Suchergebnisse

Comparative education studies examined the roles multilateral organizations and non-governmental organizations play in global governance and international development. Emphasis has been given to their engagements both at policy and practice levels as well as their impacts. Generally, the mechanisms international organizations use to govern education and development seem qualitatively to change over time. The most recent emerging research trajectory explains how international organizations primarily use the power of scientific knowledge for organizational legitimacy, credibility, and impact. This is referred to in the literature as soft governance, epistemic governance, scientization, or scientific multilateralism, as it significantly relies on the authority of scientific knowledge as opposed to hard, financial preconditions, for global governance and development. Our understanding of scientization is still in its 'infancy', partly due to its relatively recent emergence and partly due to the use of varied indicators to assess it across organizational types. To contribute toward further theorization, this study problematizes scientization in international organizations, with a focus on multilateral, intergovernmental organizations. The study is organized around answering this overarching question: What are the conceptual and methodological attributes or features of scientization in international organizations? Using sociological theories and conceptions of policymaking and transfer, it discusses core substantive, methodological, and theoretical issues of scientization having relevance for further research.

In order to redefine the university-society relationship, African universities aspire to forge new partnerships with local, national, regional, and international actors. Employing a critical review of the literature and an analysis of the strategic plans of regional African organisations and African universities, this study explores the challenges and opportunities of creating strategic university–society partnerships in Africa. Against a backdrop of African universities fashioned after modernity, the study draws from (1) "Mode 2" knowledge production, "Mode 3" research, entrepreneurial university, and academic capitalism, (2) the helices models and epistemic cultures, (3) power dynamics in international negotiations over educational policy, and (4) uBuntu and Cosmo-uBuntu, to inspire African universities towards contextual relevance and significance. Furthermore, the study proposes a conceptual framework of strategic international university-society partnerships to inform policy making, strategic planning, and further research.