Future Directions of STS in Africa

Cite as:

Okune, Angela. 2018. “Future Directions of STS in Africa.” In STS in "Africa" in formation, created by Angela Okune and Aadita Chaudhury.  In STS Across Borders Digital Exhibit, curated by Aalok Khandekar and Kim Fortun. Society for Social Studies of Science. August.

Meta-Narrative

This PECE essay helps to answer the STS Across Borders analytic question: "How is the future of this STS formation envisioned?"

This essay highlights interview and survey responses related to future directions of studies of science and technology in Africa as held by individuals working on critical science and technology issues in Africa. Responses highlight that future studies of science and technology in/of/from “Africa” should pay attention to the growing presence of multinationals working and promoting science and technology in Africa (Green; Sambuli); Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (Orwa; Ochieng); scholarly infrastructures (Densmore; Green; Okune; Bezuidenhout; Barnard; Coban; Meek); and making/hacking/innovation/experimentation (Bernal; Mwenda).

This essay is part of a broader exhibit on "STS in Africa."

STS Across Borders In Brief

STS Across Borders is a special exhibit organized by the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) to showcase how the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) has developed in different times, places...Read more

Lesley Green on Future Directions of STS in Africa

Lesley Green (May 18, 2018): “For me, the key work that needs to be done in the next couple of years is building science studies in Africa in order to equip scholars to be able to take issue with "captured science." Because captured science with its neoliberal dogma and political will and...Read more

Chris Orwa on Future Directions of STS in Africa

Chris Orwa (July 2018): "Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence the two technologies that are fast garnering interest in Kenya and Africa. For Blockchain, it promises to eradicate corruption which is endemic in the continent – developers and entrepreneurs are hoping to cash in on this craze and...Read more

Michel Wahome on Future Directions of STS in Africa

Michel Wahome (August 20, 2018): "Continued work in the development of decolonial epistemology so that Africa can speak about and for itself." Read more

Melissa Densmore on future directions of STS in Africa

Melissa Densmore (May 6, 2018): " There are some major structural issues entailed in the conference circuit - resulting in geographical siloing of research contributions. Would like to see more support for "southern-driven" conferences, with ties to mainstream conferences, as well as more...Read more

Jude Mwenda on future directions of STS in Africa

Jude Mwenda (May 5, 2018): "biotechnology, precolonial making" Read more

Helena Barnard on future directions of STS in Africa

Helena Barnard (April 25, 2018): " The rise of predatory journals and what it suggests about how African scholars perceive the process of knowledge generation is a critically important issue." Read more

Alev Coban on future directions of STS in Africa

Alev Coban (May 9, 2018): "In general, I would like to see STS research IN Africa expanding. Financial support for local researchers and for building research institutes is needed, so that local research becomes more visible globally." Read more

Nanjira Sambuli on Future Directions of STS in Africa

Nanjira Sambuli (July 2018): "There seems to be growing interest in researching innovation within STS, in academic institutions, as well as by multinational tech companies like Google (setting up an AI lab in Ghana), IBM Research (and their first Africa research centre in Nairobi), Microsoft (...Read more

Sidney Ochieng on Future Directions of STS in Africa

Sidney Ochieng (July 2018): "So much blockchain, this is very much still in the hype stage; I’m still not sure of the practical uses. Lending is huge but it is very focused on personal small loans, but movement to other sectors. There’s farmtech and of course there is a lot of excitement...Read more

Angela Okune on the future directions of STS in Africa

Angela Okune (June 6, 2018): I think that future research related to science and technology in/from/on Africa should look at research infrastructures, that is, the technical, legal, political, economic and social infrastructures that have been and are being established to produce...Read more

Victoria Bernal on future directions of STS in Africa

Victoria Bernal (May 27, 2018): " There are so many exciting things going on. One thing that interests me is African makers, hackers, and repair/recyclers. I think there is a lot of experimentation, teaching and learning, and innovation going on in some spheres that are not necessarily on...Read more

Louise Bezuidenhout on future directions of STS in Africa

Louise Bezuidenhout (May 17, 2018): " I would like to see more work on the informal economies of research." Read more

Laura Meek on future directions of STS in Africa

Laura Meek (May 12, 2018): " ontological politics & world-making practices" Read more