Rural Communities, Development Policies and Social Sciences Practice: Advocacy for a Citizenship of Research in Sub-Saharan Africa ()
ABSTRACT
This work aims at restoring the importance of social sciences within
African communities. It also aims at creating a sort of deep interest or
devotion among African researchers leading them to go deep into local knowledge
and get inspiration in order to develop theories adapted to the realities of
their societies. It demonstrates in a practical way the usefulness of the
social sciences in any development enterprise. Being true that rural African
communities are laboratories where indigenous techniques are developed, then,
African researchers must use appropriate approaches to analyze that social facts place
them at the centre of any scientific
action. They must go and meet the locals (African men) at their site of
knowledge where creation and invention are made in order to produce scientific knowledge able to induce social transformation.
The indigenization of research itself is a scientific approach dealing with
cultural facts whose investigation tools must necessarily contribute to
knowledge production directly usable for the targeted social group. Therefore
this article is a plea for endogenous research that development policies often
ignore.
Share and Cite:
Daka, A. and Tamira, S. (2019) Rural Communities, Development Policies and Social Sciences Practice: Advocacy for a Citizenship of Research in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
7, 51-62. doi:
10.4236/jss.2019.79005.