Knowledge and Departmental Nexus

This chapter focuses on the departmental background of authors who published articles and chapters on African sociology. This discussion is relevant as the production of sociological knowledge is not exclusively the domain of sociologists. Other social scientists with their training in other disciplines have an interest in researching sociological topics that lead to publications in African sociology. Considering the contribution of other social scientists to sociological knowledge, this chapter deliberates on the background of authors and their affiliated departments. Departmental affiliation is often treated as a proxy for disciplinary training. In this chapter, the departmental affiliation of authors and its interrelationships with certain key variables such as the publication year, sources of data, co-authorship, collaboration between departments, the empirical and theoretical nature of publications, the methodologies employed in the study that resulted in publications and the groups of themes are analysed.