New Directions in Multidisciplinary Knowledge Production

Abstract

Research into multidisciplinary knowledge production is on the increase. A number of scholars particularly from the African context have been contending and debating on the role of multidisciplinarity in research. Scholars seem divided on either to take the multidisciplinarity or to take the disciplinarity route in research at institutions of higher learning. This chapter zeroes in on the place of multidisciplinarity research and methodologies in the twenty-first century. It takes a reflection on the ideas debated in the chapters in this volume. It questions the place of Western and Global North theories and methodologies in Global South researches. It argues that theories and methodologies from the Global North must be realigned with African ways of knowing and doing because existential challenges and problems in Africa require multidisciplinary methods and researches that resonates with the African philosophies and epistemologies. The chapter concludes by reflecting on multidisciplinarity and disciplinarity in research and knowledge production. It recommends further researches on the centrality of multidisciplinary research in the twenty-first-century Africa.