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African scholarship plays an important role in asserting the value of African epistemologies and those of the global South in the knowledge economy. This is pertinent to higher education in postcolonial Africa, whose indigenous knowledge systems and intellectual legacies have played peripheral roles because of coloniality and the global neoliberal trends. This paper presents a historical review of a generation of African scholarship that spans from the last half of the twentieth century to date. It does so with the view of exploring the developments, challenges and prospects experienced by African scholars in their pursuit of African knowledges and the decolonisation discourse in the higher education sector. The first part of the paper provides a backdrop through an analysis of some selected major research on the nature of African scholarship published in the last half of the twentieth century, and its contributions to the decolonisation discourse on the continent. The second part examines the nature of contribution of African scholarship to knowledge production in the twenty-first century. That section critically analyses the challenges and opportunities which have been encountered in reshaping the discourses of knowledge production and decolonisation in theory and practice. It is concluded that in its distinctiveness in asserting African and marginalised knowledge systems as valid and relevant, and operating in spaces of struggle, the African scholarship should continue to contribute to the interrogation of the objectivity of Eurocentric, neoliberal thought. The paper recommends the promotion of African scholarship in shaping the decolonisation of knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is a form of expert knowledge that is central to migration governance. This article analyses M&E of the EU Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), created in 2015 to 'fight the root causes of migration'. Combining institutionalist accounts with practice theory, we examine whether M&E knowledge production served the instrumental purpose of assessing policy impact or mainly legitimated particular policy actors and positions. We find that M&E did not produce evidence on whether the EUTF met its objectives. However, in the context of the EU's multiple crises, M&E knowledge production served to seek legitimacy not only for the EUTF, but also for the further fusion of development and migration policies, and for the EU as a competent and transparent actor. Our analysis highlights that knowledge use and knowledge production are connected, and that M&E knowledge politics allow for the legitimation of both actors and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an overview of the Knowledge Exchange Research Group (KERG) West African Elibrary Collaborative (WAELC) study of West African scholars' systemic restricted access to digitized scholarly databases. WAELC, an ongoing qualitative and quantitative study, explores limited accessibility to current open‐access digital repositories and platforms at some African universities. A practical output of the study is to inform the development of a sustainable institutional repository and support the development of an open‐access multimodal digital platform that will feature scholarly and creative works of global Black people. The WAELC data addresses gaps in previous research on library access and usage at African universities and critically responds to the general African Digital Divide literature. A central focus of this article is to discuss the sociocultural and historical practices and processes that shape current digital access to electronic scholarship in Africa. Foregrounded in a Black feminist autoethnographic approach, the author's research process and researcher positionality were central to developing the WAELC research project. A significant finding of this research is that the systemic inequities framing global knowledge access and production in Global South institutions are reproduced in infrastructures weakened from colonial, neocolonial, and neoliberal social, political, and economic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new digital cultures brought by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) are forcing universities to transform their practices as they prepare students for a future that will magnify the use of digital tools. Throughout the world, institutions of higher learning are gearing to maximise the benefits that could be gained from the 4IR. The concept, engaged university, ensures that the universities will not leave the communities around them behind as they prepare for the future, for universities will play a huge role in contributing to the progress in societies. This conceptual article examines the opportunities of 4IR in African institutions of higher learning. The 4IR has potential to solve many of the ills in Africa, for the African societies still suffer ill health, poverty and illiteracy. The promise of the 4IR brings hope of minimising these ills as Africa moves towards advancement. Furthermore, there has been much balkanisation in African education hence some believe that the 4IR can create links between institutions within states and the entire African continent. Not only will new technologies transform research, scholarship and teaching, but these would also have impact on bringing forth new epistemologies although there is still a battle for more resources. The major challenge for 4IR in Africa will be to create links between new technological cultures and African cultures; universities are well-placed to face such challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines depictions of Africans in China during the period when China moved to establish diplomatic relations across the African continent – the foundation of what would become Africa–China relations today. Chinese posters were early forms of mass visual interaction with (the image of) foreign nationals. They reflect how Chinese society viewed itself in relation to others as it developed a global awareness through domestic mobilization. This study investigates how Africa and Africans are depicted in Chinese posters and how they shaped and/or reflected discourses of the period. It also examines motivations behind the inclusion of Africans in Chinese posters, arguing that this largely had a domestic rationale. By historicizing the meaning-making process of the image of Africa in 20th-century Chinese posters, this paper demonstrates that Chinese posters informed public opinion by defining friend and foe, focused more on China and her Cold War entanglements than on Africa, and simultaneously challenged and reinforced some widely held stereotypes about the continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Africa Spectrum is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There is a growing community of international relations (IR) scholars who argue for the importance of investigating Global South approaches to IR scholarship, making room for theories and concepts that challenge the discipline's Eurocentricity, and debating the merits and pitfalls of globalizing IR by including perspectives from various Global South locations. In addition to acknowledging this existing critical scholarship that aims at resisting mainstream epistemologies and methodologies of knowing and doing IR, this article's central contribution is to probe the epistemic hegemony and knowledge-production hierarchies that are emerging from within the Global South. The article does not seek to uncover the truth about the representation of Global South actors by Global South IR communities. Instead, it is interested in demonstrating how epistemic hegemony and knowledge-production hierarchies do not exist only in relationships of exclusion and Othering but also in relations of inclusion and Selving. We illustrate our argument with an analysis of the representations of "Africa" in China-based IR intellectual communities. We find that Chinese discourses on solidarity, friendship, community, and shared history lead to a narrative of sameness and Selving whereby Chinese postcolonial experiences are taken to be expandable and applicable to other developing states, making Chinese perspectives seem representative of others, thereby silencing and representing African voices at once. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This article interrogates the epistemology and ontology of Made in Africa evaluation (MAE). Since the initial conversations about MAE as a method and theory in 2007, its importance has continued to gain traction and occupy space as a viable alternative to strictly using evaluative tools developed outside of Africa. Objectives: The epistemology and ontology of MAE are rarely a part of discussions, debates and research, these are regarded as auxiliary to internationally recognised methods and theories. The ability of MAE to be imagined by evaluators, academics and the community strengthens its ability to operate in multiple communities across Global Africa. Method: The project examined existing literature and primary source documents that tackle the issue of the epistemology and ontology of MAE. The researcher conducted a thorough review of literature as the primary methodology. The research focused on articles published between 2006 and 2021. Results: The findings provide critical thoughts about the research questions that guided this project. The questions interrogated how the epistemology and ontology of MAE impact the execution of the method in contemporary evaluations and its viability in the mainstream evaluation field in Africa. Conclusion: Made in Africa evaluation as a method and theory is waging an uphill battle against epistemic injustice in knowledge production, Eurocentric epistemology in evaluation, unequal power relations and projects funded by external donors. These barriers make it difficult for MAE to be fully recognised in the Western evaluation canon and suggest that an alternative framework is needed to radically shift power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic is one of the most disruptive phenomena of our time. It has threatened and destabilised the normative, it has stoked fear and anxiety, and laid bare the fragility of our systems of governance, medical science and the immanent tensions within our knowledge systems. The pandemic has provoked a fundamental collision of these systems, leaving in its wake confusion as we struggle over meaning; the production of meaning, its husbandry and political instrumentalisation as a tool for domination and resistance. This article explores the emerging reconfiguration of the certainty about what is authentic or the truth, and of the un/certainty of the fake and fakery as alternative or complementary sites of truth(s). It argues that we are now faced with a complex and layered contestation over who gets to define the truth and the fake, and under what terms. This conversation is deeply insurrectional for it invites the whole world, centres and margins alike, to confront how political, cultural, economic and social values and structures of knowledge production are implicated in the making and unmaking of the authentic, of truth as well as of the fake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Francis Fukuyama postulated that there are two powerful forces at work in human history. One, he calls, 'the logic of modern science' and the other, 'the struggle for recognition'. I agree with Fukuyama that human developmental progression is propelled by these twin principles. It is my position that these principles have been the drivers of geopolitics. In this paper, I argue that, in addition, knowledge production is a major factor in geopolitics and that the Euro-American worldview has occupied the place of hegemony by reason of knowledge production. Africa has been denied having any form of epistemic tradition by the Euro-American world to sustain itself in the position of hegemony. In the era of Fourth Industrial Revolution, it will be antithetical for Africa to continue to adopt or consume technologies driven by Eurocentrism without projecting its contribution to the global space. Hence, using a critical hermeneutical approach, I contend that Africa needs to make a unique African contribution in the era of Fourth Industrial Revolution. It is Africa's unique contribution that will guarantee Africa a place in geopolitics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to redefine the university-society relationship, African universities aspire to forge new partnerships with local, national, regional, and international actors. Employing a critical review of the literature and an analysis of the strategic plans of regional African organisations and African universities, this study explores the challenges and opportunities of creating strategic university–society partnerships in Africa. Against a backdrop of African universities fashioned after modernity, the study draws from (1) “Mode 2” knowledge production, “Mode 3” research, entrepreneurial university, and academic capitalism, (2) the helices models and epistemic cultures, (3) power dynamics in international negotiations over educational policy, and (4) uBuntu and Cosmo-uBuntu, to inspire African universities towards contextual relevance and significance. Furthermore, the study proposes a conceptual framework of strategic international university-society partnerships to inform policy making, strategic planning, and further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• English-only searches for African climate change science introduce language-bias. • Non-English literature is poorly represented on Web of Science and Scopus. • Google Scholar incorporates a non-English voice, important for global assessments. • Supporting non-English authors may improve the global uptake of their work. • English-language research translated into local languages may encourage local use. Disregarding research not published in English may pose a risk to finding solutions for urgent global concerns, such as biodiversity loss, or climate change. To assess the extent of this 'missing voice', we compared the representation of 22 languages in scientific publications on climate change in Africa, indexed by widely used databases. Between 87 % and 95 % of publications were in English, with a small, but noteworthy, number in languages of the former European colonisers of Africa. We then assessed undergraduate monographs, master's dissertations, doctoral theses, and peer-reviewed papers derived from the doctoral theses, that are about Lusophone Africa and written in Portuguese, and found this research largely not accessible in English on online databases. If the goal of researchers, practitioners and policy makers is to obtain climate change information on, or present solutions for, individual developing countries, cultures, or localised issues, then searching in English may exclude local, context specific knowledge. This may prevent global assessments from being truly global, or locally down-scalable, by biasing science towards a single world view that marginalises key local stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been increasing interest on the apparent underrepresentation of African-based scholars in economics scholarship on Africa. Much of this debate, however, proceeds with little by way of evidence in demonstrating whether such an underrepresentation actually exists in the first place. In this paper, I look at the patterns of authorship over the period 2005–2015 in 'leading' economics journals that publish regularly on Africa. I find that, on average, only 25 per cent of the journal articles published on Africa had at-least one African-based author over this period. Further, I find that whereas the journals I consider dedicate about 30 per cent of their content on Africa, only 3 per cent of their editorial boards are based on the continent. These patterns likely account for the dismal state of the discipline's knowledge about the continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Review of African Political Economy is the property of Review of Political Economy (ROAPE) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The embodied reading strategy I develop in this article provides us with an alternative to the large literature that reads #RMF from the global North. My argument is that this approach is crucial if we are to understand the South African student movements from locations elsewhere across Africa. This highlights the connections and disconnections between the many histories of decolonisation across the African continent. The attention to the geo-historical positioning of the body of the black students in these protest movements shows the nuances around the historical impossibility of the Fallist movements to accommodate the body of the African Other, whose presence remains unintelligible in the spaces between the two geo-historical spaces. This disjuncture of the body is evident in the discord that was the violence of xenophobia. The Fallist movements showed that knowledge production takes place within a space of racial violence, a form of violence that is provoked by the marginality produced by high theory on the one side and xenophobia on the other. The article suggests how an embodied understanding of the archives of violence and agency propose 'continued' disruption as a meaningful way to challenge a colonial approach to knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This bibliometric review of research sought to document and compare trends in educational leadership and management (EDLM) knowledge production from the emerging regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Using a science mapping methodology, the review identified 1171 articles published in nine "core" EDLM journals between 1965 and August 2018. This represented 22% of the full corpus of articles published in these EDLM journals during this period of time. Despite representing a relatively small portion of the overall corpus, these studies from emerging regions grew to comprise 42.5% of the corpus published between 2015 and 2018. Despite this broad pattern of growth, there was also significant geographical variation in the volume of articles published in these journals both between and within the regions. The review also identified "canonical scholars and documents" that have demonstrated lasting influence on this knowledge base. Co-citation analyses also revealed several schools of thought within this literature. The review concludes that the global literature in EDLM is undergoing a significant change in composition. The findings will inform scholarly efforts to develop a more diverse, representative, and globally relevant knowledge base. Recommendations are offered for strengthening the quality and scope of research from emerging regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review of research employed science mapping to analyse the intellectual structure of the knowledge base on educational leadership and management in Africa. The review analysed 645 Scopus-indexed documents on EDLM in Africa published between 1960 and 2018. Meta data associated with these documents were analysed using the VOSviewer software. The complementary use of citation and co-citation analysis determined that 95% of the African literature in EDLM has been published since 2000. Geographical distribution of African scholarship was highly skewed with South African scholarship accounting for 74% of the corpus. Citations analyses also identified highly cited scholars and documents within this literature. Analysis of the intellectual structure of the African EDLM knowledge base identified four main Schools of Thought. Three of these were comprised primarily of Africa-based scholarship and determined to be 'distinctively African' in terms of topical foci. The 'research front' or most current topical trend in this literature concerns leadership for educational and social transformation. Recommendations are made for building capacity among African EDLM scholars as well as for next steps in advancing the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the range of functions undertaken by the University of Fort Hare (UFH) over its 100-year history and in what ways it has carried these out. Drawing on the framework developed by Castells on the functions performed by universities, the paper shows that UFH’s role in three of these functions - namely, in the production of values for individuals and social legitimation for the state, in the formation of the dominant elite, and in the training of the labour force - has shifted and changed along with the different imperatives and conditions of the colonial, apartheid and post-1994 democratic eras in South Africa. By contrast, UFH’s role in the production of scientific knowledge is a relatively recent development, but one which has strengthened rapidly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, I investigate some of the potential contributions of art to the emerging field of sustainability science. First, the involvement of sustainability thinking in art is massively increasing. Second, there is a line of interactions between art and science that do not necessarily take sustainability as their content, at least in an ecological sense. Third, there are a considerable number of examples of sustainability science projects that are intended to link knowledge to social action without involving art. I exemplarily compare these different combinations to gain a concise overview of and differentiate between current activities and to identify some shortcomings and potentials of various contributions. The utilitarian and rather pragmatic question I ask is: What does art have to offer to sustainability science that the latter currently lacks? This question is asked from my own anthropological viewpoint, that of cultural and social science, partaking in sustainability science. I use empirical insights from sustainability projects in Africa that I took part in, which specifically dealt with sustainable land management. I blend these findings with results from a broad literature review and a comparison of multiple existing art projects. I show that a sustainability science that aims to matter to people and that takes its core tenet of linking the produced knowledge to sustainable social action seriously while facing an existing crisis of agency and knowledge would strongly benefit from opening to an experimental and experiential approach to knowledge production that explicitly includes processual, affective, and sensory types of knowledge, imaginative agency, and conceptual forms of interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on an examination of the uptake and status of open access journals (OAJs) in Africa based on the listing of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The article addresses the questions of the pattern of distribution of OAJs in Africa and examines the distribution of the oldest closed access journals that have migrated to the open access (OA) platform; the distribution of the publishers; and the licensing regime and publication languages. We first downloaded all the content of the DOAJ into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and then into Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, after editing. For data on publishers, the list of publishers was pasted into the MS Excel spreadsheet and physically sorted. As at November 2014, the total volume of OAJs globally registered in the DOAJ was 10 152, including those born closed which have now migrated to the OA platform. Globally, Europe produced the largest number of journals, followed by Asia, North America, South America and Africa. South America produced the highest number of journals per country. Egypt had the highest number of journals through the activities of one organisation, Hindawi. A journal of African origin is the oldest closed access journal in the DOAJ database; while corporations dominate OAJ publishing. Generally, OA uptake in Africa is considerably low. We suggest that the DOAJ should be proactive in sensitising publishers and other stakeholders in Africa about their services and the benefits, and how to include their journals in the database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the center of the issues about knowledge production and its circulation in Africa are the following critical questions: How does an African society learn things? What does it learn? And what does it do with the learned information? An attempt to dialectically reply to these questions leads us to discuss the issue about the quest for transformation of society from the dynamics of research and the power of knowledge. A reflection on the processes and mechanisms through which knowledge is produced in Africa is not a technical and linear exercise. Various issues related to the conceptualization of what knowledge production entails in contemporary Africa are raised as well as epistemological foundation of definitions, conceptualization and consumption of this knowledge are also examined. Furthermore, other vital questions of knowledge production for whom and for what are also analyzed within the intent of continuously searching for new paradigms as necessary in the struggles for social transformation in Africa. There is no single method, discipline or approach through which knowledge can be produced universally or internationally and be used to either transform a given society or to maintain its status quo. Knowledge production has specific actors, consumers and institutions, and the processes of knowledge production are essentially social and political. The producers have their interests, just as the consumers have theirs. By and large, this paper is a generalized critical reflection on knowledge production in Africa within the existing political systems or regimes, with a special attention being paid to the question of epistemology and research for social transformation. My claims and arguments are contextualized by the imperatives of contemporary African politics, which are synthesized in the policies and practices of colonial Africa, those of post-colonial Africa, of neoliberal globalism, and the agendas that emerged out the social struggles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ali Mazrui has left his enormous intellectual footprint in political science in general and African studies in particular. By the beginning of the 1990s, his output had been impressive enough to bring about Abdul Bemath's 1998 compilation The Mazruiana Collection (1962-1997). As the years unfolded, Bemath saw the need to update his earlier compilation, which he renamed The Mazruiana Collection Revisited. The 2005 annotated bibliographical text that he painstakingly put together continues to generously serve the social sciences and humanities. This compilation's latest edition is about to be concluded and will include all of Mazrui's publications between 2005 and 2014, as well as other edited texts that contain Mazrui's writings that were compiled posthumously. This article essentially returns to Bemath's invaluable compilation as well as to Mazrui's updated resume to study and review from a bibliometric perspective Mazrui's substantial contribution to the social sciences and the humanities. Put differently, it sets itself the task of undertaking a bibliometric approach that will help map out this scholar's "mind" by reflecting upon the numbers of peer reviewed articles alongside his long list of books and book chapter publications. It graphically depicts and analyzes Mazrui's output in order to show the extent of his contributions toward the knowledge production process related to the above-mentioned disciplines and in particular to that of African studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Sociological Association’s Research Committee “Logic and Methodology” (RC33), under the direction of President Nina Baur, is widening its focus on social research and methodology to include perspectives from outside Europe and North America. This is the second “Regional Report” to be jointly published by the BMS and this issue’s RC33 Newsletter. Although Africa is a heterogeneous region, this paper aims to provide a broad overview of the state of social research on the continent. Despite the many challenges that hinder research output, there are areas of strength and exciting opportunities for increasing Africa’s contribution to global knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a persistent contest among contemporary scholars over what is considered legitimate knowledge. This contest has implications on ways of knowing, organizing society, and responding to environmental challenges. The Western education system is a hybrid of different knowledge, adopted through European global expansion, to enrich our learning in formal educational settings. This article examines the production of Western knowledge and its validation, imposition, and effects on indigenous people and their knowledge. The author argues that there is a relationship between knowledge producers and their motives with the society in which they live. This relationship influences what is considered “legitimate knowledge” in society, politics, and economy in non-Western contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article deals with the management of knowledge for conflict resolution and innovation in Africa. After a brief discussion of the research methodology followed, a feedback is provided on the field study conducted from 2006 to 2008 in northern Uganda and Rwanda and at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, and in the DRC. As a result of the field study, certain principles and practices were identified whereby the challenges facing Africa could be examined. The author found five ‘realms’ in which knowledge management can take place and that traditional knowledge practices, if merged with more modern knowledge management practices, provide a valuable framework for using knowledge management for conflict resolution and innovation in Africa. Best practices that were identified include an intra-connected and collective knowledge production system and the production of tacit knowledge, especially among the new generation or youth. Furthermore, the importance of intellectual capital (in the form of value-driven leadership, competent managers and expert knowledge workers) and the activation of an intervention into the continuous spiral of violent conflict which will ultimately lead to the innovative transformation of African society are discussed. Finally, some recommendations are offered as possible solutions for conflict resolution and innovation in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We examine how southwestern Burkina Faso populations interpret political ecological and social change for the past 40 years to assert a changing epidemiology of childhood “cold fevers”—malaria-like illnesses. Lay knowledge about “cold fevers” is historically produced, reflecting political economic, social, ecological and biomedical changes, and the historical consciousness of people living with these illnesses. While informants insisted that dislocations wrought by a post-colonial irrigation scheme increased cold fevers, they offered different explanations for their increased incidence and intensity. This historical epidemiology of cold fevers may influence parents’ care decisions, but global public health interventions are rapidly changing therapeutic access. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Over the last two decades both the number and types of civil-society-led organisations involved in addressing HIV and AIDS have increased dramatically. In many cases, the work undertaken is thoughtfully researched, appropriately focused, and as a result produces positive outcomes. Yet questions can be raised about what civil society engagements involve, particularly at a micro level. An important element concerns the role of the arts in efforts to understand and address HIV and AIDS. This article examines ways that insight, analysis, and action around HIV and AIDS have unfolded through the purview of artistic activities undertaken by cultural activists in Harare, Zimbabwe — that is, arts-oriented engagements occurring beyond the boundaries of formally structured organisations. Artistic expressions, which often concern lived experiences, make clear the complex circumstances surrounding HIV and AIDS, and at the same time seek to act upon those circumstances. Understanding and addressing HIV and AIDS requires more than one form of knowledge. Drawing on data from 21 months of ethnographic research in Harare, I examine artistic expressions as legitimate forms of knowledge and as strategies for intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Africa Spectrum is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: The study investigates the role of the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) in the field of nanotechnology, with special focus on the experiences and challenges faced by Wits. Wits has responded to the South African National Nanotechnology Strategy which aimed at ensuring that South Africa is ready to optimally use Nanotechnology to enhance its global competitiveness and sustainable economic growth. The study reveals that Wits has provided research and educational opportunities in the field of nanotechnology. The study however shows that Wits faces the quantitative challenge of an inadequate number of Schools that are involved in nanotechnology activities. This study therefore adds to the global discussion on the role of the University in the field of nanotechnology. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]