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Many feminist scholars have challenged West-centric epistemologies and offered concepts such as multiple modernities and decoloniality as appropriate frames for understanding and challenging knowledge hierarchies. Much of these challenges have come from the two-thirds world, though some emanated from scholars located in the one-third world. This chapter presents two related discussions. First, the challenge of moving beyond binaries such as the Global North and South, or one- and two-thirds worlds, even though every region, nation-state, and locale is marked by many discussions, debates, and challenges between the privileged and marginalized within the realms, currently and historically. Second, our scholarly ability to consider a broader knowledge production process, especially evident through the productions through virtual spaces. I examine efforts to include indigenous knowledge by feminists, and reflect on the continuing challenges of dismantling knowledge hierarchies.

In India and Pakistan, issues of ethnicity, faith, language, Indigenous knowledge, and rights have had severe ramifications for the two countries' constitutional, educational, and political development. The idea to safeguard the interests of Indigenous and ethnic minorities has always been contentious in these countries. Furthermore, ethnic and Indigenous orientations have been camouflaged by these two states' facades of nationalism. Although the ideology of nationalism is defined as a feeling of belonging among the individuals of a nation and is based on religion, language, ethnic origins, and practices, the governments of both countries have made several attempts to change the concept of nationalism, using communalism as a tool to segregate people based on identity and question their loyalties. Postmodern and post-Marxist theorists have emphasized the need for plurality, identity, and heterogeneity in the political and educational discourse. It resulted in globalization, leading to the homogenization of cultural identities at both national and subnational levels.

The notion that a clash exists between the stability of the state and recognition of multiple cultural identities has had a drastic influence on the educational and political discourse within these two countries, as already the Subcontinent has been disintegrated into different nation-states.

The authors introduce an innovative and practical approach for conducting, directing, and teaching qualitative research through inquiry-based learning at the undergraduate level. Folknography is a qualitative research methodology that allows the undergraduate to successfully learn the academic concepts and guidelines required for participating in field investigations. This methodology relies heavily on the investigative techniques associated with ethnography, phenomenology, and sociology. Data collection techniques are specifically designed to reveal thick descriptions that represent the subjective attitudes, perspectives, and interpretations of the folk selected for investigation. The main objective of study is to gather qualitative data that allows for the emergence of a collective voice assumed to be representative of the targeted population. This chapter identifies three separate research projects in which undergraduate students immersed themselves in a specific setting; and, from that perspective, made important discoveries that expanded their knowledge of socio-cultural phenomena. Folknography is presented in this chapter as parallel actions; first, as a method of teaching undergraduates research; and, second as a system of data collection specific to qualitative investigations.

The rites and practices of folk religion in Nigeria cut across virtually all conventional and emerging social institutions in the country. The inability of the State to perform many of its functions has encouraged this trend, with many turning to folk religion and associated practices in attempts to control uncertain situations. Unemployed/underemployed young gamblers have begun to incorporate and normalise the combination of spiritual elements with sports betting activities in a bid to translate games of uncertainty into games of certainty. This study attempts to conceptualise how and why young people adopt, practice and make sense of folk religion in relation to sports betting.

Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were used to interrogate and analyse the lived experiences of key actors living in the capital city of Ilorin, Kwara State, a place renowned for the widespread practice of folk religious rites: 20 unemployed/underemployed young sports bettors and 10 folk doctors. Collected data were transcribed manually and subjected to inductive content analysis, using grounded theory. The combination of folk religion with sports betting is fast becoming normalised as young Nigerians seek to survive harsh economic conditions. Adoption is also linked with belief in traditions, in-group conflicts, gambling adverts, lack of luck and greed. Folk religious practices combine elements from the natural and spiritual worlds. This study formulates concepts for understanding the complexity of such practices concerning gambling among young sports bettors in Nigeria.

Myth is a story of archetypical personas who behave in ways and with motives that we recognize in ourselves. We use myth as a way of reminding ourselves of the relationship between motives, actions, and consequences. Myths can serve either as inspirational or cautionary tales, and sometimes as both. But “myth” can also mean a fabricated story intended to create a false impression, and to achieve storytellers’ ends when they have decided the truth will not suffice. We apply the myth of Cassandra to the millennium-long recorded history of giant tsunamis in Japan. After each of these catastrophes, survivors sought to warn future generations of their recurrences. But, each time, their progeny eventually lost the memory of these lessons, and lost their lives when the next monster wave overwhelmed them. Only when they kept the lessons as living knowledge in everyday life, could they manage to escape from monster tsunamis. In this chapter, we use the myth of Cassandra in conjunction with the myth of Prometheus, the bringer of fire to humankind, as a metaphor for Japan’s growing reliance on nuclear power. Government and utility companies built powerful but inherently dangerous cauldrons in the nation’s disaster-prone landscapes, assuring the public they could control the fire’s fury and defend it against nature’s. As images of atomic bomb victims were still vivid and widely shared in Japan, they had to overcome the public fear of radioactivity by fabricating a “myth of safety.” The nuclear disaster made the public distrust the government and utility companies, which lingers in the process of reconstruction from the disaster. Myths can either reveal hidden truths or mask hidden lies. The Japanese people must now learn to distinguish one from the other.

Social dilemmas take many forms but all share the property that individual benefits, at least in the short run, conflict with group benefits. This chapter examines how information about the characteristics of group members and the parameters of the dilemma affect decision-making. Particular attention is paid to transformative crises, sudden changes in the dilemma setting that for a short period of time lead to incomplete information. It is posited that these crises cause relatively dramatic shifts in the importance of information.

Indigenous governance systems in Africa provide a nuanced approach to the various philosophies that underpin governance structures through a spiritual perspective. In this chapter we debunk colonial narratives of Africa's dependence on colonial constructs of governance. We begin by highlighting the decentralized and centralized Indigenous governance frameworks practiced by different African communities. Communities with decentralized systems such as the Acholi, Luo, Keiyo, amongst others, were well organized at the local level, with the Council of Elders, Chief Priests, and Moral Elders and Chiefs carrying out various functions that ensured the community remained stable and prosperous. In centralized communities, the king had authority over their boundaries. The key aspects that stood out and ensured stability within the centralized systems included community representation, participation in governance, and checks and balances that provided proper societal growth as exemplified by the Bunyoro-Kitara and the Ashanti kingdoms. Even though the governance systems were quite different, the governance mechanisms had similar pillars, features, and principles anchored by humanism, communism, and the spiritual nature of governance amongst the African peoples. We concur that the Indigenous governance system allowed citizens, empires, and kingdoms to flourish. We conclude that African people can further develop the capacity to manage their ideas, resources, and opportunities for sustainable development, through Indigenous governance mechanisms and knowledge systems. We argue that African societies need to legally integrate the Indigenous governance systems in the current prevalent western governance model, create canters for researching Indigenous knowledge at the institutions of higher learning, and that civil society should play a role in ensuring accountability in governance systems.