Higher Education and Global Poverty: University Partnerships and ...

this goal is much less explicit in the details of project reports, lending strategies, and outcome assessments. Formulating a basic framework for understanding poverty lays the foundation for a consideration of policies and strategies that could reduce this widespread condition. Next, a discussion of the knowledge economy provides a review of the research and the literature that evidence a global knowledge-based society and economy. In this new economy, industrial production is no longer the primary factor in economic development; instead, the creation and the distribution of knowledge, especially in the areas of science and technology, are at the forefront. The university is considered a focal point for creating and distributing this knowledge; therefore the university's value increases in this new economy. Economic development is often considered a primary factor in poverty reduction, so in order to connect the knowledge economy to development, universities should be included in the strategy.

Chapter 3 presents the study's theoretical framework, which focuses on the three areas mentioned previously: development, postcolonialism, and indigenous knowledge. The very term development has negative connotations in some settings, stemming from the idea that one country is developing another country (and potentially exploiting it in the process). Postcolonial theory is key in exploring this idea because it describes the aspects of development that have mirrored the destructive colonial practices of the past—essentially providing a road map of strategies to avoid in approaching development. The concept of indigenous knowledge, the final component of the theoretical framework, is rooted in the belief that this form of knowledge, though not formulated in the university, is nevertheless crucial to the relationship between universities and local communities. Global higher education has been shaped by the relationship between developed and developing countries, and these three topics conceptualize an approach to higher education that advances nation-state development.

The methodology of policy analysis employed to explore these dialectic relationships is presented in chapter 4. The focus on one organization, the World Bank, provides insight into various guiding philosophies of