Launched in March 2022, #TheSouthAlsoKnows is a NORRAG initiative that aims to contribute to reversing the North-to-South flow of expertise and decision making. We aim to create a megaphone to amplify under-represented expert knowledge from the South to audiences globally, including in the North. This initiative will also develop long-term changes by improving access to the work of scholars and experts from South America to Asia and the Pacific; from Africa to eastern Europe.
Experts from the Global South are vastly under-represented in citations in academic articles and in university course syllabi. Moreover, in countries in the Global South locally relevant research and knowledge production is frequently overlooked in favour of evidence produced in high-income countries in the Global North. South-North research collaborations are also plagued by unequal relations, with many perpetuating the colonial practice of raw materials (data) collected in the South being sent North for value-added processing (analysis and writing).
In keeping with NORRAG’s principle of promoting knowledge equity, particularly from the Global South, we are launching a new initiative to continue to deliver on our original promise to surface and amplify voices from the Global South: #TheSouthAlsoKnows.
Why are we doing this?
We have three reasons why we engage in surfacing and amplifying scholars and experts from the South:
Justice: experts from the Global South continue to be marginalized due to historic and contemporary injustices; making space in article citations, on university syllabi and in decision making processes is one way of addressing that.
Knowledge: the content and lessons from locally produced and context-sensitive research and evidence may be different to that produced in the North, and relevant to needs in both the South and North.
Example: if others experience the value of Southern experts through NORRAG’s work and partnerships, they can amplify these experts’ work and research further and change their own practices to include voices from the South.
What are we co-creating?
A network for experts from the Global South
A searchable database for decision makers and others seeking expertise from and on the global South
A campaign to address the under-representation of global South scholars and experts in international education policy discussions.
Our focus in this initiative on experts from the South does not deny, nor seek to compete with, other forms of historical marginalization (such as ethnicity, gender or socioeconomic status). We recognize the ‘Souths in the geographic North and Norths in the geographic South.’ (Mahler, 2017: 1). We also recognize that ‘experts from the South’ encompasses a huge range of possible perspectives, experiences and expertise. Our focus here on experts from the South aims to address a central aspect of the globally uneven and unjust production, dissemination and use of academic research, knowledge and expertise.
