THE KNOWLEDGE DIVIDE AS A CHALLENGE TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

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THE KNOWLEDGE DIVIDE AS A CHALLENGE TO
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

• Marian Ewurama Addy
• Chair, ICSU-PCDC

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COVERAGE

• How scientific knowledge is created.
• Where it is created.
• Exclusion of some communities, and therefore,
  some sources of empirical knowledge.
• Results of the divide.
• Consequences of the divide.
• Overcoming the challenges.

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INTRODUCTION

• Knowledge divide exists no arguments.
• Every community has knowledge. Therefore, why
  the knowledge divide?
• The kind of knowledge in this knowledge divide.
• Knowledge which is
• Universal
• Usable
• Capable of predicting the future and,
• Gives rise to products for improved quality of
  life.
• Scientific knowledge.

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SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

• How is it created or acquired?
• By the scientific method, starting with empirical
  knowledge which every community has.
• One definition of empirical is capable of being
  verified or disproved by observation or
  experiment, especially in the natural sciences.
• Conversion of empirical knowledge into scientific
  knowledge requires verification.
• Scientific knowledge can be created from any
  knowledge system through verification.
• If so, why the knowledge divide?

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SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

• Where it was created from the beginning.
• In the parts of the world referred to as
  developed or The North, with a smaller number of
  the worlds people.
• Comparatively little of such creativity happening
  in the developing world which has a larger number
  of the worlds people Majority World.
• Mobility of high level manpower towards the areas
  of high concentration of scientific knowledge
  creation.
• Less or no creation of scientific knowledge from
  the empirical knowledge of the majority world.

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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

• Constant improvement in the quality of life for
  the current generation same or better quality of
  life for subsequent generations, all from the
  same sources of the earth.
• Knowledge needed for this sustainable development
  must come from all regions and all knowledge
  systems.
• But assumed to come from scientific knowledge and
  from The North.

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NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF SCIENCE

• A lot of good things about scientific knowledge
  and therefore tendency to ignore possible
  negative aspects
• Limitations of scientific knowledge
• Uncertainties associated with it
• Products of science not always beneficial
• Products of science not always leading to
  development or improved quality of life.

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NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF SCIENCE

• The traditional values of science are meant to
  safeguard objectivity, neutrality,
  disinterestedness and rationality. These and
  other values described by the sociologist Merton
  have come to be seen as the core ethos of
  science. Taken to the extreme, however, they may
  seem to justify absence of ethics, empathy and
  concern for social implications. The search for
  universal laws and theories with no attempt to
  relate them to human values and concerns can
  present science as abstract and insensitive to
  human needs, with the result that many people
  perceive science as cold and lacking a human
  face.

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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

• In spite of these, tendency from those in The
  South to depend on the North for the knowledge
  for sustainable development.
• Therefore they do not create scientific knowledge
  from their own knowledge systems to add to world
  knowledge required for sustainable development.
• Development must be global for it to be
  sustainable.
• Therefore, all of us lose.

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THE CHALLENGE OF THE DIVIDE

• Accordingly, science is less pluralistic in
  practice than it could be in principle. The lack
  of equitable representation has serious negative
  implications not only for society but also,
  through systematic under-inclusion of some
  perspectives, for the range and quality of the
  research that is produced. Many brilliant minds
  currently have no opportunity to contribute to
  science. ICSU Strategic Review. Science and
  Society Rights and Responsibilities.

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THE CHALLENGE

• Indigenous knowledge which can contribute to
  sustainable development will lie unexploited and
  both The North and The South lose.
• The divide leads to The North selling the
  knowledge to The South on terms which may
  compromise sustainable development, whereas
  scientifying the local knowledge may not.
• Leaders in The South not even being aware of
  implications of buying the knowledge from The
  North and no local scientists to help them.

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THE CHALLENGE

• Politicians making use of products of science.
• From areas where the knowledge and the products
  are made
• From areas receiving instead, of creating the
  knowledge and making suitable products.
• Industrial giants doing business with the
  products of science.
• To get change in human attitudes and values.
• Change needed for sustainable development derives
  from indigenous knowledge systems of culture etc.

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OVERCOMING THE CHANLLENGES

• Pursue an agenda of true universality of science
• In doing so
• Use all but varied social knowledge systems.
• Exploit systems that contribute to, and are
  influenced by scientific knowledge.
• Build capacity in science all over and aim at all
  forms of knowledge being systematized and shared
  by all.
• What should be the nature of capacity building in
  science, especially for future generations?
• ICSUs definition of Capacity Building in science.

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CAPACITY BUILDING

• Capacity building in science consists of
  activities that lead to the establishment or
  strengthening of a corps of qualified scientists
  with supporting infrastructure - including
  facilities and working conditions - that enable
  them to conduct research, education, training and
  advisory work, particularly in areas of direct
  social significance.