Paper is attached below: LJPSSEdu.pdf
Comments on my paper by Javed Akbar Ansari are also attached below.
TITLE:
Improving Social Science Education in Pakistan
JOURNAL:
Lahore Journal of Policy Studies
DATE OF PUBLICATION:
June 2008
ABSTRACT:
How do we arrest the decline of the social sciences in Pakistan? Is it a matter of money or one of sending more students to the West who might then return to teaching at the local universities? In this article I argue that the solution lies elsewhere. Borrowing frames, concepts, and analytical techniques based on the concept of universalism runs a serious risk of imposing alien views on local problems. Moreover, attempts to become ‘scientific’ require side stepping value judgments of good and bad. The current Western domination of the intellectual scene favours a single route for social science development, and kills all diversity. However, whilst we may borrow as much as we choose, we need to build our own frames that would underpin the social sciences, and this is possible only by reconnecting with our own past.
REFERENCE:
Zaman, Asad; "Improving Social Science Education in Pakistan,” Lahore Journal of Policy Studies Vol. 2 No. 1, June 2008