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.
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.
We are developing #TheSouthAlsoKnows to create:
Through this initiative, launched in March 2022, NORRAG aims to contribute to reversing the North-to-South flow of expertise and decision making by creating a megaphone to amplify underrepresented expert knowledge from the South to audiences in the North. This initiative will also develop long-term changes by improving access to the work of scholars from South America to Asia and the Pacific; from Africa to eastern Europe.
We have three reasons why we engage in surfacing and amplifying scholars from the South:
Our focus in this initiative on Scholars 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 ‘Scholars from the South’ encompasses a huge range of possible perspectives, experiences and expertise. Our focus here on Scholars from the South aims to address a central aspect of the globally uneven and unjust production, dissemination and use of academic research and knowledge.
