The South-South-North Initiative (S-S-N)
In a world where voices from the North are still the most powerful, it is essential that valuable insights from the South are actively incorporated into the global production and circulation of ideas. To this end, S-S-N supports the development of cooperation and organisational links between partner institutions in the South. As a facilitator based in the North, IIAS works to connect such institutions in its network, ensuring that direct links between partners in those regions develop organically in a way determined by the partner institutions themselves.
South-South-North is an initiative to foster globally inclusive modes of knowledge exchange. In our world of global flows, trans-regional collaboration and knowledge exchange tend to mirror global power imbalances that have led to a fragmented world community. These imbalances are also embedded in trends of political-economic competition and dependency, making it increasingly difficult for citizens across the world to dialogue with one another on equal footing, especially on urgent issues such as the global climate crisis. If this situation presents considerable challenges, it also offers opportunities for a new generation of academics and institutions to come together to forge novel ways of working together. S-S-N works to democratise the production and dissemination of knowledge across regions. For too long, the prevailing international economy of knowledge has seen a unidirectional flow of knowledge, originally forged in the colonial encounters between metropole and periphery. This pattern continues to reproduce global disparities of power between what we now call the Global North and Global South.
The range of academic publics in the Global South have still not been given an equal stake in the processes of knowledge exchange, nor have their concerns been able to impact the academic and civic agendas shaped by Northern epistemologies. Although knowledge is continually produced in these regions, their largely systemic exclusion from the marketplace of ideas is problematic in both principle and practice. Such exclusion impoverishes research and impedes the development of a richer, more diverse approach to knowledge production. The loss is not just felt in the South, but also in the North.
It is thus essential that valuable insights from the South be actively incorporated into the global production and circulation of ideas, using a consciously articulated and systematically designed approach. The South- South-North initiative seeks to do just this. Specifically, S-S-N supports the development of cooperation, collaboration, and organisational links between partner institutions across the Global South. As a facilitator based in the Global North, IIAS works to connect such institutions across our network such that autonomous, direct links between partners in those regions develop organically. IIAS works to build capacitites and advise when needed, but always in a way dictated by the partner institutions themselves. This includes the development of new publications and journals, new conferences, fellowship exchange programmes, and more. The ultimate goal is a new infrastructure of knowledge production that does not depend – ideologically, logistically, or financially – upon the Global North.