Page 13 - Transformation Indaba Report

TransformaTion Themes WiTh indicaTors i) managemenT economies

Prof Keet explained how already, in 2015, the various themes Management economies distribute a variety of codes by which
were set out along with performance indicators within the universities operate on. On one level, the emergence of a
Transformation Barometer. However, that work requires managerial discourse on system efficiencies steered by an
updating, and Prof Keet suggested that Mandela University audit and input-output logic represents a clear example of
leads that process. He is happy that the Barometer contains how regulatory frames can shift institutional cultures in
themes and indicators that cover the centrality of the negative and positive ways.
curriculum knowledge project from the Soudien Report
(2008), among other matters. He has observed some in- ii) adminisTraTive economies
teresting indicators set around the question of transformation
themes, for example, the marginal types of knowledges not On another level, administrative economies serve material
reflected in university spaces like in the way we set up entities/ economies and all system levels. The administrative economy
centres. He believes that for South African universities to be refers to the circulation and distribution of administrative
serious about the transformation project, centres like the and regulatory power, control and access to systems, and the
Centre for Women and Gender Studies will need massive codes and rules by which these systems operate. The shared
support to drive the gender equality project and an area like values and assumptions that steer administrative cultures
Critical Racism Studies. Prof Keet expressed his surprise that and practices dovetail with broader institutional cultures that
a country like South Africa lacks a structure designed to fo- normalise entrenched inclusion and exclusion patterns. Stud-
cus on Critical Racism Studies. On the other hand, he noted ies on how powerful disciplinary, research, higher degrees,
that different kinds of sciences were emerging, and combina- promotions, and ethic committees are constituted and what
tions thereof needed to conduct work on how we view knowl- patterns of decisions emerge from their deliberations are non-
edge. Massive advances are being made, and thought will existent. One can merely speculate on their powerful role in
need to be applied to how we mobilise knowledge across the replicating the status quo of universities.
various disciplinary fields to advance the transformation
project. iii) maTerial economies

The economies of insTiTuTional life In the case of material economies, privileges and benefits are
of universiTies circulated within established networks that reaffirm the power

positions of those already on the grid. These include access to
Prof Keet addressed the issue of six ‘economies of institutional publication and research outlets and wide networks of buddy
life’, namely: managerial, administrative, material, socio- systems whose sole gatekeeping function is the reproduc-
cultural, intellectual, and affective. Scholars nowadays make tion of academic authority and its privileges. Other practices
an interesting distinction between organisational and institu- include closed research networks with associated research
tional transformation. Post-1994 universities in South Africa funds and 3rd stream income that validates scholarly work
have been good at organisational change but weak at institu- and legitimates its impact factor to ensure the accumulation
tional transformation. Prof Keet had in the past argued that of privileges.
these economies produce institutional culture because they
support the social structure of the academy, its administration, iv) socio-culTural economies
its habits, and dispositions. He insisted that it is a ruse to
view institutional culture as a “slippery concept” because it is Socio-cultural economies ensure the flow of belief, custom, and
not. He has been worried about how conceptual slipperiness behaviour that affirm the status quo; for example, the logic of
is used to sidestep addressing real matters of concern. The this economy steers the dominant arguments that set up the
economies are part of the reproductive machinery, and its discourse of transformation tensions within Higher Education.
dominion is affirmed by how the universities continue repro- It reduces the transformation project to trade-offs between
ducing discriminatory outcomes and exclusionary institutional equity and equality, redress and efficiency, and change and
cultures. Prof Keet shared his insights and arguments around development (consider Nico Cloete’s work). The worth of re-
the different economies of institutional life: cognition of universities is distributed according to notions of

NelsoN MaNdela UNiversity • traNsforMatioN iNdaba • 2022 7