scholarly journals Scientific networks in the production of knowledge in South Africa

2016 ◽  
Vol Volume 112 (Number 5/6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Radhamany Sooryamoorthy ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
Scientific Networks

scholarly journals The need to connect: on the cell biology of synapses, behaviors, and networks in science

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (21) ◽  
pp. 3203-3207
Author(s):  
Daniel A. Colón-Ramos
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Cellular Communication ◽  
Biological Mechanisms ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
Love Story ◽  
Scientific Networks ◽  
Ramón Y Cajal

My laboratory is interested in the cell biology of the synapse. Synapses, which are points of cellular communication between neurons, were first described by Santiago Ramón y Cajal as “protoplasmic kisses that appear to constitute the final ecstasy of an epic love story.” Who would not want to work on that?! My lab examines the biological mechanisms neurons use to find and connect to each other. How are synapses formed during development, maintained during growth, and modified during learning? In this essay, I reflect about my scientific journey to the synapse, the cell biological one, but also a metaphorical synapse—my role as a point of contact between the production of knowledge and its dissemination. In particular, I discuss how the architecture of scientific networks propels knowledge production but can also exclude certain groups in science.

The Mobilization of Labour and the Production of Knowledge: The Antiquarian Tradition in Rhodesia

1979 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence Ranger
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
Southern Rhodesia ◽  
Distinguished Group

One of the advantages of looking at white society in Southern Rhodesia is that it was a very simple society by contrast to South Africa and that its essential structures show up very clearly. This was certainly true of the business of producing models of African societies, customs and conduct. In South Africa there grew up a cluster of intellectual ‘experts’ on Africans – including a distinguished group of anthropologists. In South Africa, therefore, the connexion between the requirements of the white economy and the most influential models of African societies was complex and indirect. In Rhodesia there was no such tradition of indigenous social science. As a contributor to the Native Affairs Department Annual admitted in 1956, ‘of all areas in Africa Southern Rhodesia was the most backward in anthropological knowledge of its own indigenous peoples’. In Southern Rhodesia the men who administered Africans, mobilized them for employment and kept them working were also the men who produced the authorized versions of the African past, of African customs and of African ‘personality’.

scholarly journals Co-production of knowledge in transdisciplinary communities of practice: Experiences from food governance in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilla Adelle ◽  
Tristan Görgens ◽  
Florian Kroll ◽  
Bruno Losch
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Knowledge Building ◽  
Multiple Stakeholders ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
Food Governance ◽  
Cohesive Group

Abstract Communities of Practice are sites of social learning for the co-production of knowledge. Building on recent literature on Transdisciplinary Communities of Practice, this article reflects on the experiences of an emergent ‘Food Governance Community of Practice’ in South Africa that brings together multiple stakeholders to co-produce knowledge to inform local food policy and governance. Our results show the following lessons for managers and participants engaged in establishing similar ‘third spaces’ for knowledge co-production: 1) make inevitable power asymmetries explicit; 2) the identity of the group should not be built on a particular normative position but emerge from discursive processes and 3) create a balance between supporting peripheral learning and maintaining the specialist cutting edge discussions needed for co-production. Furthermore, the most beneficial legacy of a Community of Practice may not be the outputs in terms of the co-produced knowledge but the development of a cohesive group of stakeholders with a new shared way of knowing.

Time and Latitude in South Africa

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 27-38
Author(s):  
J. Hers
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Astronomical Observations ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Astronomical Determination ◽  
Limited Accuracy ◽  
Better Than

In South Africa the modern outlook towards time may be said to have started in 1948. Both the two major observatories, The Royal Observatory in Cape Town and the Union Observatory (now known as the Republic Observatory) in Johannesburg had, of course, been involved in the astronomical determination of time almost from their inception, and the Johannesburg Observatory has been responsible for the official time of South Africa since 1908. However the pendulum clocks then in use could not be relied on to provide an accuracy better than about 1/10 second, which was of the same order as that of the astronomical observations. It is doubtful if much use was made of even this limited accuracy outside the two observatories, and although there may – occasionally have been a demand for more accurate time, it was certainly not voiced.

Indirect Rule in South Africa

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Myers
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Indirect Rule

Combining Professional Interests and Travel: People to People Citizen Ambassador Program

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-54
Author(s):  
Alex Johnson ◽  
Amanda Hitchins
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Health Education ◽  
Communication Disorders ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Exchange Program

Abstract This article summarizes a series of trips sponsored by People to People, a professional exchange program. The trips described in this report were led by the first author of this article and include trips to South Africa, Russia, Vietnam and Cambodia, and Israel. Each of these trips included delegations of 25 to 50 speech-language pathologists and audiologists who participated in professional visits to learn of the health, education, and social conditions in each country. Additionally, opportunities to meet with communication disorders professionals, students, and persons with speech, language, or hearing disabilities were included. People to People, partnered with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), provides a meaningful and interesting way to learn and travel with colleagues.

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