Magister Artium - MA / The departing point of the thesis is that the neglect of African's intellectual heritage within the South African Universities and in public discourse undermines the ability of the post-apartheid government to set its developmental agenda and maximize its democratic potential. The thesis highlights the neglect of Professor Mafeje's scholarly contribution as an example of this neglect and argues that an engagement with his scholarly output might have differently shaped the debate on the thematic issues that are covered in this study. Against this backdrop, this study explores Mafeje's scholarly works in the areas of state, development and democracy, specifically focusing on the insight that we can garner from his scholarly works that will allow us to re-examine the challenges of development. In this context Mafeje's work is examined and situated within the social history of his milieus. The study employs social constructionism to explore the scholarship of Professor Mafeje. An important aspect of this theoretical framework is social embeddedness. Brunner (1990:30) has argued that it is culture, not biology that shapes human life and mind. The important aspect of this approach is that it acknowledges that the way we commonly understand the world, the categories and concepts we use, are historically and cultural specific. Mafeje's ideas make sense when located within complex social contexts in which they were produced. Because he was not producing knowledge in a vacuum, an understanding and appreciation of his ideas must be located within the social history that produced them.

<p>This study sought to investigate the alleged problem of &lsquo / academic dependency&rsquo / , on the part of South African sociologists, on western scholarship. The stated problem is said to undermine South African sociologists&rsquo / ability to set their own intellectual and epistemological agenda. Sociology in South Africa is characterised by two issues: &lsquo / negations&rsquo / and theoretical &lsquo / extraversion&rsquo / . In the light of the foregoing claim, the study sought to investigate the underlying epistemological features of sociology curriculum in one of the South African universities. In investigating these issues, the thesis relies on the notion of &lsquo / authentic interlocutors&rsquo / put forward by Archie Mafeje. Literature on transformation of the social sciences in (South) Africa was reviewed. Methodologically, the study assumes a qualitative approach. In order comprehensively to understand the problem under investigation, in-depth interviews were conducted along with a review of course outlines of the selected department of sociology / these, in turn, were subjected to content analysis. Interviewees included, respectively, academic members of staff and postgraduate students. The study concludes by highlighting the &lsquo / ontological disconnect&rsquo / , on the part of South African sociologists, not only with their immediate environment but the rest of the African continent. In maintaining this view, it argues that their ontological and epistemological standpoints only succeed in highlighting their cultural affinity with Euro-American perspectives. The said ontological disconnect and cultural affinity, it is argued, lead to extraverted curricula.</p>

<p>This study sought to investigate the alleged problem of &lsquo / academic dependency&rsquo / , on the part of South African sociologists, on western scholarship. The stated problem is said to undermine South African sociologists&rsquo / ability to set their own intellectual and epistemological agenda. Sociology in South Africa is characterised by two issues: &lsquo / negations&rsquo / and theoretical &lsquo / extraversion&rsquo / . In the light of the foregoing claim, the study sought to investigate the underlying epistemological features of sociology curriculum in one of the South African universities. In investigating these issues, the thesis relies on the notion of &lsquo / authentic interlocutors&rsquo / put forward by Archie Mafeje. Literature on transformation of the social sciences in (South) Africa was reviewed. Methodologically, the study assumes a qualitative approach. In order comprehensively to understand the problem under investigation, in-depth interviews were conducted along with a review of course outlines of the selected department of sociology / these, in turn, were subjected to content analysis. Interviewees included, respectively, academic members of staff and postgraduate students. The study concludes by highlighting the &lsquo / ontological disconnect&rsquo / , on the part of South African sociologists, not only with their immediate environment but the rest of the African continent. In maintaining this view, it argues that their ontological and epistemological standpoints only succeed in highlighting their cultural affinity with Euro-American perspectives. The said ontological disconnect and cultural affinity, it is argued, lead to extraverted curricula.</p>

Magister Artium - MA / This study sought to investigate the alleged problem of ‘academic dependency’, on the part of South African sociologists, on western scholarship. The stated problem is said to undermine South African sociologists’ ability to set their own intellectual and epistemological agenda. Sociology in South Africa is characterised by two issues: ‘negations’ and theoretical ‘extraversion’. In the light of the foregoing claim, the study sought to investigate the underlying epistemological features of sociology curriculum in one of the South African universities. In investigating these issues, the thesis relies on the notion of ‘authentic interlocutors’ put forward by Archie Mafeje. Literature on transformation of the social sciences in (South) Africa was reviewed. Methodologically, the study assumes a qualitative approach. In order comprehensively to understand the problem under investigation, in-depth interviews were conducted along with a review of course outlines of the selected department of sociology; these, in turn, were subjected to content analysis. Interviewees included, respectively, academic members of staff and postgraduate students. The study concludes by highlighting the ‘ontological disconnect’, on the part of South African sociologists, not only with their immediate environment but the rest of the African continent. In maintaining this view, it argues that their ontological and epistemological standpoints only succeed in highlighting their cultural affinity with Euro-American perspectives. The said ontological disconnect and cultural affinity, it is argued, lead to extraverted curricula

Cette thèse est un récit historique portant sur l'origine et le développement de lasociologie au Pakistan dans une perspective critique de sociologie de la sociologie.Cette recherche explore les facteurs qui sont à l'origine de l’institutionnalisation de la sociologie dans l'enseignement supérieur en plongeant dans les traditionshistoriques de divers systèmes d'éducation du sous-continent Indien, avec larupture qu’a entraîné la brusque introduction du système colonial d'éducation aucours des 19è et 20è siècles. La thèse est particulièrement consacrée à l’analysedes cadres idéologiques masqués en connaissance scientifique et que les pouvoirspolitiques ont utilisé pour faire avancer leurs intérêts politiques dans le Pakistanpostcolonial. La recherche explore simultanément l'ambition des sociologues deconstruire leur légitimité professionnelle en se mettant au service des politiquessociales de l'Etat-nation. Sur cette base au cours des années 1955-1979, s’est construit un modèle professionnel et institutionnel. Les générations suivantes de sociologues l’ont pris comme modèle normatif standardisé à imiter et nécessaire pour leur survie académique. Leur vision fait de la société pakistanaise un objet de réforme, en vue de sa modernisation. Souvent acritique, pour assurer sa croissance quantitative, cette sociologie positiviste et empiriste se soumet au Nexus du savoir et du pouvoir. Enfin, la thèse montre que la sociologie au Pakistan étant une discipline sans grands effets, elle est assiégée et dominée et reste en dehors de la dynamique du travail cognitif international ou à tout le moins qu’elle occupe une place très subordonnée dans la division internationale du travail de la connaissance. On peut en voir la preuve dans le fait que les sociologues Pakistanais sont pratiquement absents des banques de données internationales d’articles scientifiques. / This dissertation is a historical account of origin and development of Sociology inPakistan from a critical perspective of sociology of sociology. It explores the factors behind the construction of sociology as an academic discipline by going deep into the historical traditions of diverse education systems in subcontinent, which were ruptured by a sudden introduction of colonial education system during 19th and 20th centuries. It draws especially on the ideological frames masked as scientificknowledge employed by political powers to advance their political interests in thepost-colonial Pakistan. Using historical archives, interviews with Pakistanisociologists, and dissertations of master students from two oldest and the largestinstitutions of sociology in Pakistan, this study reveals how sociology in Pakistanwas introduced, institutionalized, practiced, and produced within socio-historical and political context. The study also explores linkages of the production of sociological knowledge to the logic of political power, on the one hand, and the simultaneous ambition of sociologists, on the other--to establish both professional legitimacy and social policy relevance for sociology in the nation-state. The type of sociology that emerge from this negotiation—the positivist, applied—a professional and academic model during 1955-79, which was imitatively followed by the coming generations of sociologists in Pakistan as a standardized normative pattern for their academic survival, continue to treat Pakistani society as an object of reformation, appropriation and mobilization towards the ultimate goal of modernization. The ascendancy of positivist and empiricist sociology in Pakistan is explained as a deliberate, and often extremely uncritical, attempt to congenially resonate with the knowledge and power nexus for its quantitative growth. Finally, the dissertation demonstrates that the academic sociology in Pakistan being inconsequential, beleaguered and belittled discipline remains outside the dynamics of cognitive labor, and consequently is virtually perished from the international platforms of knowledge production.