Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: Established in 1973, CODESRIA, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, is the pioneer and premier African social science research organization. Its founders envisaged it as a force to transcend the dispersal and fragmentation of knowledge production on the African continent, to foster a Pan-African community of scholars, to provide an autonomous space insulated from donor and other pressures, to break down gender and generational boundaries in the academy, and generally to strengthen African higher education and develop the skills and capacities to further the cohesion, well-being, and development of African societies. Among its many achievements the Council has, since its genesis, produced pamphlets and working papers, six academic periodicals, and more than 250 books. It awards grants for PhD research and supports a variety of national, regional, and transnational research programmes and projects. Its research agenda is shaped by its membership, delegates from which meet triennially at the General Assembly, the biggest gathering of its kind in Africa, to present papers, elect an executive, and discuss the future direction of its research activities. The ultimate aim is to create a research agenda that produces theoretical and empirical knowledge dealing with and accounting for African realities, grounded in a commitment to Pan-Africanism and democracy. The 10th General Assembly was held in Kampala, and the 11th, reflecting a deliberate policy of rotating through Africa’s regions, in Maputo.
Source: African Affairs
DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adi121
Authors: Tim Kelsall, Stephen Ellis
Language: English
Subfield: Development
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2008244480