of increasing expectations, limited resources, tensions between competition and cooperation, and the need for evidence-based funding is creating major change in how science is conducted and perceived. Amidst this perfect storm is the allure of research excellence, a concept that drives decisions made by universities and funders, and defines scientists research strategies and career trajectories. But what is excellent science? And how to recognise it? After decades of inquiry and debate there is still no satisfactory answer. Are we asking the wrong question? Is reality more complex, and excellence in science more elusive, than many are willing to admit? And how should excellence be defined in different parts of the world, particularly in lower-income countries of the Global South where science is expected to contribute to pressing development issues, despite often scarce resources? Many wonder whether the Global South is importing, with or without consenting, the flawed tools for research evaluation from North America and Europe that are not fit for purpose. This book takes a critical view of these issues, touching on conceptual issues and practical problems that inevitably emerge when excellence is at the center of science systems. Emerging from the capacity-building work of the Science Granting Councils Initiative in sub-Saharan Africa, it speaks to scholars, as well as to managers and funders of research around the world. Confronting sticky problems and uncomfortable truths, the chapters contain insights and recommendations that point towards new solutions both for the Global South and the Global North.

Download or read book Science Policy and Development in Africa written by R. Sooryamoorthy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-09-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since gaining political independence in the 1950s, science has rapidly become a prerequisite for national development within many African nations. Supported by international agencies, such as UNESCO, initiatives were taken to direct Africa on the road of scientific development, enabling contributions to world science and significant progress in many specific research areas. However, from a developmental perspective there remains the question of how science influences national development plans and strategies. How far are science policies integrated into the national development plans? What potential and challenges do science and technology pose for Africa and its prospects for wider development? Offering a comprehensive historical and empirical study of science in both colonial and post-colonial Africa, R. Sooryamoorthy brings to light the connections between science, policy and development in African nations. Focusing on understanding the widening gap in science and technology between developed and developing regions, and the integration (or lack of) with national development strategies, this study provides important insights into the potential opportunities and challenges facing Africa in the areas of science.

Download or read book Scientometrics for the Humanities and Social Sciences written by R. Sooryamoorthy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-09 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientometrics for the Humanities and Social Sciences is the first ever book on scientometrics that deals with the historical development of both quantitative and qualitative data analysis in scientometric studies. It focuses on its applicability in new and emerging areas of inquiry. This important book presents the inherent potential for data mining and analysis of qualitative data in scientometrics. The author provides select cases of scientometric studies in the humanities and social sciences, explaining their research objectives, sources of data and methodologies. It illustrates how data can be gathered not only from prominent online databases and repositories, but also from journals that are not stored in these databases. With the support of specific examples, the book shows how data on demographic variables can be collected to supplement scientometric data. The book deals with a research methodology which has an increasing applicability not only to the study of science, but also to the study of the disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.