Decolonising Research via Digital Networks? Exploring Big-Team Science

Abstract

Sixty years after the GIGA’s founding as the Deutsches Übersee-Institut (German Overseas Institute), historical legacies still drive the "one-way street" of research collaboration between Germany and Africa. Creative digital approaches, such as "big-team science," are needed to accelerate knowledge creation in partnership with the continent. Research collaboration with Africa faces persistent asymmetry due to historical factors, structural barriers, socio-economic disparaties, and short-term academic publishing pressures. More equitable collaborations with African institutions are beneficial for both practical and scientific reasons. Practically, equitable involvement of African researchers in research projects can assist with capacity development and academic diversity. Scientifically, they can improve external validity, data quality, and the theoretical novelty of research. Digital cooperation using "big team-science" provides an opportunity to overcome geographical barriers to such international collaboration. The co-creation of digitally distributed large-N studies with African partners can simultaneously help address endemic issues in the Social Sciences: namely, reproducibility, statistical power, and external validity. The creation of such projects is complex and requires training and coordination among researchers and institutes plus overcoming numerous hurdles.