Knowledge production, critique and peer review in feminist publishing : reflections from Agenda

摘要

We consider how Agenda, a feminist journal located in the Global South, and Africaspecifically, mediates and balances the demands of peer-reviewed and peer-sanctionedknowledge production with the requisite gender, race and space/place equality in the contextof mechanisms that often privilege particular ways of knowing. The article addresses thefollowing questions: What forces inhibit and marginalise women’s voices generally, and blackwomen’s voices in particular, from feminist knowledge production and dissemination? Howdo we sustain our feminist positioning and critique in publishing in an environment wheregender equality in the various socioeconomic spheres of life remains elusive and wheregender violence against women is rife, and this in the context of ‘scholarly’ peer review? Inparticular, how do we ensure that the voices of those most marginalised by these inequalitiesand social forces are heard in ways that matter – and, indeed, count – in scholarly publishing?Informing these questions is our argument that it is not simply the quantitative dimensionrelated to scholars of the south that matters in terms of how many get published, but also thequalitative dimension in respect of who gets published, who has access to publications, andwhat limitations and challenges exist to address this.