This book critically examines the collection, interpretation, and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from an Afrocentric perspective. The necessity of interpretive Afrocentric research is relevant to position agency and to locate Africana studies in place, space, and time. This study will provide readers with a compilation of literary, historical, philosophical, and social science essays that describe and evaluate the Africana experience from a methodological perspective. Paradoxically, the collection presents measurable and qualitative research, in order to flush out a global Pan–Africanist consciousness.
This survey of methodology provides a framework for understanding Africana Studies. Correlating this book to research and writing in Africana Studies, helps to extend the perplexity, paradox, and parley of social science and humanistic research. This book attempts to answer, what is Africana Studies with reference to an interdisciplinary body of knowledge? Africana Studies is the global Pan-Africanist study of African phenomena interpreted from an Afrocentric perspective. Among those scholars who contribute to this interdisciplinary body of knowledge, perspective signals the commonality in the school of thought. This book offers general definitions and descriptions of the qualitative and quantitative research.
This book critically examines the collection, interpretation, and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from an Afrocentric perspective. The necessity of interpretive Afrocentric research is relevant to position agency and to locate Africana studies in place, space, and time. This study will provide readers with a compilation of literary, historical, philosophical, and social science essays that describe and evaluate the Africana experience from a methodological perspective. Paradoxically, the collection presents measurable and qualitative research, in order to flush out a global Pan-Africanist consciousness.
This textbook is the first of its kind, offering instruction on how to conduct culturally relevant critical research on Africana communities in the American context, in addition to the African diaspora. It contains a collection of the most widely used theories and paradigms designed for exploring, explaining, and advancing Africana communities through science.
This book critically examines the collection, interpretation, and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from an Afrocentric perspective. The necessity of interpretive Afrocentric research is relevant to position agency and to locate Africana studies in place, space, and time. This study will provide readers with a compilation of literary, historical, philosophical, and social science essays that describe and evaluate the Africana experience from a methodological perspective. Paradoxically, the collection presents measurable and qualitative research, in order to flush out a global Panâ "Africanist consciousness.
Known variously as African studies, black studies, African American studies, Afro-American studies, and Africology, the academic study of the African diaspora as a holistic discipline is a relatively new phenomenon. University programs have been created with reference to a disciplinary matrix, retarding the development of appropriate theory and methods throughout Africana studies. Fifteen leaders in the field of Africana studies provide the conceptual framework for establishing the field as a mature discipline. The focus is on four basic areas: administration and organizational structure; disciplinary matrix; Africana womanism; and cultural aesthetics. The work examines both the theory and the method of scholars in African and African-diaspora studies.
"This volume covers the period from the end of the Neolithic era to the beginning of the seventh century of our era. This lengthy period includes the civilization of Ancient Egypt, the history of Nubia, Ethiopia, North Africa and the Sahara, as well as of the other regions of the continent and its islands."--Publisher's description
One of the weaknesses of research in Africa is the little consideration that is given to questions of epistemology and methodology. What we see is the trivialization of research protocols which, consequently, are reduced to fantasy prescriptions that detach social studies from universal debates over the validity of science rather than an interrogation of research procedures induced by the complexity of social dynamics. As a result, social sciences have become an imitative discourse and a recital of exotic anecdotes without perspectives. Knowledge production therefore loses any heuristic bearing. It is on the basis of this reality that attempts to correct this tendency have been made in this book by discussing the methodological foundation of social science knowledge. This volume is a collection of papers presented during methodological workshops organized by CODESRIA. Its objective is to revitalize theory and methodology in field work in Africa while contributing to the creation of a critical space hinged upon the mastery of epistemological bases which are indispensable to any scientific imagination. Far from being a collection of technical certainties and certified methods, this book interrogates the uncertain itinerary of the process of social logics discovery. In that sense, it is a decisive step towards a critical systemization of ongoing theories and practices within the African scientific community. The reader can, therefore, identify the philosophical, historical, sociological and anthropological foundations of object construction, field data exploitation and research results delivery. This book explains the importance of the philosophical and social modalities of scientific practice, the influence of local historical contexts, the different usages of new investigative tools, including the audiovisual tools. Finally, the book, backed by classical theories, serves as an invitation toward considering scientific commitment to African field research from a reflective perspective.
After almost three centuries of employing Western research methodologies, many African communities, both on the continent and throughout the world, remain marginalized in contemporary discourse. It is obvious that these Western methodologies have done relatively little good for Africans. To rectify this oversight and bring these African communities to the fore, a shift in perspective is needed, and this book posits the adoption of alternative, African-centered research methodologies as a solution. Employing such methodologies would enable African communities to define their unique identities from their unique perspectives and would help offer a long-overdue challenge to entrenched European paradigms of Africans as the "other." To enable readers to apply a methodology systematically in investigating a phenomenon of interest to him/her, chapters in African-Centered Research Methodologies include: - An introduction to the method discussed - A definition of the method - The sub-areas of the method - A brief history and brief backgrounds of the pioneers of the method - Major research questions investigated by the method - Major concepts and/or theories of the method - Major research topics covered by the method - Types of methodological approaches employed - Major academic journals and publications that publish works utilizing the method - A sample of outstanding scholarly works that have employed the method - A conclusion Abdul Karim Bangura is Professor of Research Methodology and Political Science at Howard University and Researcher-in-Residence of Abrahamic Connections and Islamic Peace Studies at the Center for Global Peace in the School of International Service at American University. He holds a PhD in Political Science, a PhD in Development Economics, a PhD in Linguistics, a PhD in Computer Science, and a PhD in Mathematics. He is the author and editor/contributor of 63 books and more than 500 scholarly articles. He was president and United Nations Ambassador of the Association of Third World Studies, and Dr. Bangura is a member of many other scholarly and civic organizations. The winner of many teaching and other scholarly and community service awards, he is fluent in about a dozen African and six European languages, and is studying to strengthen his proficiency in Arabic, Hebrew, and hieroglyphics.
