Disciplines and engagement in African universities : a study of the distribution of scientific capital and academic networking in social sciences

Langa, Patrício Vitorino

Disciplines and engagement in African universities : a study of the distribution of scientific capital and academic networking in social sciences

Doctoral Thesis

2010

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

School of Education

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of field and capital, this thesis examines the disciplinary differences in the social sciences concerning the possession of scientific capital and levels of engagement with academic and non-academic constituencies in three African universities, Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique, Makerere University in Uganda and the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. Contrary to approaches that regard disciplinary fields as homogeneous epistemic and social spaces on the grounds of the principles of the stratification of scientific fields, this study investigates the relationship between the hierarchical position of selected discipline-clusters and the levels of engagement with both internal and external constituencies. The study reveals that levels of possession of scientific capital have a significant effect on the differentiation of the disciplinary fields, both within and across institutions, and on the levels of engagement with (internal) academic and (external) non-academic entities. The analysis shows that scientific capital does not determine the level and forms of engagement with different constituencies. However, the differences across discipline-clusters at institutional level reflect the engagement with academic rather than with non-academic constituencies. In other words, this means that the level of engagement varies more between different disciplines when the engagement is related to academic entities than is the case when non-academic entities are concerned. Therefore, engagement is not a major discriminator amongst institutions. Scientific capital is what gives academics prestige and symbolic capital to the institution. The significance of this is that academics from different discipline-clusters might have different experiences of engagement with different constituencies. I further conclude that the growing importance that the notion of engagement has for the university is, perhaps, too simple if it does not account for the complex and multifaceted characteristics of disciplinary and institutional fields.