Protection of Traditional Knowledge in South Africa: Does the 'Commons' Provide a Solution?

The relevance and appropriateness of western oriented psychology in practice and research is a concern in developing and non-western contexts. It is difficult to address this problem from any alternative position other than the western academic frame if one is situated in a tertiary educational institution in South Africa. In acknowledgement, this article explores the academic context including some local voices from the field in a search for possible congruent research methodologies, which may echo knowledge systems of the traditions of the local context in South Africa and its broader context in the continent. Constraining factors to the development of an appropriate praxis have been suggested to include epistemological issues, western academic hegemony and the perceived elitism of psychology as a discipline. In particular, this article explores the adoption of a narrative literary stance for research in psychology. Literary theory and discussions of the narrative from Bakhtin's writings are drawn on in an attempt to bridge a perceived epistemological divide between local traditional knowledge systems and western academia. From this perspective the oral tradition of Africa is considered at the interface of local and western knowledge around healing /helping traditions.

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Sui Generis Systems for the Legal Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Biogenetic Resources in Cameroon and South Africa

The Journal of World Intellectual Property ◽

10.1111/j.1747-1796.2003.tb00241.x ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 6 (5) ◽

pp. 763-774 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Marcelin M. Tonye

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Traditional Knowledge ◽

Legal Protection

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Towards a fusion of horizons: Thematic contours for an urban public theological praxis-agenda in South Africa

HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies ◽

10.4102/hts.v70i3.2812 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 70 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Stephan De Beer ◽

Ignatius Swart

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

South African ◽

Social Life ◽

Right To The City ◽

Public Theology ◽

Urban Migration ◽

Fusion Of Horizons ◽

The Commons ◽

African Context ◽

The City

This article proposes a ‘fusion of horizons’ in constructing urban public theologies in South Africa. This is done through the introduction of five interrelated themes that have emerged from the on-going knowledge and idea production by a distinguishable counterpoint in contemporary scholarly, intellectual and activist engagement with the urban, in the authors’ own South African context but also wider internationally. In advancing a praxis-agenda for urban public theology, the authors subsequently identify the following, albeit not exhaustive, themes: southern urbanisms and the factor of unprecedented urban migration; ‘right to the city’ and urbanisation from below; a reclaiming of the commons; the making of ‘good cities’; and actors of faith in relation to urban social life.

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