Rens, Andrew; Prabhala, Achal; Kawooya, Dick --- "Education and Access to Knowledge in Southern Africa" [2009] ELECD 590; in Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo; Roffe, Pedro (eds), "Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development

Editor(s): Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo; Roffe, Pedro

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848446458

Section: Chapter 12

Section Title: Education and Access to Knowledge in Southern Africa

Author(s): Rens, Andrew; Prabhala, Achal; Kawooya, Dick

Number of pages: 38

Extract:

12. Education and access to knowledge in
southern Africa
Andrew Rens, Achal Prabhala and Dick Kawooya1

INTRODUCTION

As a concept, knowledge covers vast ground and has multiple meanings. In the present
day, it is frequently encountered through the term `knowledge economy', which is usually
used to refer to the importance of knowledge as a contemporary commodity ­ an undeni-
able fact, even if it puts a big idea in a utilitarian cage. Consequently, it becomes important
to acknowledge both the normative and pragmatic foundations of this concept. As Peter
Drahos succinctly puts it: `Knowledge underpins everything, including economies'.2
It is therefore appropriately difficult to exhaustively list elements of the issues to con-
sider under a campaign for `Access to Knowledge' (`A2K'). To circumscribe `knowledge'
would be a foolhardy exercise; instead, the campaign ­ as with this chapter ­ deals with
conventionally identifiable elements of curricular and self-administered learning. `Access'
is a similarly fraught term. One could begin by considering that knowledge is accrued
in different ways, by both the structured system of education and cultural encounters at
large. One might consider that access to these resources can be by different means: the
printed and spoken word, television, the Internet, and many other media. It is also worth
considering that systems of learning must be compliant with learners' needs, in the case
of either disabled learners or distance learners, to name but two possible groupings.
Access to learning materials is one aspect of access to knowledge. Although for the
purpose of analysis ...