Overview
- Demonstrates glaring inequalities in representation of global knowledge production in the global South
- Uses a range of methods to explain the motives and dynamics behind this
- Proposes solutions by which these inequalities may be addressed
Access this book
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
Table of contents (8 chapters)
-
Theoretical Considerations
-
Empirical Evidences and Practical Considerations
Keywords
About this book
This book investigates and critically interprets the underrepresentation of the global South in global knowledge production. The author analyses the serious bias towards scholars and institutions from this region: he argues that this phenomenon causes serious disadvantages not only for authors and institutions, but global science as well by impeding the flow of fresh, innovative scholarship. This book uses a combination of field theory and world-systems analysis to explain the motives and dynamics behind the geopolitical and societal inequalities in the system of global knowledge production. Subsequently, the author offers several solutions by which these inequalities could be reduced, or even eliminated. This book will be of interest and value to scholars of knowledge inequalities, and knowledge production in the global South.
“Márton Demeter’s monograph invokes rich anecdotal, empirical and scientometric evidence to delineate the contours of a world system that preserves thedominance of Western knowledge and scholars and the westernisation or peripheralisation of the rest – a system defined by geopolitical and material inequalities, socio-economic class differences, institutional elitism and publishing biases. Demeter’s work counters narratives that present academia as meritocratic and that justify disparities in world publications on the basis of pure rigour, exposing rather norms and values that perpetuate a western elitist system and peripheralise those who happen to lack this cultural capital. Demeter’s work adds to an expanding field of research documenting how Anglophone standards and biases in journal indexing, peer review and editorial board recruitment marginalise consistently the Global South. His practical and concrete suggestions to subvert this system of horizontal and vertical inequalities could not be timelier and provides momentum to decolonisation movements in higher education across the world.”
—Dr Romina Istratii, SOAS University of London, UK
“Márton Demeter is a scholar dedicated to revealing the inequality in academic publishing and a strong advocate for scholars from the Global South. This book is an epitome of his effort on this cause. Demeter utilizes his wealth of data including authorships, citations, journal publishers, editorial review board compositions, the reviewers and the editors of journals as strong evidence of inequality with his three-dimensional model of academic stratification. This book is a must-read for scholars both in the Global North and the Global South to reflect on the current state of academic knowledge gatekeeping and production. It will spark a dialogue between scholars to address the dominance of the Global North especially in the field of communication.”
—Professor Louisa Ha, Bowling Green State University, USA
“Márton Demeter’s analysis and critique of the unequal structure of global knowledge production is a powerfulcontribution to the global justice movement with dramatic implications for what academics in both the Global North and the Global South can do to help science and the humanities live up to their claims of meritocracy and universality. Demeter employs a useful critical combination of the world-systems perspective and Bourdieusian field theory to organize the results of his careful and sophisticated empirical studies of global knowledge production. He is an intrepid protagonist of a more egalitarian human future.”
—Professor Christopher Chase-Dunn, University of California, Riverside, USA
Reviews
“The thought-provoking monograph will be interesting to the community of communications scholars … .” (Zsolt Balázs Major, KOME, September 1, 2021) “Márton Demeter’s monograph invokes rich anecdotal, empirical and scientometric evidence to delineate the contours of a world system that preserves the dominance of Western knowledge and scholars and the westernisation or peripheralisation of the rest – a system defined by geopolitical and material inequalities, socio-economic class differences, institutional elitism and publishing biases. Demeter’s work counters narratives that present academia as meritocratic and that justify disparities in world publications on the basis of pure rigour, exposing rather norms and values that perpetuate a western elitist system and peripheralise those who happen to lack this cultural capital. Demeter’s work adds to an expanding field of research documenting how Anglophone standards and biases in journal indexing, peer review and editorial board recruitment marginalise consistently the Global South. His practical and concrete suggestions to subvert this system of horizontal and vertical inequalities could not be timelier and provides momentum to decolonisation movements in higher education across the world.”
—Dr Romina Istratii, SOAS University of London, UK
“Márton Demeter is a scholar dedicated to revealing the inequality in academic publishing and a strong advocate for scholars from the Global South. This book is an epitome of his effort on this cause. Demeter utilizes his wealth of data including authorships, citations, journal publishers, editorial review board compositions, the reviewers and the editors of journals as strong evidence of inequality with his three-dimensional model of academic stratification. This book is a must-read for scholars both in the Global North and the Global South to reflect on the current state of academic knowledge gatekeeping and production. It will spark a dialogue between scholars to address the dominance of the Global North especially in the field of communication.”
—Professor Louisa Ha, Bowling Green State University, USA
“Márton Demeter’s analysis and critique of the unequal structure of global knowledge production is a powerful contribution to the global justice movement with dramatic implications for what academics in both the Global North and the Global South can do to help science and the humanities live up to their claims of meritocracy and universality. Demeter employs a useful critical combination of the world-systems perspective and Bourdieusian field theory to organize the results of his careful and sophisticated empirical studies of global knowledge production. He is an intrepid protagonist of a more egalitarian human future.”
—Professor Christopher Chase-Dunn, University of California, Riverside, USA
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Márton Demeter is Associate Professor at the National University of Public Services, Hungary, and a Bolyai Research Fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His works have been widely published in leading periodicals such as International Journal of Communication and Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Academic Knowledge Production and the Global South
Book Subtitle: Questioning Inequality and Under-representation
Authors: Márton Demeter
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52701-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-52700-6Published: 02 October 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-52703-7Published: 03 October 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-52701-3Published: 01 October 2020
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVIII, 195
Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 6 illustrations in colour
Topics: Higher Education, Educational Policy and Politics, Education Policy, International and Comparative Education