Jose Cossa

This book addresses the manifestations of power dynamics in negotiations between international organizations operating at the global level (e.g., the World Bank, WTO, and UNESCO) and international organizations operating at the regional level (e.g., NEPAD, SADC, and AAU). It further addresses how these dynamics influence the educational autonomy of governments in the region. Although it focuses on Southern Africa, the principles drawn and the models developed therein can contribute to a better understanding of inter-organizational interactions in other regions of the world.

This study also illuminates specific and general instances of power dynamics, which resulted in models and categories of power that are useful to inform a wide variety of academic disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities. The RIF model (Regimes as Intermediate Factors) adds to the regime formation discourse by providing a visual representation of the complex role of regimes as intermediate between a system’s power structure and the negotiations and decision-makings that occur within the system. The NSPD model (Necessary and Sufficient conditions plus Properties and Dimensions) provides a tool with which to engage in basic conceptual analysis. The FET model (Filter Effect Theory) adds to the periphery-center discourse by providing a visual representation of the interactions between Global International Regimes, Regional International Regimes, and Local Governments in relation to the code of international negotiations. The SRHP model (Schematic Representation of Hermeneutical Power) adds a discourse of hermeneutical proximity-distance in areas concerned with textual interpretation.

Prior to COVID-19, the CIES 2020 Program Committee had begun integrating virtual participation options to expand access and reduce the conference carbon footprint. In parallel, for several years, the African Special InterestGroup (ASIG) has been engaged in efforts to increase conference access by integrating a virtual component into the annual meetings. In 2019, ASIG was finally able to experiment with a contributor to the Bantaba,1Kabba Colley,who was featured via Skype.2However, in response to the global health crisis,the entire CIES 2020 conference became virtual, that is, vCIES, and its call for climate consciousness and access aligned with the challenges of COVID-19restrictions for travel and reliance on virtual platforms such as Zoom. This move opened an opportunity for ASIG members, previously unable to travel to the conference, to attend and participate in its events, including a virtual adaptation of the Bantaba, ASIG’s usual signature event. CIES and ASIG’s preparedness paid off, and ASIG is committed to continuing to offer a Global vBantabaand other hybrid options going forward to allow for more people based in Africa to attend and participate in the conference and ASIG events. This is particularly important for people in institutions that do not enjoy large travel budgets. However, it is critical to address connectivity issues, as virtual participation is also a privilege that is not enjoyed by a majority of people on the continent (Huawei Technologies 2019). 

This article explores the interaction between Globalization and the African Renaissance. Its main concern is twofold: to engage the intellectual and policy communities in further reflection about the intricacy and complexity of this interaction; and, consequently, to challenge these communities to exercise more caution when creating and adopting policies and action plans for Africa under the pressure of globalization. The paper (a) employs a conceptual analysis to tackle questions of adequacy, or inadequacy, of the term African Renaissance, (b) discusses connections between language, education, and freedom in post-colonial Africa; and, (c) suggests a response that Africans can adopt in their effort to position Africa as an equitable player amidst the influence of globalization. The author also challenges conceptions of knowledge and cognition, research practices and what constitutes valid research, publication culture and what constitutes publishable material, and the overrated celebration of cosmopolitanism by intellectuals.

Cossa, J. (2021). Cosmo-uBuntu theorizing about the global citizen in modernity's frontiers: lived experience in Mozambique, United States, Swaziland, South Africa, and Egypt. In Susan Wiksten (Ed.), Enactments of global citizenship education: social justice in public spheres of education. Routledge.

Cossa, J. (2020). Cosmo-uBuntu: Toward a New Theorizing for Justice in Education and Beyond. In Abdi, A. A. (Ed.). Critical Theorizations of Education. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill | Sense.

In this chapter, José Cossa examines the Modernity-confined dominant conceptualizations and theorizations about critical perspectives on justice in education, with important analytical and livelihood attachments to other areas of human existence. The chapter’s perspectives derive from Cossa’s earlier and original theoretical and philosophical critiques of the contemporary global situation, where unequal power dynamics accentuate the shortcomings of critical Cosmopolitanism, which requires the indispensable de-bordering, de-centering, de-peripherizing, and de-colonializing of the world. In addition and as an important component of achieving the needed conceptualizations and theorizations, the author proposes a new concept, epistemic genocide, as complimentary to the more widely used concept of epistemic violence. To achieve these objectives, the chapter deploys conceptual critical analysis, thus evoking what Cossa calls Cosmo-uBuntu theorizing as an ‘orientation for a new exterior (to Modernity) theorizing.’ This is perspectively mixed with issues of justice education and epistemologies with extra connections to’ data, data science, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) as relatively new dimensions of conceptual-theoretical interaction.’