Knowledge production, critique and peer review in feminist publishing : reflections from Agenda

Abstract

We consider how Agenda, a feminist journal located in the Global South, and Africa specifically, mediates and balances the demands of peer-reviewed and peer-sanctioned knowledge production with the requisite gender, race and space/place equality in the context of mechanisms that often privilege particular ways of knowing. The article addresses the following questions: What forces inhibit and marginalise women’s voices generally, and black women’s voices in particular, from feminist knowledge production and dissemination? How do we sustain our feminist positioning and critique in publishing in an environment where gender equality in the various socioeconomic spheres of life remains elusive and where gender violence against women is rife, and this in the context of ‘scholarly’ peer review? In particular, how do we ensure that the voices of those most marginalised by these inequalities and social forces are heard in ways that matter – and, indeed, count – in scholarly publishing? Informing these questions is our argument that it is not simply the quantitative dimension related to scholars of the south that matters in terms of how many get published, but also the qualitative dimension in respect of who gets published, who has access to publications, and what limitations and challenges exist to address this.