Abstract:
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the decolonisation of higher
education (HE) are the next big ideologies that contribute to the development
of HE, especially in post-colonial societies. Are these discourses complementary
or oppositional? Whilst the 4IR is based on global developments and imperatives, the decolonisation of HE is growing out of more localised contexts
of discontent in countries that have been subjected to experiences of colonial
occupation over long periods in their histories. It can thus be said that the
discourses of the 4IR represent a centre to periphery model of development,
whilst those of decolonisation trace a periphery to centre approach. We argue
in this chapter that because of the dispersed and uncoordinated nature of
peripheries, the momentum for decolonisation is likely to be swept away by
the force of a stronger and more coordinated impetus from the centre.
Effectively what this means is that by design or by sheer coincidence, unless
post-colonial scholarship remains true to the ideals of decolonisation, the
momentum for decolonisation will be swept away by a more powerful
discourse of the 4IR. This would be another victory of the centre over the
periphery and would mark a strengthening of the stranglehold of a largely
Western ideology over an emerging ideology from the peripheries of the
post-colonial world. The chapter develops this argument by providing a critical
discussion of key conceptual ideas first and utilising complexity theory to
examine the extent to which the two ideological positions converge or diverge,
and in whose interest. The chapter then draws some implications related to
how the two ideologies can contribute mutually to the development of
societies in post-colonial societies.
