Indigenous Knowledge in Transdisciplinary Research and Education: Experiences from Africa

As part of the Social Science Matters Programme, ISC and its Members and partners will offer a number of knowledge exchange webinars.

This series examines the conceptual, methodological and ethical considerations in research involving the interaction of science and indigenous and local knowledge systems in various regions. This webinar draws on experiences from Africa, in particular, South Africa and Uganda. 

The interaction between (conventional) science and indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing can range from contestation and appropriation to negotiation and augmentation.

Consideration of how this interaction can be shaped requires developing robust epistemological, ontological, methodological and ethical frameworks, while addressing power relations embedded in issues such as intellectual property, consent and governance.

The webinar series will examine these interactions and tensions across a range of contexts and regions, since local conditions and specificities are essential to understanding them.

The first of these webinars will be focused on the African context, specifically drawing on experiences from South Africa and Uganda, through three themes:

1. Transdisciplinary Research in the African context

2. Ethnoscience and ethnomedicine in Africa for social cohesion

3. Indigenous knowledge-generation and decolonization of education in Africa