Capital and the academy

Green raises questions about the entanglement of capital in approaches to IK. She argues that once that is acknowledged, then different kinds of conversations can be raised with regard to engaging seriously with different knowledges and ways of knowing. This argument is likely relevant in other contexts outside of South Africa including parts of Latin America, Canada and the U.S.

• Important to “recognize the entanglement with capital in current state-led approaches to indigenous knowledge in South Africa. Once that is on the table, it becomes possible to ask different kinds of questions, and to develop a different intellectual project.” (8)
• Green calls for the postcolonial university to find the resources to mount a serious challenge to the ‘(technical) efficiency, (economic) profitability and (scientific) objectivity’ that undergird the neoliberal knowledge economy in order to engage seriously with different knowledges and ways of knowing. (10)