Report to the academy: power and ethics in humanities research
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Date
2016
Authors
Stolp, Mareli
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
This article discusses a case study to explore notions
of academic freedom and freedom of speech in the
post-apartheid South African university. The focus is
on the ‘managerial turn’ in university management
and in particular its utilisation of ethical regulation
in humanities research. I argue that, in the case in
question, managerial power mechanisms co-opted
ethics into processes of censure and censorship. Ethical
regulation in the humanities has been on the increase
in South Africa and internationally in recent decades;
I posit here that ethical regulation can be used as a
managerial power mechanism in the control of research
output. This has significant implications especially
in the context of post-apartheid transformation of
South African universities. I further posit that emergent
and risk-taking research open up new spaces for
exploration and investigation, and that the benefits of
this kind of research must be balanced against possible
ethical complexities.
Description
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Citation
Stolp, M. (2016). Report to the academy: power and ethics in humanities research. Acta Academica, 48(1), 1-26.