An Original Theory of Environmental Management Knowledge Production in Nigerian Universities: Between Global Standards and Local Relevance

This dissertation develops an original theory of environmental management knowledge production in Nigerian universities, examining the structural conditions, epistemic hierarchies, and institutional incentives that shape what environmental management knowledge is produced, how it is produced, and whose environmental management problems it addresses in the Nigerian academic context. Environmental management as an academic discipline in Nigeria produces knowledge that is simultaneously accountable to global academic standards and local environmental problems, but the tension between these two accountability structures has not been theorised. The theoretical contribution draws on sociology of scientific knowledge, science and technology studies, post-colonial academic theory, and organisational sociology to construct a Critical Environmental Management Knowledge Production framework that maps the social processes through which Nigerian university research groups navigate publication pressures, funding constraints, regulatory relationships, and community engagement expectations. Empirical grounding involves a mixed-methods study combining bibliometric analysis of environmental management publications from Nigerian universities over fifteen years, qualitative interviews with 45 environmental management academics across 12 universities in all six geopolitical zones, observation of research group meetings and fieldwork activities at three universities, and documentary analysis of research funding records and departmental research strategies. Original theoretical concepts include the dual accountability trap, the methodological cosmopolitanism imperative, and the local relevance gap. The dissertation generates propositions about the conditions under which Nigerian universities are more likely to produce locally relevant environmental management knowledge and derives implications for university environmental management department strategy and national research funding policy. Keywords: knowledge production, environmental management, Nigerian universities, academic research, post-colonial.