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SUMMARY: Making Scientific Capacity in Africa: An Interdisciplinary Conver
 sation - Speaker to be confirmed
DTSTART:20140613T080000Z
DTEND:20140613T170000Z
UID:TALK50488@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Speaker to be confirmed
DESCRIPTION:http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/25026\nLarge-scale initiati
 ves by key institutions that support scientific work in Africa\, like Well
 come Trust\, Royal Society\, DFID\, and Gates and Rockefeller Foundation a
 im at\, or require as an integrated component\, the reinforcement of insti
 tutional\, academic and individual scientific capacity – notably in fiel
 ds like medicine and agriculture. Capacity is a goal shared by a diversity
  of African actors and their collaborators across disciplines. As a pragma
 tic strategy to improve wellbeing\, an ethical commitment to fair and sust
 ainable collaborations\, or a political project to reverse long histories 
 of spatial imbalances of power\, knowledge and resources\, capacity appear
 s as an unambiguous good. And yet it raises unanswered – indeed\, often 
 unasked – questions about how scientific infrastructure and activity eme
 rge from and act on social\, institutional and material processes as they 
 unfold within specific locations and histories\n\nThese are concrete quest
 ions pertaining to how capacity should be defined\, planned for and invest
 ed in\, as much as they raise theoretical issues about the imbrications of
  knowledge and technology with space\, power\, lives and materiality. Shou
 ld funds be invested in universities or hospitals\, people or equipment\, 
 training or infrastructure? How are entities such as institutions\, people
  and apparatus connected and animated – by skill but also motivation\, i
 magination and aspiration – as capacity to create and mobilize knowledge
 ? What traces have past scientific circulations and collaborations left\; 
 how do current capacity-building initiatives attempt to build on or break 
 away from these legacies\, and what do they achieve? How and to what exten
 t can scientific capacity transform African futures?\n\nLarge-scale initia
 tives by key institutions that support scientific work in Africa\, like We
 llcome Trust\, Royal Society\, DFID\, and Gates and Rockefeller Foundation
  aim at\, or require as an integrated component\, the reinforcement of ins
 titutional\, academic and individual scientific capacity – notably in fi
 elds like medicine and agriculture. Capacity is a goal shared by a diversi
 ty of African actors and their collaborators across disciplines. As a prag
 matic strategy to improve wellbeing\, an ethical commitment to fair and su
 stainable collaborations\, or a political project to reverse long historie
 s of spatial imbalances of power\, knowledge and resources\, capacity appe
 ars as an unambiguous good. And yet it raises unanswered – indeed\, ofte
 n unasked – questions about how scientific infrastructure and activity e
 merge from and act on social\, institutional and material processes as the
 y unfold within specific locations and histories\n\nThese are concrete que
 stions pertaining to how capacity should be defined\, planned for and inve
 sted in\, as much as they raise theoretical issues about the imbrications 
 of knowledge and technology with space\, power\, lives and materiality. Sh
 ould funds be invested in universities or hospitals\, people or equipment\
 , training or infrastructure? How are entities such as institutions\, peop
 le and apparatus connected and animated – by skill but also motivation\,
  imagination and aspiration – as capacity to create and mobilize knowled
 ge? What traces have past scientific circulations and collaborations left\
 ; how do current capacity-building initiatives attempt to build on or brea
 k away from these legacies\, and what do they achieve? How and to what ext
 ent can scientific capacity transform African futures?\n\nThis two-day wor
 kshop will elicit and discuss questions such as these by bringing together
  leading actors of major capacity-building programmes with social scholars
  of science\, technology and medicine in Africa. This conversation between
  the sciences\, social sciences and humanities should allow a critical exa
 mination of capacity\, but also invites the elaboration of new ways of sha
 ring concerns\, knowledge and analytical tools across disciplinary and ins
 titutional groups
LOCATION:CRASSH Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Road\, Cambridge\, CB3 9D
 T
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