IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jodeso/v36y2020i2p206-228.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beyond Wishful Thinking: The Promise of Science Engagement at the Community Level in Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Jimoh Amzat

    (Department of Sociology, Usman Danfodiyo University, Sokoto and University of Johannesburg, Department of Sociology, Johannesburg)

Abstract

This article discusses the impediments to science-community engagement and identifies five forms of underdevelopment sentiments: primordial, mystical, ethnoreligious, conspiracy, and fatalistic. It also critically examines wishful thinking, which takes the form of superficial recommendations that do not hold any implications for society except on the paper on which they are written. This article argues that both inadequate community-science engagement and wishful thinking are inimical to the African transformation agenda. The article explains community engagement (CE) as a “practical†paradigm and approach to action research, which provides a way of moving beyond wishful thinking. CE is an implementation research approach that can replace wishful thinking with practical solutions by building a community’s capacity to address its issues scientifically and sustainably. The article concludes that it is through engagement with science and community-oriented implementation research that desired transformations can be achieved in Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Jimoh Amzat, 2020. "Beyond Wishful Thinking: The Promise of Science Engagement at the Community Level in Africa," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 36(2), pages 206-228, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jodeso:v:36:y:2020:i:2:p:206-228
    DOI: 10.1177/0169796X20910600
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0169796X20910600
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0169796X20910600?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heller, J., 2015. "Rumors and realities: Making sense of HIV/AIDS conspiracy narratives and contemporary legends," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105(1), pages 43-50.
    2. Eric Luis Uhlmann & Anthony Bastardi & Lee Ross, 2011. "Wishful Thinking: Belief, Desire, and the Motivated Evaluation of Scientific Evidence," Post-Print hal-00609541, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Siebert, Johannes Ulrich & Kunz, Reinhard E. & Rolf, Philipp, 2021. "Effects of decision training on individuals’ decision-making proactivity," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 294(1), pages 264-282.
    2. Andrew Caplin & John V. Leahy, 2019. "Wishful Thinking," NBER Working Papers 25707, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Abel Brodeur & Mathias Lé & Marc Sangnier & Yanos Zylberberg, 2016. "Star Wars: The Empirics Strike Back," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 1-32, January.
    4. Megan L Head & Luke Holman & Rob Lanfear & Andrew T Kahn & Michael D Jennions, 2015. "The Extent and Consequences of P-Hacking in Science," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(3), pages 1-15, March.
    5. Bruns, Stephan B. & Kalthaus, Martin, 2020. "Flexibility in the selection of patent counts: Implications for p-hacking and evidence-based policymaking," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(1).
    6. Stephen Bok & Daniel E. Martin & Erik Acosta & Maria Lee & James Shum, 2021. "Validation of the COVID-19 Transmission Misinformation Scale and Conditional Indirect Negative Effects on Wearing a Mask in Public," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-23, October.
    7. Tobia Spampatti & Ulf J. J. Hahnel & Evelina Trutnevyte & Tobias Brosch, 2024. "Psychological inoculation strategies to fight climate disinformation across 12 countries," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 8(2), pages 380-398, February.
    8. Tierney, Warren & Hardy, Jay H. & Ebersole, Charles R. & Leavitt, Keith & Viganola, Domenico & Clemente, Elena Giulia & Gordon, Michael & Dreber, Anna & Johannesson, Magnus & Pfeiffer, Thomas & Uhlman, 2020. "Creative destruction in science," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 291-309.
    9. Igor Asanov & Christoph Buehren & Panagiota Zacharodimou, 2020. "The power of experiments: How big is your n?," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202032, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    10. Shadi Shahsavari & Pavan Holur & Tianyi Wang & Timothy R. Tangherlini & Vwani Roychowdhury, 2020. "Conspiracy in the time of corona: automatic detection of emerging COVID-19 conspiracy theories in social media and the news," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 279-317, November.
    11. Christopher J. Burman, 2019. "Re-Contextualizing Medical Pluralism in South Africa: a Research Schema for Indigenous Decision Making," Systemic Practice and Action Research, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 379-402, August.
    12. Bruns, Stephan B. & Asanov, Igor & Bode, Rasmus & Dunger, Melanie & Funk, Christoph & Hassan, Sherif M. & Hauschildt, Julia & Heinisch, Dominik & Kempa, Karol & König, Johannes & Lips, Johannes & Verb, 2019. "Reporting errors and biases in published empirical findings: Evidence from innovation research," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    13. Salil D. Benegal & Lyle A. Scruggs, 2018. "Correcting misinformation about climate change: the impact of partisanship in an experimental setting," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 61-80, May.
    14. Peter Pütz & Stephan B. Bruns, 2021. "The (Non‐)Significance Of Reporting Errors In Economics: Evidence From Three Top Journals," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 348-373, February.
    15. Sharon Lamb & Marta Pagán-Ortiz & Sara Bonilla, 2021. "How to Provide Sexual Education: Lessons from a Pandemic on Masculinity, Individualism, and the Neoliberal Agenda," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-15, April.
    16. David Budescu & Han-Hui Por & Stephen Broomell, 2012. "Effective communication of uncertainty in the IPCC reports," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 113(2), pages 181-200, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jodeso:v:36:y:2020:i:2:p:206-228. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.