Communities of Knowledge or Tyrannies of Partnership: Reflections on North–South Research Networks and the Dual Imperative

Networks and north–south partnerships have become prerequisites for much forced migration research funding. The objectives vary but usually include levelling the scholarly playing field, improving research quality, building southern capacity and relaying southern perspectives to northern policymakers. Reflecting on a decade’s work in Southern Africa, this article suggests such initiatives often fall short of their objectives due to both mundane reasons and fundamentally unequal resource endowments and incentive structures. Moreover, by pushing southern researchers towards policy-oriented research, filtering the voices heard on the global stage, and retaining ultimate authority over funding and research priorities, these networks risk entrenching the north–south dichotomies and imbalances they purport to address. While inequalities are rooted in an intransigent global political economy of knowledge production, the article nonetheless concludes with a series of practical steps for improving southern-generated research and future collaborations.