--I am very pleased to announce the publication of Pathways to Alternative Epistemologies in Africa. Please do recommend the volume to your libraries, and endeavor to get one for yourself too!Thank you!
€114.39
Pathways to Alternative Epistemologies in Africa | Adeshina Afolayan | P...
This volume investigates alternative epistemological pathways by which knowledge production in Africa can procee...
Adeshina Afolayan, PhDDepartment of PhilosophyUniversity of IbadanNigeria+234(80)-3928-8429
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On Jan 13, 2021, at 3:58 PM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:
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Congratulations are in order, my people. The title, the topics, the authors, etc., are so tantalizing!This, seriously, would be a great read, but alas, only a handful can afford it. This is discouraging, and it won't be the first time we are discussing this matter. It won't be the last time either because, as the old saying goes, "When you steal the chicken of the pauper, you've just made an invitation to endless grudges." We need to start writing protest letters to our academic publishers and let them know that except they are publishing only for library holdings in the western world, these prices are over and above what the average reading enthusiast can afford. They should be aware, for instance, that $1 is almost 500 Naira in exchange rates in Nigeria. A $20 book would come with a warping N10,000 price tag. Do the math and calculate how many of such books the average Nigerian academic can afford every single year. Not many, if any! Two, three years down the road, even the authors would not be able to afford the purchases as those prices would have doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled. Except, perhaps, it's to flaunt the cliché "your eyes may see, but your lips cannot taste" childhood taunting, these prices must be made bearable. They are exponentially beyond the margin of affordability. We can follow the Indian model of the past years, can't we? It's the same model most newspaper publishers around the world follow. The paper quality may not be heavy, but the price tag will not empty the wallet, and the pool of knowledge would overflow its banks to all and sundry. This is the goal of every writer. Who would not want to read these three respected author-editors? Sadly, few would. I can't, in spite of my utmost respect and admiration for them and their superior intellects. It's neither fair to readers nor rewarding and fulfilling to authors. Consequently, publishers lose as well. Something must be done. The stakes are just too high for us to do nothing!Michael O. Afoláyan
On Wednesday, January 13, 2021, 5:47:04 PM GMT+1, Adeshina Afolayan <adeshina...@gmail.com> wrote:--I am very pleased to announce the publication of Pathways to Alternative Epistemologies in Africa. Please do recommend the volume to your libraries, and endeavor to get one for yourself too!Thank you!
€114.39
Pathways to Alternative Epistemologies in Africa | Adeshina Afolayan | P...
This volume investigates alternative epistemological pathways by which knowledge production in Africa can procee...
Adeshina Afolayan, PhDDepartment of PhilosophyUniversity of IbadanNigeria+234(80)-3928-8429
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kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
I suspect Western academic presses could do better commercially if they modified their publishing model while retaining the core qualities that makes them academic publishers.There could be more of an effort to communicate with the average person in the way the books are written and the manner in which they are marketed.I understand this discussion, as initiated by Michael Afoloyan, to be about Western academic publishers, not academic publishers generally.I also understand academic publishers to be those who publish writers employed by academic institutions or working in the context of such institutions, such as books coming out of academic programs even if the writer is not an academic.These descriptions are vital for understanding the relationships between academic publishers, scholarly publishers who might not be academic and the various publics served by these diverse publishers.I suspect the Western academic system, the globally dominant system, is overly homogenised even in spite of significant flexibility.This homogenisation is reflected in fixation upon one way of organising and presenting critical knowledge-the argumentative and expository essay, a style of presentation that facilitates linear, ABCD, 1+1=2 kind of logic, but which addresess a rather narrow though very powerful and readily mutually verifiable range of human cognitive possibility.In the Western tradition, this style of discourse may be described as pioneered by and taken to a high level by Aristotle.Plato, Aristotle's teacher, on the other hand, used dramatic dialogues set in vivid environmental and interpersonal contexts, along wuth mythic narratives, in building structures of logical reasoning, employing both linear and associative logic.Scholarly texts, the larger category to which academic bbooks belong, would be more interesting if the writers are free to use a broader range of analytical and expository methods in pursuing the development of logic.Some French scholarship, European developments in combining artistic and conventional scholarly methods, the use of autoethnography,these demonstrate effirts to rework the dominant paradigm of the Western academic text.The Arab, Persian, Islamic and classical Asian scholarly traditions have also used poetry as means of developing scholarly ideas.ThanksToyin
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Unless a scholar is very boastful and deceptive, scholarly academic publishing is a depressing narrative. I have access to the figures. Sometimes the book you spent ten years researching and writing may not sell 100 copies. Some even sell 50 copies. The number of those who follow you on Facebook does not translate to sales, sometimes not even five copies. Africa is a special case: the subject is disconnected from the audience. A Tiv person in Nigeria may never see an award-winning book on his people and talk less about reading it. And what is of paramount concern to the Tiv may not even be the issue that the scholar writes about. The Tiv may be worried about their farms and insecurity and the scholar may be writing about the Tiv and cellphone use in urban areas!
The solution to this problem is to develop publishing in Africa, and address the concerns that drive the people themselves. Even in the US, books on Bible and dogs sell the most. The conferences on both attract tens of thousands, occupying major convention centers.
TF
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kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
In the next few days, I will be announcing my last book Series, focusing on literary studies and creativity. It will be a hybrid model, and will tap on the creative energies of a pool of scholars usually ignored.
In the post-COVID age, the way we do business will change. The book industry is on the verge of major changes. My first open access book has over 3000 downloads in the first 20 days.
The conversation with our African colleagues has been one-sided. In acrimonious meetings that I have attended, with people walking out in anger, the argument on the Africa-side is why do we want them to read the books published in the West and we never talk about what they publish for those in the West to read. The President of Rwanda who served as a Keynote Speaker in one of those acrimonious meetings said that his people were being insulted.
I think the language of communication is as important as what is being communicated.
TF
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kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DB6PR04MB29829ED1EED7C5A5C8BD255DA6A50%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.