Knowledge Systems

Information is crucial for the development of any sector. Agriculture is not an exception as vital information related to farming needs to be passed down to farmers and other important stakeholders without delay. It is important to ensure proper linkages among the various stakeholders so that they can easily share information that is relevant at various stages of farming. The latest ICT trends play a key role in shaping and reshaping communication and interaction among involved parties. There are many technology driven information dissemination methods, which have been initiated by various parties, including the government, private, non-profit making bodies and independent research groups. This chapter explains the various attempts to integrate ICT within Sri Lankan agriculture communities and how the focus is changing from information dissemination towards facilitating interactions among the stakeholders. The chapter starts with a brief introduction to the present agriculture information society, followed by the latest information and communication technology (ICT) interventions taking place in the agriculture field. Prevailing issues and limitations in these ICT-based information dissemination approaches initiated by government, private, non-profit making sectors and independent research groups is explained next, giving due recognition to various factors that has contributed to adoption of ICT initiatives. The chapter ends with a note on the possibilities for future focus for ICT activities in an agriculture information society. Agriculture information society Agriculture plays an important role in the Sri Lankan economy. Agriculture provides a direct source of income for around 31% of the population (Central Bank of Sri Lanka, 2013b). The rural population in Sri Lanka is around 85% (World Bank, 2014), and agriculture is both a direct and indirect source of living for about 65% of the population who live in these rural areas. The contribution of agriculture to the country's gross domestic production is about 10.8% (Central Bank of Sri Lanka, 2013a). Right information delivered at the right time is vital for successful farming. Farmers need information related to various stages of crop growth, pest and disease problems, and marketing. A study conducted by De Silva & Ratnadiwakara (2008) reports that information search cost accounts for 11% of the total cost, and nearly 70% of the transaction cost. Information search costs arises from the need to obtain information related to decisions such as the crops to plant, agronomic practices, pest and disease identification and management, harvesting, storage and post-harvest practices. Information systems which provide the required information are described in Table 1. Transaction costs are incurred in transactions related to the purchase of inputs such as seed, fertilizer, and pesticides, and also in the sale of produce. Additional transaction costs are seen when farmers deal with external agents indirectly through Farmer Organizations. In such instances transaction costs arise between farmers and the Farmer Organizations, and also between the Farmer Organizations and the external agencies such as input suppliers or buyers. Appropriate information systems can reduce the transaction costs incurred in such situations. At present most of the information obtained, and transactions conducted are through traditional mechanisms. Generally in Sri Lanka farmers have been obtaining information through the farm visits of, or the office visits to, extension agents. Thus, if the time spent by the farmers for this activity is taken also into account appropriately the information cost is bound to increase. Furthermore, it is noted that this cost analysis is from the perspective of the farmer. When the time and other associated cost, such as the transport cost, of the extension agent is also taken into account the actual cost of such information would IGI Global Microsoft Word 2007 Template Reference templateInstructions.pdf for detailed instructions on using this document.

This study focuses on intervention processes that support sustainable agriculture. It argues that we know very little about how to intervene for sustainable agriculture, particularly for those areas where the Green Revolution has passed almost unnoticed and where degradation of natural resources is the normal practices, rather than the exception. As sustainability is a constructed, contextual and complicated concept, it is far from clear what sustainability is, how it comes about, and what it is actually for, although it has been at the top of the agenda for nearly a decade. No substantial biological or socialinstitutional breakthroughs or innovations have yet emerged, despite the considerable efforts that have been devoted so far to sustainable agriculture. Impressively, the word "sustainability" is such a powerful symbol that the very thought of an unsustainable agriculture immediately conjures up images of massive human deprivation and suffering and, ultimately, mass st...

This paper details the importance of indigenous knowledge systems in developing countries around the world. Farmers, communities and households that live in risky environments, have developed intricate systems of diversification that help secure income and food consumption. An intergral part of these systems are the knowledge systems that help households plan for future events and decrease uncertainty. Recently indigenous knowledge systems have been given more attention as their importance is addressed in development projects. Unfortunatley acknowledgement and understanding of how knowledge systems are used is still not a basic part of all research. This is especially important inthe recent advancement of climate and weather forecasting. Scientific advancements can aid poor countries only if knowledge systems are accessed and understood. Also forecast techniques will not improve welfare if they do not first address what households, farmers and communities need, want and lack.

... [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] View all references; Nordkvelle 200333. Nordkvelle, YT 2003. Didactics: From classic rhetoric to kitchen‐Latin. Pedagogy, Culture & Society , 11: 315–30. [Taylor & Francis Online] View all references). ...

Heteronormativity is everywhere. It is always already present in our individual and collective psyches, social institutions, cultural practices, and knowledge systems. In this essay, I provide some sketches for a critical analysis of heteronormativity in the communication discipline. More specifically, I examine the symbolic, discursive, psychological, and material violence of heteronormativity, and begin exploring ways to heal, grow, transform, and contemplate new possibilities in our social world. To accomplish this, this essay is divided into five sections. First, I discuss the study of sexuality in Communication. Next, through the notion of injury, I focus on the violence of heteronormativity. Third, using the concept of healing, I discuss ways of unpacking heteronormativity through a critique of hegemonic heterosexuality. Further, I offer potential ways for queer world-making through the lens of queer theory. I conclude by exploring the need for more sexuality research in the discipline by engaging the productive tensions between constructive and deconstructive impulses.

The real purpose of education is to inculcate students with a state of mind that is congenial for creativity and innovation. However, such rs not the case in the Muslim world. The present article is an attempt to provide a new plan of action for reativity and innovation in the Muslim world by developing an epistemology defined as "the anatomy of human knowledge." The article begins with the present discussions of creativity and mnovation in the West and solutions that are primarily psychological offered. Then, an attempt is made to provide an alternative approach to the issue in the Muslim world. The author offers an epistemology as the ground of a new philosophy of education which may read to an educational system that fosters the critical attitude needed for acquiring such skills.

This essay examines the mechanisms by which Brahmanical tradition reproduced itself, especially the regimens of discipline(vratas) undertaken in tandem with text-study, and their role in establishing the knowledge of Sanskrit religious texts (and the use of Sanskrit more broadly) as an important criterion of piety and high social status. I argue that such regimens functioned as markers of belonging to the Brahmanical religion and ‘pure’ Årya society, while also offering the ordinary householder a form of personal piety that promised all the rewards of the old priestly ‘high cult. At the same time, disciplinary regimens provided a traditionally recognized framework for mendicant movements and new deity cults, which helped carry Brahmanical texts, ideals, and practices, via royal patronage, into new regions in India beyond the Ganges Valley and on into Southeast Asia. The second part of this essay will consider what early inscriptions can show us about how Brahmanical doctrine and practice were projected in the public sphere, noting instances in which particular subjects, texts, and especially disciplinary practices are cited, and observing that the grants and foundations recorded in these inscriptions helped spread the tradition and enhance its prestige. My remarks, intended only as a point of departure, will focus mainly on early grants from Orissa.

Abstract: Learning about edible plants, processing of foods and medicine using location specific wisdom and conservation of food related resources has been in the large part due to incremental and cumulative learning among the societies living in close connection with ...

This paper examines exchanges of navigational knowledge between Tahitian navigators and European explorers in the mid‐18th century. Although Tahitian and European sailors accomplished way‐finding at sea in ways based on very divergent assumptions about the ocean, the cosmos and persons, Tahitian navigators were able to board European ships, and pilot them safely through the islands. At first each side drew upon their own familiar practices to make sense of the other; using ostension or pointing, linguistic exchange and experience of each other’s vessels as bridgeheads to produce a kind of rough intelligibility. Much was lost, however, in these partial and approximate exchanges. Here, exchanges between European and Tahitian sailors and their very different knowledge systems are used to explore the intricacies of cross‐cultural encounters.

This essay proposes an alternative approach to the literature review, presenting it as a creative process of construction and self-reflection within an ecology of ideas. The transdisciplinary literature review is an opportunity to situate the inquirer in an ecology of ideas, to participate in the discourse, and to become aware of how s/he constructs her or his understanding of this ecology. This article explores how we might approach this process from a perspective of complexity, and addresses some of the key challenges and opportunities. Four main dimensions are considered: (a) inquiry-based rather than discipline-based; (b) integrating rather than eliminating the inquirer from the inquiry; (c) meta-paradigmatic rather than intra-paradigmatic; and (d) applying systems and complex thought rather than reductive/disjunctive thinking.

Work in urban resilience planning recognizes the importance of knowledge diversity to understanding and acting on climate change, but falls short in adequately situating itself within ongoing historical processes that shape uneven urban playing fields in which planning happens. This paper uses insights from environmental feminist and decolonial knowledge politics to challenge knowledge systems analysis to explicitly question and alter structures of power in environmental knowledge making in North American cities. If knowledge systems analysis can investigate and intervene in governance structures through which environmental decision-and policy-making happen, this necessitates reflection on ontological, epistemological and ethical commitments (or 'starting points') as these carry material and discursive weight: they open up and foreclose ways in which resilience is practiced. Given increasing recognition that urban resilience needs to consider issues of justice and equity, in this paper we take cues from feminist and decolonial scholarship that has centered these themes for decades and which offer 'starting points' to rethink knowledge systems for resilience. Understanding urbanization as key process in the expansion of relations fundamental to the production of anthropocentric climate change, we argue that changing these relations is crucial if urban resilience planning is to contribute to alternative and socially just urban futures. Against tendencies of depoliticization that solutions-oriented work can sometimes exhibit, feminist and decolonial perspectives locate knowledge-making practices squarely within struggles for social justice in the city. We propose three strategies for those working on knowledge systems for resilience to advance their practice: centering justice and transgression, reflexive research practice, and thinking historically. Ultimately, this paper shows that taking seriously critical social sciences furthers fundamentally new ideas for what transitions to urban resilience could mean.

Lean supply chain management is a relatively new concept resulting from the integration of lean philosophy into supply chain management. Decision making in a lean supply chain context is challenging because of the complexity, dynamics, and uncertainty inherent to both supply networks and the types of waste (defined as any processes, including use of resources, which do not add value to customers). Efficient knowledge management has been identified as one of the key requirements to achieve integrated support for lean supply chain decisions. This paper proposes a decision-focused knowledge framework including a multi-layer knowledge model (to capture the know-why and know-with together with the know-what and know-how), a knowledge matrix for knowledge elicitation, and a decision tree for the design of the knowledge base. A knowledge system for lean supply chain management (KSLSCM) has been developed using artificial intelligence system shells VisiRule and Flex. The KSLSCM has five core components: a supply chain decision network manager, a waste elimination knowledge base, a knowledge refinement module, an inference engine, and a decision justifier. The knowledge framework and the KSLSCM have been evaluated through an industrial decision case. It has been demonstrated through the KSLSCM that the decision-focused knowledge framework can provide efficient and effective support for collaborative decision making in supply chain waste elimination.

Cross-cultural studies usually compare the psychology of people from different countries and thus focus on how cultures influence people's psychology. In contrast, in 2000, Hong, Morris, Chiu, and Benet-Martínez demonstrated the dynamics of cultural influence within individuals who have been exposed extensively to two cultures (biculturals); they showed that exposing Chinese American biculturals to Chinese or American cultural icons activated the corresponding cultural (Chinese or American) knowledge systems, which, in ...