Academic (in)dependency in the Arab World and Latin America : A Comparative Perspective - Hanafi, Sari; Arvanitis, Rigas (Eurocentrism at the margins)
Why is it that the scientific community is so little recognized in the Arab countries, despite being rich with universities and hospitals and some countries have rather high levels of scientific production? The article intents to draw attention to the weak formation of scientific communities in Arab countries, whether the problem stems from institutions —and, which are these —, or from a political context, in which Arab countries have comparatively less active States than other regions, like Latin America. Beyond this dilemma, we contrast the case of Arab countries with that of Latin American countries, which have known a vivid history of recognition of the academic field and research practice in terms of institutionalization and professionalization of science. We will use this example to identify an academic field, in Arab countries, that is less autonomous from political power and more prone to the external influences. We will also use the example of the World Bank who promoted the concept of a knowledge economy in the Arab countries, a misleading to our eyes, effort that cannot help neither the Arab world nor Latin America to engage in research activities that respond to national needs. Résumé : Pour quelle raison est-ce que la communauté scientifique est si peu reconnue dans les pays arabes malgré l'existence d'universités, d'hôpitaux et même d'une production scientifique relativement élevée dans certains cas? Cet article tente d'attirer l'attention sur l'institutionalisation faible des communautés scientifiques dans les pays arabes, que se soit du fait de la faible des institutions scientifiques ou du contexte politique dans lequel les états ont été moins actifs que d'autres régions du monde comme l'Amérique latine. Au delà de ce dilemme, nous contrastons le cas des pays arabes et celui des pays d'Amérique latine qui ont connu une histoire très importante de reconnaissance de l'activité de recherche et du domaine académique en termes de professionalisation et d'institutionnalisation. Nous utiliserons cet exemple pour signaler un champ académique moins autonome du pouvoir politique dans les pays Arabes. Nous signalerons aussi que la Banque Mondiale a voulu, de manière erronnée à nos yeux, impulser le concept d'économie de la connaissance dans les pays arabes, un effort qui n'aide ni les pays arabes ni l'Amérique latine à soutenir les activités de recherche pour répondre aux besoins nationaux. --- Abstract of the edited book: About the Book Eurocentrism remains a prevailing feature of Western-dominated social scientific perspectives, tending to ignore alternative views originating outside the West and thus maintaining a form of scholarly hegemony. As such, there is an urgent need to reconsider Eurocentrism in social science, to ask whether it constitutes an obstacle to understanding social problems and whether it is possible to go beyond Eurocentrism in the construction of reliable, more universal knowledge. At the same time, certain questions persist, particularly with regard to the extent to which recent revisionist challenges have really contributed to the surmounting of Eurocentric domination, and whether the constant repetition of the concept serves to reinforce it. This book engages with the central problems of Eurocentrism in the social sciences, bringing together the work of scholars from around the world to offer a critique of this perspective from both European and non-European positions, thus shedding light on the binaries that often come into being in debates in this field. Thematically organised and addressing a range of questions, including Eurocentrism in historical studies, in the understanding of religion and civilisation and in the study of international relations, as well as in the institutionalisation and professionalisation of research and discourses on modernisation in the Middle East, Eurocentrism at the Margins will appeal to scholars with interests in knowledge production and circulation, and Eurocentrism and post-colonialism in the social sciences.
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Keywords: bookSection; MENA; POLITIQUE DE LA RECHERCHE; UNIVERSITES; arabes; recherche