“Local knowledge”, assessment and international standards

Kurzfassung/Abstract

‘African solutions to African problems’ has become a widely-used slogan in the years since the transition to democracy in South Africa. More often than not, suggestions of such solutions are taken to constitute examples of ‘indigenous knowledge’. Conceptions of ‘local’ knowledge, development and struggles for cultural autonomy are usually articulated in terms of critiques of ‘Western’ knowledge, development and hegemony. There are, broadly, two types of defence of ‘indigenous knowledge’. The more radical defence joins, and avails itself of, ‘post-colonial’, ‘post-modern’ and relativistic critiques of the ‘Western’ notions of ‘universal knowledge’ and ‘international standards’. The more cautious approach emphasizes the different ways in which particular theoretical orientations – like realism, radical constructivism and anthropological cultural relativism – deal with questions of knowledge, including standards of assessment. The present paper eschews the popular option of embracing the idea of indigenous knowledge. I argue here, based on an analysis not of ‘indigeneity’ or ‘locality’ but of ‘knowledge’, that extant defences of this notion are deficient in several significant respects. The present analysis enables an understanding of the importance of context (of knowledge ascription and of assessment), without allowing the emphasis on relevance to erode any commitment to transcultural standards.