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Category: epistemic injustice

On “Postcolonial Open Access” by Florence Piron

On “Postcolonial Open Access” by Florence Piron

Florence Piron considers the benefits and drawbacks of open access in the Global South, with specific focus on Haiti and Francophone Africa. Piron argues that open access has not, in fact, created more equitable access to knowledge as many advocates have claimed. Rather, she suggests, open access has become a neocolonial tool as it has only increased access to research from the Global North, and only for those who have access to the Internet or research databases. Piron recommends decolonizing…

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On “Epistemic Alienation in African Scholarly Communications: Open Access as a Pharmakon” by Thomas Herve Mboa Nkoudou

On “Epistemic Alienation in African Scholarly Communications: Open Access as a Pharmakon” by Thomas Herve Mboa Nkoudou

Thomas Herve Mboa Nkoudou considers how the Open Access movement has played out on the African continent, with specific focus on sub-Saharan countries. He argues that open access is not necessarily an unfettered good in these regions, unlike the popular social good / equalizing / emancipatory qualities many open access advocates have claimed for years. Rather, Nkoudou suggests, open access has increased access to western research and heralded in profit-making strategies like Article Processing Charges that have further excluded researchers…

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