Abstract
Referencing Baxter’s chapter in the first edition, this chapter is able initially to report on an increased level of institutional acceptance of Practice as Research (PaR) in South Africa since 2017. Drawing on a review informed by recent interviews, it reports that Master’s programmes are more successful than PhDs because they are less subject to a lingering logocentrism and the challenge of meeting examination requirements which reinforce the global North as knowledge centre. A pragmatic approach continues to nudge things forward as the limitations of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) system emerge. But, along with a dynamic practitioner-researcher culture driving new inter-disciplinary forms, a growing sense of decolonizing radicalism promises further systemic change in the future.
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Notes
- 1.
With thank our interviewees: Chris Broodryk (University of Pretoria), DeBeer Cloete (University of the Free State), Marié-Heleen Coetzee (University of Pretoria), Christo Doherty (University of Witwatersrand), Juanita Finestone (University Currently Known As Rhodes), Mark Fleishman (University of Cape Town), Pedzisai Maedza (University of Warwick), Sara Matchett (University of Cape Town), Allan Munro (University of Pretoria), Samuel Ravengai (University of Witwatersrand), Brenda Schmahmann (University of Johannesburg), Myer Taub (University of Witwatersrand) and Miranda Young (University of KwaZulu-Natal). We also offer thanks to colleagues who responded with such speed and generosity.
- 2.
See Stewart on the paucity of research on PaR “structural and implementation issues,” globally as well as in South Africa (2021: 12).
- 3.
Baxter, 2013: 171–174.
- 4.
Higher Education Act, no. 101 of 1997, as amended 2017: Section 3.
- 5.
Borgdorff, 2012: 24–25.
- 6.
As a starting point for further reading on these movements and their particular influence on decolonization in the arts, see Same Mdluli’s article (2017).
- 7.
Kramer et al. discuss this unhelpful binary between global South and global North in their analysis of PaR applied research and knowledge-producing systems in South Africa (2019: 2).
- 8.
2020: 56.
- 9.
Coetzee, Cloete, Finestone, Fleishman, Maedza, Matchett, Ravengai, Schmahmann, interviews, 2021, June. See also Stewart, 2021 for a detailed unpacking of current “artistic research” PhD programmes in South Africa.
- 10.
Fleishman, Finestone, Schmahmann, interviews, 2021, June.
- 11.
Ravengai, Young, interviews, 2021, June.
- 12.
Unfortunately, there is not space in this chapter to go into incidences of MA by PaR difficulties with examiners, but we encourage readers to pursue the published writing of those we interviewed for more insights.
- 13.
See also Stewart, 2021: 7, citing Vanlee and Ysebaert, 2019: 38.
- 14.
Interview, 2021, June.
- 15.
Stewart discusses this point of originality in PhD as opposed to PhD work from the perspective of assessment, rather than research process (2021: 8).
- 16.
Interview, 2021, June.
- 17.
Young, Cloete, Doherty, Schmahmann, Broodryk, and Matchett, interviews, 2021, June.
- 18.
Doherty, interview, 2021, June.
- 19.
Matchett, Fleishman, interview, 2021, June.
- 20.
Ravengai, interview, 2021, June.
- 21.
Taub, Doherty, Maedza interviews, 2021, June.
- 22.
Taub, interview, 2021, June.
- 23.
Interview, 2021, June.
- 24.
Interview, 2021, June.
- 25.
Young, interview, 2021, June. See also Kramer et al. on the value of innovative approaches to knowledge production, especially in South Africa’s post-apartheid context of “uneven access to higher education facilities, unequal employment opportunities in research-based institutions and underrepresentation of previously disadvantaged groups in knowledge-making contexts” (2019: 5, citing Waghid, 2002).
- 26.
Interview, 2021, June.
- 27.
Interview, 2021, June.
- 28.
Interview, 2021, June.
- 29.
Interview, 2021, June.
- 30.
Interviews, 2021, June.
- 31.
2021 Huddersfield talk.
- 32.
Interview, 2021, June. See also the Arts Research Africa project for more insights on arts PaR throughout the continent: https://www.wits.ac.za/ara-conference/about-ara/
References
Baxter, Veronica. 2013. “Practice as Research in South Africa”. In Nelson, 2013, 163–174.
Borgdorff, Henk (2007) “The Debate on Research in the Arts”, Dutch Journal of Music Theory. volume 12, number 1. https://cpb-euw2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.brighton.ac.uk/dist/c/2106/files/2016/05/H-Borgdorff-The-Debate-on-Research-in-the-Arts-14d694g.pdf, accessed 20/01/21.
Kirkkopelto, Esa (2008). “New start: Artistic Research in Finnish Theatre Academy”, Nordic Theatre Studies, 20: 17–27.
Maturana, Humberto R & Varela, Francisco J (1987) The tree of knowledge: the biological roots of human understanding. Trans Robert Paolucci, Boston: New Science Library (1st ed.)
Polanyi, Michael (1983) The Tacit Dimension. Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith.
Smith, Hazel and Dean, Roger T, eds, (2009) Practice-led Research, Research-led Practice in the Creative Arts (Research Methods for the Arts and Humanities). Edinburgh. Edinburgh University Press.
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Nelson, R., Halligey, A., Low, K. (2022). South Africa. In: Practice as Research in the Arts (and Beyond). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90542-2_11
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