What African voice? The politics of publishing Africa in IR

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Despite the validity of arguments highlighting the inadequacy of existing theories to explain ThirdWorld and specifically African realities, criticism has perpetuated, rather than disarmed, status quotheories. This is because focus on (and thus within) the existing conceptual framework has impededvision beyond these barriers, thereby hampering the formation of new, more applicable theories. Theintellectual balance of power and methodological hegemony of the West is perpetuated, on the Africancontinent through Western monopoly over course content in tertiary education as well as thepreferences of publishers for Africanist rather than African contributions. This study provides acritical assessment of scholarly dominance on the topic of Africa in order contribute to a greaterunderstanding of the dynamics acting to exclude non-Western ideas and experiences from the IRnarrative.The study provides a content analysis of 25 peer-rated influential journals publishing IR contentfor the period January 2000 to August 2010. The aim was to identify dominant themes and scholars onthe topic of Africa in IR. General biographical information on the five highest ranking scholars in termsof publication exposure was gathered in order to assess networks of academic and professionalaffiliation that could have contributed to their publishing success.Dominant themes vary between African, Third World and international-oriented journals.Governance is a prevalent theme throughout, but African journals prefer intervention to theinternational journals' preoccupation with conflict in Africa. Third World Journals place developmentfirst. The five most prolific authors are Ian Taylor, Kevin C. Dunn, Cameron G. Thies, Nana K. Poku andChris Alden. They are all currently lecturing at either American or British academic institutions andare all Africanists, save for Poku who is a diasporic African.Networks of affiliation are established through institutions of higher education primarily andthrough societal memberships. The internet does not seem to be an important tool of networkingamongst Africanists. Dominant authors tend to collaborate, serve as article reviewers or on editorialboards of journals for which they also submit articles, and as research grant proposal reviewers, thusalso constituting the gatekeepers in academia.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University