Social justice and the international flow of knowledge with specific reference to African scholars

Purpose – In the globalized world the movement of scholars facilitates the global flow of knowledge and supports the pillars of the knowledge economy as defined by the World Bank. But not all academics are born equal: African scholars face significant barriers with regard to freedom of movement. The purpose of this paper is to describe the processes that African scholars typically have to undertake to participate in the global academic community, to identify some of the potential difficulties in these processes and to articulate the moral concerns that arise from these processes.Design/methodology/approach – Both secondary data analysis to illustrate and support the arguments as well as anecdotal evidence to provide specific examples of African scholars' experiences are used.Findings – Justice is viewed as one of the most important virtues regulating the movement of people in the global knowledge society. It is used as a normative instrument to argue that the international community has a moral and legal ...