Paper short abstract:

Are new anthropological research methodologies an emancipatory tool on the African continent or do they accentuate inequalities in knowledge acquisition and production? This paper focuses on North African universities (Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria) and the potential that hyperconnectivity offers.

Paper long abstract:

Conventional Data gathering relies on the physical locality. However, our research habits have been turned upside down in the pandemic context forcing us to rethink and reinvent the way we do the field and collect data. Virtuality now occupies an important place in our lives and the ethnographic work of the researcher faces other challenges. In this context, we need to interrogate traditional approaches to data collection or reconfigure them by relying on digital data collection. A more concrete methodology and data collection instruments are elaborated through online materials: webinars, workshops, virtual meetings and interviews and discussions on internet, social listening tools and online spaces. These new data collection methodologies have implications for knowledge production on the African continent. In this paper, we will focus on North African universities (Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria) and try to investigate whether these new knowledge production methodologies can be a tool for emancipation on the African continent or whether they can accentuate inequality in knowledge acquisition and production? we also wonder if this hyperconnectivity imposed by a pandemic context can be a tool to connect the different academic institutions of the continent and create spaces of exchange for African research?