Sharing Knowledge, Transforming Societies

In June 2016, the Norwegian Programme for
Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Development
(Norhed) hosted a conference on the theme of ‘knowledge for development’
in an attempt to shift the focus of the programme towards its academic
content. This book follows up on that event. The conference highlighted
the usefulness of presenting the value of Norhed’s different projects to
the world, showing how they improve knowledge and expand access to it
through co-operation. A wish for more meta-knowledge was also expressed
and this gives rise to the following questions:

–    Is this way
of co-operating contributing to the growth of independent post-colonial
knowledge production in the South, based on analyses of local data and
experiences in ways that are relevant to our shared future?
–    Does the growth of academic independence, as well as greater
equality, and the ability to develop theories different to those imposed
by the better-off parts of the world, give rise to deeper
understandings and better explanations?
–    Does it, at least, spread the ability to translate existing
methodologies in ways that add meaning to observations of local context
and data, and thus enhance the relevance and influence of the academic
profession locally and internationally?

This book, in its varied
contributions, does not provide definite answers to these questions but
it does show that Norhed is a step in the right direction. Norhed is an
attempt to fund collaboration within and between higher education
institutions. We know that both the uniqueness of this programme, and
ideas of how to better utilise the learning and experience emerging from
it, call for more elaboration and broader dissemination before we can
offer further guidance on how to do things better. This book is a first
attempt.