Local knowledge systems

Despite the historical importance of fire as a savanna land management tool, much controversy still surrounds discussions on anthropogenic fire utilization and the sustainability of indigenous land management practices in African savannas. This controversy is arguably a result of a discord between official fire policies and actual indigenous fire practices – a discord based on a gap in existing knowledge of, and a lack of informed literature on, the importance of fire for socio-economic and environmental survival in savanna environments. Addressing a continuing lack of research on the political ecology of fire, this study investigates the historical and present day socio-economic, environmental and political frameworks that affect anthropogenic burning regimes and land management in the Kafinda Game Management Area and Kasanka National Park in Zambia. A series of participatory research activities revealed the continuing importance of fire to rural livelihoods, but that a mismatch in desired burning regimes exists between local stakeholders. The paper argues that local power relations are preventing the local communities from adopting burning regimes that would be more environmentally sustainable and more in line with present day farming systems.

Dalam kehidupan bermasyarakat, konflik adalah sesuatu yang tidak boleh dihilangkan, keberadaannya hanya boleh diuruskan dengan baik agar tidak mengarah kepada yang bersifat regresif. Oleh kerana itu konflik memerlukan alat pengurusan yang efektif, khusus dan kontekstual sesuai dengan nilai budaya masyarakat yang mengalami konflik. Seringkali resolusi konflik moden yang mendasarkan kepada bukti formal dan hukum/law hanya bersifat normatif dan tidak mampu mereduksi potensi munculnya konflik-konflik latent dan manifest berikutnya.
“Sumpah Pocong” merupakan salah satu bentuk resolusi konflik yang berasaskan kearifan tempatan yang berlaku dan efektif di masyarakat Jember, Jawa Timur, Indonesia. Efektiviti “sumpah pocong” sebagai salah satu bentuk resolusi konflik ini kerana secara substansial menggunakan nilai-nilai budaya dan keagamaan masyarakat setempat. Komposisi bilangan penduduk Jember yang majoriti beragama Islam dan beretnik Jawa dan Madura memiliki nilai, keyakinan dan budaya yang menyokong efektifnya “sumpah pocong” sebagai cara resolusi konflik di wilayah ini. Mereka meyakini apabila memberikan pengakuan dan pernyataan palsu akan memperoleh dosa selama tujuh keturunan. Sehingga ‘kejujuran” yang terjadi dalam “sumpah pocong” ini boleh menjadi jaminan (guarantee) untuk menyelesaikan konflik tersebut.
Dalam agama Islam, tradisi “sumpah pocong” memang tidak dikenal, tetapi masuknya nilai “dosa akan mendapat laknat Allah” yang dikesankan dalam “sumpah pocong” bahawa akan terjadi secara langsung dan menimpa kepada tujuh keturunannya merupakan ketakutan sendiri untuk melanggar sumpah tersebut dan pelaksanaan ritual ini dipimpin adalah seorang ulama/kyai yang bagi masyarakat Jember merupakan patron dalam semua perkara kehidupan.

Kata Kunci: Sumpah Pocong, Resolusi Konflik, Kearifan Tempatan

Folklore is a congregation-directed and observation-supported criterion of a populace of individual mirroring the assumption of the group as a sufficient articulation of its cultural specification. Its form included language, literature, music, dance, games, mythology, rituals, customs handicrafts, architecture and other arts. A study was made on the riches of folklore on Bengal in the perspective of agricultural education, extension and knowledge. It reveals that the importance of agricultural crops is deeply felt in the social and cultural life of the folk. In the poetry of Khana (Khana's Sayings), descriptions are found about agricultural crops and extensive mention is made on horticulture. Observation based agricultural knowledge in the sector of agro climate, soil, land preparation, sowing and planting of propagules, manuring, irrigation, intercultural operation, intercropping and harvesting etc have been mentioned in that folk-poetry. The human vitality of Bengal was almost everywhere interlaced with and to a great extent depends upon agricultural biodiversity. The authors made a brief list of this diversity pertaining to farm-lore.

The field of gender and development has been marked in recent years by extensive debates about the shortfalls of gender mainstreaming and the depoliticisation of gender and other concepts in development praxis. In these discussions considerably less thought has been given to the theoretical premises of these concepts and the implications of their interface with the epistemological and normative systems of the diverse communities in which they are employed. In the current paper I hope to undertake a more theoretical project by delineating how three foundational concepts -
gender, gender equality, and empowerment - are directly linked to secular epistemologies and western gender metaphysics, to suggest how this might be interfering with effective gender and development practice in non-western/non-secular contexts. I propose that more effort may need to be put in reconstructing and theorising gender realities through local conceptual repertoires in order to better design gender interventions that are attuned to local normative systems. For proper citation see the full article on the Journal's page here: http://journals.dbuniversity.ac.in/ojs/index.php/jdp/article/view/305

According to the ‘new rangeland paradigm’, which developed in the early 1990s, pastoral mobility
is a flexible strategy that balances the variability in natural resources. Today this view is
widely acknowledged. However, in order to understand future dynamics of the pastoral way of
life, the pastoralists’ own perceptions of mobility need to be understood. Furthermore, pastoral
mobility should be studied in the broader context of livelihood strategies. The purpose of this
paper is to provide a more comprehensive understanding of pastoral mobility than the one
offered by the ‘new rangeland paradigm’. The empirical point of departure is a case study of
Fulani pastoralists of northern Senegal. On the basis of this study, analytical entry points for
discussing mobility in a broader context are outlined. These seven points are: types of mobility,
labour input and mobility, perceptions of mobility, mobility and the cultural construction of
identity, the shaping of space into place, the influence of commercialisation on mobility, and
quantitative and spatial assessments of mobility. In combination with aspects of the ‘new
rangeland paradigm’ these form the ‘mobility complex’, which is suggested as an analytical tool
for studying pastoral mobility.

The Mekong River supports a rich diversity of fish species and seasonally inundated riparian forest habitats, including those in the Siphandone Wetlands in Khong District, Champasak
Province, southern Laos and adjacent areas in Stung Treng and Kratie Provinces in northeastern Cambodia. However, there has been little systematic research done regarding the relationships between fishes and seasonally flooded forests in the Mekong River Basin. This paper confirms that terrestrial plants are important food sources for some important fish species, by means of a study of fish stomach contents conducted at Ban Hang Khone, a rural fishing village situated on an island in the Mekong River just below the Khone Falls. A total of 1,617 fish specimens belonging to at least 73 species, 52 genera and 20 families were examined. At least 35 species of forest fruits, 13 species of fresh leaves, and 3 species of flowers were found in fish stomachs along with bark, roots and a wide variety of other fish foods. Species in the family Pangasiidae were found to be the most important consumers of fruits and other fresh vascular plant material. Hypsibarbus spp., Tor tambroides, Leptobarbus hoeveni (Cyprinidae), Osphronemus exodon (Ospronemidae) and other fishes also consume considerable amounts of plant matter. Villagers mentioned 73 plant species believed to be consumed by fishes, including 9 suitable for baiting hooks for catching fish. The importance of seasonally inundated forests to the aquatic ecosystem of the Mekong River is considered, including the possible role of fishes as plant seed dispersers and predators. Flooded forests along the Mekong River are threatened by hydrological changes caused by the constructionof large dams both up and down river.

We carried out a study to determine ethno-veterinary knowledge used to treat and prevent livestock diseases in Toteng Village in Ngamiland District, northwestern Botswana. Primary data were collected through simple random sampling of 45 households in Toteng. Respondents were either livestock owners or cattle herders. Respondents were interviewed using a structured questionnaire which had both open and closed-ended questions. Cattle ownership or herdership in Toteng is an inter-generational occupation with people ranging from 15 to 94 years old. Cattle were acquired either through inheritance, buying, mafisa (reciprocal exchange) system or government scheme. Women in the study area were more involved in livestock farming activities. Eleven livestock diseases were reported to be prevalent in the study area. The top six diseases were tlhako le molomo -foot and mouth disease (FMD), matlho -eye infections, letshololo-diarrhea, madi -pasteurollosis, mokokomalo -aphosphorisis and pholoso-contagious abortion. At least nine medicinal plant species having ethno-veterinary applications were recorded in the study area. Single plants are mostly used rather than a combination of plants. A number of social strategies were mentioned such as 'go fetola mafudiso' -to change grazing areas, and 'go thaa lesaka' -to ritualistically 'protect a kraal' or livestock against evil spells and predators (lions). Although the intervention of conventional veterinary medicine is pervasive in Toteng, and many livestock owners are resorting to it, there is evidence, however, of generalized ethno-veterinary knowledge used to treat and prevent livestock diseases. Local farmers and their herders in Ngamiland are not only knowledgeable and experienced in treating a range of livestock diseases, but also in performing other veterinary tasks such as assisting in births, treating fractures and range management strategies to mitigate particular threats from their local environment. The efficacy of ethno-veterinary knowledge for preventing and treating livestock diseases and range management strategies identified in this study need to be fully investigated and integrated in veterinary extension services.

Background: Leading scholars in ethnobiology and ethnomedicine continuously stress the need for moving beyond the bare description of local knowledge and to additionally analyse and theorise about the characteristics and dynamics of human interactions with plants and related local knowledge. Analyses of the variation of local knowledge are thereby perceived as minimal standard. In this study we investigate the distribution and variation of wild plant knowledge in five domains: food, drinks, human medicine, veterinary medicine and customs. We assess relations between the wild plant knowledge of informants and their socio-demographic as well as geographic background. Method: Research was conducted in the Biosphere Reserve Grosses Walsertal, Austria. Structured questionnaires were used to inquire wild plant knowledge from 433 informants with varying socio-demographic and geographic background. Children assisted in the data collection. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and generalized linear models. Results and discussion: A majority of respondents is familiar with wild plant uses, however to varying degrees. Knowledge variations depend on the socio-demographic and geographic background of the informants as well as on the domains of knowledge under investigation: women, older informants and homegardeners report more human medicinal applications and applications in drinks than men, younger informants and non-homegardeners; farmers know a greater variety of veterinary medicinal applications than non-farmers; the place of residence relates significantly to food and veterinary uses. Customs are difficult to investigate in standardized matrices. The household-related distribution of work and the general socio-cultural context are especially helpful in order to explain intracultural variation of knowledge in the Grosses Walsertal. Conclusions: Research on the intracultural variation of local knowledge exposes cultural characteristics and highlights the cultural embeddedness of local knowledge. The impact of socio-cultural developments on local knowledge may be anticipated from understanding the intracultural variation of knowledge.

This unit focuses on two aspects of local knowledge: “formal information” (i.e., information written following the tradition of scientific method) about a local situation (for example, epidemiological information  about the health of a defined community, and local journal literature), and “indigenous” knowledge (or
knowledge that is embedded in local traditions, stories, and other repositories of local wisdom). The unit explores how to combine and integrate such “local” knowledge with “global” knowledge to facilitate the actions of health workers and managers at the community level. Particular emphasis is given to the role of information and communication technologies  – specifically the Internet – in this endeavour.

Anthropological claims about indigenous or local knowledge often exaggerate the cultural mystique of such knowledge "systems" and the difficulties associated with rendering local knowledge accessible to outsiders and with ascertaining its utility for initiatives in economic development and environmental conservation. We argue that part of this confusion reflects a common tendency for researchers to preoccupy themselves with understanding the knowledge per se rather than with understanding what knowledge actually influences human behavior in different situations or contexts and how and why it does so. We propose, as an alternative, an approach which begins by focusing on specific events or actions, rather than knowledge systems, as our objects of study and explanation and then goes on to consider what actors know mainly insofar as that can help us to make sense of the events or actions of interest. Such an approach de-mystifies the notion of knowledge systems and makes productive investigations possible without always requiring laborious investments in ethnographic fieldwork. Illustrations of this approach and of the arguments presented in its support are drawn mainly from our research in Indonesia and the Philippines.

The DPSIR framework was devised in the late 1990s as a tool for the reporting and analysis of environmental problems, ranging in scale from global systems to localized watersheds. Since then, international organizations have begun to apply this framework to the evaluation of sustainable development initiatives, to better understand and overcome barriers to sustainability. While this may seem a logical application for an integrated environmental assessment tool, the use of DPSIR in sustainable development will likely perpetuate the least satisfactory outcomes of development. DPSIR cannot address the impact of aggregated, informal responses on the drivers and pressures related to environmental problems and sustainability challenges. This problem is not merely an oversight of the framework, but an issue that emerges within the structure of DPSIR itself through the unexamined, unacknowledged hierarchy of actors that this framework implicitly creates with its typology. Therefore, a DPSIR-centered approach is not a new direction for development within international organizations, but instead, a reproduction of existing inequalities between actors and stakeholders within current approaches.

La refexión sobre las metodologías sigue impulsando un amplio debate dis- ciplinar que se actualiza de acuerdo a los nuevos desafíos que presenta el campo de la investigación. En esta ocasión, el presente artículo contribuye con algunas consideraciones teórico – metodológicas relativas al análisis antropológico de los sistemas de conocimiento local indígena y su transmisión vinculados con la producción de cultura material. En este marco, se presenta un caso comparativo entre dos comunidades en Argentina, abordado desde la perspectiva metodológi- ca que brinda el Análisis de Redes Sociales. En particular, se discuten aspectos de la investigación científca relativos al proceso que conforma la recolección de información, su procesamiento, la construcción del dato etnográfco y la elaboración del modelo de análisis. Así, se espera aportar a una discusión fundamental orientada a consolidar la aplicación de diferentes diseños metodológicos y sus usos en Antropología.

We use a qualitative study of recreational anglers in northern England to explore constructions of ‘the public’ in environmental management. We examine good and bad constructs of ‘the public’ and show how they emphasise knowledge over practice. We argue for a more differentiated view of the public through ‘environmental engagement’ which will appreciate more fully ways in which both ‘specialised publics’ and ‘performative publics’ are imagined and enacted. We demonstrate how these constructs play out through attending to the discursive and material ‘hands-on’ practices of anglers in environmental management and show how these link different geographies of public participation through both discursive and material spaces.

Anthropological claims about indigenous or local knowledge often exaggerate the cultural mystique of such knowledge "systems" and the difficulties associated with rendering local knowledge accessible to outsiders and with ascertaining its utility for initiatives in economic development and environmental conservation. We argue that part of this confusion reflects a common tendency for researchers to preoccupy themselves with understanding the knowledge per se rather than with understanding what knowledge actually influences human behavior in different situations or contexts and how and why it does so. We propose, as an alternative, an approach which begins by focusing on specific events or actions, rather than knowledge systems, as our objects of study and explanation and then goes on to consider what actors know mainly insofar as that can help us to make sense of the events or actions of interest. Such an approach de-mystifies the notion of knowledge systems and makes productive investigations possible without always requiring laborious investments in ethnographic fieldwork. Illustrations of this approach and of the arguments presented in its support are drawn mainly from our research in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Kapitalisme berasal dari perkataan "kapital"yang bermaksud "modal". Istilah ini mula diperkenalkan pada pertengahan abad ke-19 oleh Karl Marx, pengasas komunisme. Pasaran bebas dan sistem pasaran adalah antara istilah yang sering bertukar ganti dengan kapitalisme untuk menerangkan ekonomi moden bukan komunis. Amalan ekonomi kapitalis mengukuh di England di antara kurun ke-16 Masehi dan ke-19 Masehi. Walaubagaimanapun telah wujud ciri-ciri kapitalis sejak dulu lagi terutamanya di kalangan saudagar Zaman Pertengahan. 1 Kapitalisme menjadi dominan di Barat semenjak berakhirnya era Feudalisme. Dari England, kapitalisme merebak ke seluruh Eropah dan pada abad ke-19 dan 20 dan menjadi sistem ekonomi utama dunia yang menggerakkan era perindustrian. 2

The paper argues that the concept of ‘local system’ is a powerful tool to investigate the working of the post-industrial rural economy for two reasons: i) because it explains the social diversity between different, which is a major feature of contemporary rurality increasingly emphasised in economic literature; ii) because it focuses on the prevailing rules that lead socio-economic behaviour in a specific area – e.g. on the ‘contextual knowledge’ – and therefore takes into account the interplay between individuals and institutions, which is at the root of social and economic diversity.

This Unit defines local knowledge, argues why this knowledge is important and
gives the positive characteristics of this knowledge. It also focuses very much on the
need to include local knowledge, in addition to “scientific” knowledge, into the
production of knowledge.

The production, dissemination and utilization of knowledge are essential for development and the introduction of information and communication technology (ICT) is a precondition for developing a knowledge society. Countries, regions and populations are, however, divided, in terms of access to ICT. Socio-economic indicators on Brazil, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, the Netherlands and Germany are used to show that the existing global digital divide and the knowledge gap are widening between developing countries and the industrial countries and within individual nations. The moral and cultural issues of the digital divide and the knowledge gap are identified. Access to primary education and the acquisition of reading and writing skills is a basic human right and an internal digital divide between those that have access to further knowledge and others without access is unjust and not acceptable. Furthermore a civilization needs “meta-narratives” as a common ground, an anchorage for basic cultural values, which have to be disseminated, known and accepted by all members of a society to avoid violent conflict, fundamentalisms of various kinds and alienation. Some countries have embarked on an ambitious plan to close the digital divide and to use knowledge as a base for economic development, by-passing earlier stages of industrialization. Some commentators have, in contrast, asserted that it is doubtful that closing the digital divide will let developing countries leapfrog to higher levels of development as the knowledge economy will deepen the digital divide between regions and populations and actually expand the gap between rich and poor. The paper discusses this controversy by arguing that global knowledge has to be localized and local knowledge utilized in developing a knowledge society. If it seems unlikely that the digital gap between developing and developed countries will be closed completely at least narrowing the gap at the lower end should be targeted. For this purpose minimal standards of “basic digital needs” should be formulated.

This article shows the characteristics, use, and interventions of market-driven pico-hydropower turbines in the Lao PDR to emphasise the importance of building on local knowledge, distribution and support networks for rural electrification. Privately owned pico-hydropower (<2 kW) is the most prolific form of off-grid rural electrification in the northern provinces of Laos. Its relatively wide utilisation relies on the extensive network of Chinese and Vietnamese traders and Lao shop owners to distribute the turbines and the spare parts, and on local knowledge of end-users on the choice of the location, installation, use and load management of the systems. Despite its comparative advantages over solar home systems, diesel generators, micro-hydropower, and other forms of off-grid rural electrification, there are some issues related to safety, load management, seasonality, and the supply chain. The ongoing interventions by the pico-hydropower team at the Lao Institute for Renewable Energy (LIRE) to overcome these issues are used as an example of an approach that builds upon the local knowledge, distribution and support networks of pico-hydropower in Laos. These include ways to share and disseminate information, the implementation of a 2 kW community picohydropower system as a demonstration of best practice for replication, testing turbines and accessories, and policy advocacy.

This paper examines how freshwater anglers in northern England ‘read’ rivers as landscapes and work with them relationally, through various sorts of embodied knowledge-practices, as part of their angling activity: processes that they call ‘watercraft’. We focus specifically on water as an environment that anglers encounter as a different world: unlike land and air, water is not an everyday medium in which humans (as terrestrial animals) live and breathe. We use this example of environmental engagement to go beyond visual engagement with landscapes, to show how people develop skills of environmental interpretation, mapping and nonvisual sense-making in ways that are particular to the water encounter. We conclude by arguing for a mutual and multisensory notion of environmental engagement that considers not merely human perception but also how environments, such as water, also shape that encounter.

Small-scale fisheries are important in Laos, where rural people heavily depend upon Mekong River and tributary fish stocks for their livelihoods. Increasing pressures from human exploitation and habitat disturbance, however, have raised serious concerns about the potential depletion of various species. This has led to the establishment of large numbers of Fish Conservation Zones (FCZs) or``no-take'' fish sanctuaries in southern Laos based on a``community-based fisheries co-management'' framework. This study uses the local ecological knowledge (LEK) of fishers to assess the effectiveness of village-managed FCZs in enhancing fish stocks in the mainstream Mekong River in Khong District, Champasak Province. Focus group interviews about species that are believed to have benefited from different FCZs are compared with parameters such as FCZ area, age, depth, localized gradient, water velocity, and the presence of wetland forests nearby. The results suggest that no one aspect is likely to account for variations in fish stocks; rather, it is the interaction between numerous factors that has the largest impact. Secondly, the results indicate that microhabitat diversity and protection are critical for maintaining and enhancing Mekong fisheries. Deep-water pools are particularly important as dry season refuges for many fish species, and FCZ depth may be the single most important environmental factor affecting the success of FCZs in the Mekong River. FCZs have the most potential to benefit relatively sedentary species, but may also benefit highly migratory species, given the right conditions. This study shows that integrated approaches to stock assessment that employ LEK and scientific fisheries management have considerable potential for improving Mekong capture-fisheries management. Wild fish stocks are critical for meeting the subsistence needs of much of the worldÕs population. Although commercial harvesting of marine and freshwater species now accounts for the largest volume of fish caught, artisinal fishing is still of critical importance to many indigent communities (

Sampaguita growing is becoming a communal livelihood in several rice and vegetable producing provinces in the Philippines.
The making of sampaguita flower leis provides a livelihood opportunity for many marginalized households. The research on the
sampaguita livelihood system aimed to determine the perceptions about livelihood risks and analyze the development processes
of resilience to solve the risks. Increased capability of the sampaguita growers to understand their risks prompted a
transformative type of resilience. The constructivist methodology of the research used mixed qualitative and quantitative
methods to explore the constructs and meanings of lived experiences about livelihood risks and resilience processes.

Local knowledge registers prominently in scholarly efforts to resolve environmental problems, ushering in widespread use of participatory practices of deliberation. Without the incorporation of local knowledge, many scholars contend that environmental science and planning remain beholden to the unbridled reign of the expert, and the daunting complexity of environmental problems remains seemingly impossible to penetrate. Fol- lowing in this vein of work, we formed our participatory research project on nonpoint water pollution in two watersheds around four action clusters. On the local side, we included a cluster of farmers and farmland owners and a cluster of general community members. On the expert side, we included a cluster of researchers and another of government officials. However, we found in our research that the development of democratic deliberat- ion depended more on whether participants situated and linked their knowl- edge than whether it was local or expert in origin. We suggest grounded knowledge, situating one’s experiences in a way that enables participants to actively link with other knowledge, as a concept useful for scholars to better understand which ways of knowing enable deliberation in the participatory processes.

Knowledge loss is not a remote phenomenon, unique to one knowledge system. Rather we argue that the loss of knowledge is an issue for other knowledge systems as well. Knowledge loss is certainly a concern for anthropologists working on indigenous knowledge, fearful of 'losing'indigenous knowledge entirely as a result of modernisation (cf. Cox, 2000).

The erosion of cultural knowledge and traditions as a result of globalization and migration is a commonly reported phenomenon. We compared one type of cultural knowledge about medicinal plants (number of plants reported to treat thirty common health conditions) among Dominican laypersons who self-medicate with plants and live in rural or urban areas of the Dominican Republic (DR), and those who have moved to New York City (NYC). Many plants used as medicines were popular Dominican food plants. These plants were reported significantly more often by Dominicans living in NYC as compared to the DR, and this knowledge was not age-dependent. These results contradict the popular paradigm about loss of cultural plant knowledge and is the first study to report a statistically measurable increase in this type of knowledge associated with migration.

We carried out a study to determine ethno-veterinary knowledge used to treat and prevent livestock diseases in Toteng Village in Ngamiland District, northwestern Botswana. Primary data were collected through simple random sampling of 45 households in Toteng. Respondents were either livestock owners or cattle herders. Respondents were interviewed using a structured questionnaire which had both open and closed-ended questions. Cattle ownership or herdership in Toteng is an inter-generational occupation with people ranging from 15 to 94 years old. Cattle were acquired either through inheritance, buying, mafisa (reciprocal exchange) system or government scheme. Women in the study area were more involved in livestock farming activities. Eleven livestock diseases were reported to be prevalent in the study area. The top six diseases were tlhako le molomo-foot and mouth disease (FMD), matlho-eye infections, letshololo-diarrhea, madi-pasteurollosis, mokokomalo-aphosphorisis and pholoso-contagious abortion. At least nine medicinal plant species having ethno-veterinary applications were recorded in the study area. Single plants are mostly used rather than a combination of plants. A number of social strategies were mentioned such as 'go fetola mafudiso'-to change grazing areas, and 'go thaa lesaka'-to ritualistically 'protect a kraal' or livestock against evil spells and predators (lions). Although the intervention of conventional veterinary medicine is pervasive in Toteng, and many livestock owners are resorting to it, there is evidence, however, of generalized ethno-veterinary knowledge used to treat and prevent livestock diseases. Local farmers and their herders in Ngamiland are not only knowledgeable and experienced in treating a range of livestock diseases, but also in performing other veterinary tasks such as assisting in births, treating fractures and range management strategies to mitigate particular threats from their local environment. The efficacy of ethno-veterinary knowledge for preventing and treating livestock diseases and range management strategies identified in this study need to be fully investigated and integrated in veterinary extension services.

&quot;In 2008, the Library of Congress (LC) posted a collection of historical photographs on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/), a photo sharing and social tagging service, with an intention of engaging the Web 2.0 community. Our project investigates a sample of 4500 records from the LC Flickr project with the purpose of understanding how Web 2.0 communities interact with the collections on Flickr. The goal is to develop a holistic picture of these interactions and analyse them from multiple perspectives: spatial, social, and semantic. The initial exploratory findings reveal that collections of photographs are enhanced by communities of taggers and commenters. These communities contribute different kinds of knowledge to image collections. Taggers add tags; commenters contribute local knowledge, opinions, and sentiments. In anthropology, local knowledge is defined as knowledge strongly rooted in particular places and reflects personal and emotional awareness of an area (Geertz, 1983). In this project we are closely investigating these communities with the purpose of determining who plays the key role in knowledge creation, and what collections benefit from such knowledge enhancements the most. To achieve this objective, we are planning to examine collections, users, and their contributions by means of social network, geographic, and semantic analysis. The application of SNA in this scenario is somewhat unusual. Commonly, SNA is used for analysis of communities of people. Recent studies, however, have used SNA for analysis of other objects, namely: diseases (Goh et al., 2007), recipes (Teng, Lin, &amp; Adamic, 2012), and images (Cha, Mislove, &amp; Gummadi, 2009). Therefore, we assume that application of SNA to user interactions with images is justified. For SNA we mapped image-tagger and image-commenter relationships. To differentiate comments, we semantically analyzed and then categorized comments by content: local knowledge (that includes stories, opinions, questions, and corrections), and sentiments. This allowed us to see the differences in the structure of interactions in different communities. Our initial findings demonstrate that user comments include more local knowledge statements than sentiments; there are more local knowledge commenters than taggers, but fewer than those who write sentiments. User nodes in the local knowledge community are larger than in the sentiment community. By size, nodes differ significantly: in the local knowledge community, the most prolific user has 330 relationships with images, but the most prolific user in the sentiment community has only 70 relationships. The overlap between local knowledge and sentiment communities is not large: those who provide local knowledge hardly provide any sentiments. With geographic analysis, we intend to infer users’ expertise in local knowledge of places and people shown in images. To carry out such analysis, we will map locations featured in images and locations of contributors. The distances between images and contributors may provide clues to the degree of users’ expertise in the knowledge of a place or an event featured on a photograph. &quot;

The field of gender and development has been marked in recent years by extensive debates about the shortfalls of gender mainstreaming and the depoliticisation of gender and other concepts in development praxis. In these discussions considerably less thought has been given to the theoretical premises of these concepts and the implications of their interface with the epistemological and normative systems of the diverse communities in which they are employed. In the current paper I hope to undertake a more theoretical project by delineating how three foundational conceptsgender, gender equality, and empowermentare directly linked to secular epistemologies and western gender metaphysics, to suggest how this might be interfering with effective gender and development practice in non-western/non-secular contexts. I propose that more effort may need to be put in reconstructing and theorising gender realities through local conceptual repertoires in order to better design gender interventio...

Background: Leading scholars in ethnobiology and ethnomedicine continuously stress the need for moving beyond the bare description of local knowledge and to additionally analyse and theorise about the characteristics and dynamics of human interactions with plants and related local knowledge. Analyses of the variation of local knowledge are thereby perceived as minimal standard. In this study we investigate the distribution and variation of wild plant knowledge in five domains: food, drinks, human medicine, veterinary medicine and customs. We assess relations between the wild plant knowledge of informants and their socio-demographic as well as geographic background. Method: Research was conducted in the Biosphere Reserve Grosses Walsertal, Austria. Structured questionnaires were used to inquire wild plant knowledge from 433 informants with varying socio-demographic and geographic background. Children assisted in the data collection. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and generalized linear models. Results and discussion: A majority of respondents is familiar with wild plant uses, however to varying degrees. Knowledge variations depend on the socio-demographic and geographic background of the informants as well as on the domains of knowledge under investigation: women, older informants and homegardeners report more human medicinal applications and applications in drinks than men, younger informants and non-homegardeners; farmers know a greater variety of veterinary medicinal applications than non-farmers; the place of residence relates significantly to food and veterinary uses. Customs are difficult to investigate in standardized matrices. The household-related distribution of work and the general socio-cultural context are especially helpful in order to explain intracultural variation of knowledge in the Grosses Walsertal. Conclusions: Research on the intracultural variation of local knowledge exposes cultural characteristics and highlights the cultural embeddedness of local knowledge. The impact of socio-cultural developments on local knowledge may be anticipated from understanding the intracultural variation of knowledge.

We carried out a study to determine ethno-veterinary knowledge used to treat and prevent livestock diseases in Toteng Village in Ngamiland District, northwestern Botswana. Primary data were collected through simple random sampling of 45 households in Toteng. Respondents were either livestock owners or cattle herders. Respondents were interviewed using a structured questionnaire which had both open and closed-ended questions. Cattle ownership or herdership in Toteng is an inter-generational occupation with people ranging from 15 to 94 years old. Cattle were acquired either through inheritance, buying, mafisa (reciprocal exchange) system or government scheme. Women in the study area were more involved in livestock farming activities. Eleven livestock diseases were reported to be prevalent in the study area. The top six diseases were tlhako le molomo -foot and mouth disease (FMD), matlho -eye infections, letshololo-diarrhea, madi -pasteurollosis, mokokomalo -aphosphorisis and pholoso-contagious abortion. At least nine medicinal plant species having ethno-veterinary applications were recorded in the study area. Single plants are mostly used rather than a combination of plants. A number of social strategies were mentioned such as 'go fetola mafudiso' -to change grazing areas, and 'go thaa lesaka' -to ritualistically 'protect a kraal' or livestock against evil spells and predators (lions). Although the intervention of conventional veterinary medicine is pervasive in Toteng, and many livestock owners are resorting to it, there is evidence, however, of generalized ethno-veterinary knowledge used to treat and prevent livestock diseases. Local farmers and their herders in Ngamiland are not only knowledgeable and experienced in treating a range of livestock diseases, but also in performing other veterinary tasks such as assisting in births, treating fractures and range management strategies to mitigate particular threats from their local environment. The efficacy of ethno-veterinary knowledge for preventing and treating livestock diseases and range management strategies identified in this study need to be fully investigated and integrated in veterinary extension services.

The delocalizing, expropriatory intent behind the Linnaean taxonomical enterprise is well known. Among other things, Linnaeus rejected indigenous plant names in favor of names that decontextualized plants and reinserted them into a European classificatory framework for the purposes of categorizing, acclimatizing and exploiting them. What has been largely overlooked, however, is the extent to which late-Enlightenment Linnaean botanists themselves continued not only to rely on indigenous knowledge and guidance in their colonial fieldwork, but also to actively cultivate a knowledge of indigenous languages – especially indigenous plant names – for themselves. One reason for this omission, I suggest, is that historians of botany have formed a more or less totalizing impression of the discipline’s late eighteenth-century cultural significance from published flora and other writings in which Linnaean binomial species names predominate. My own line of inquiry, on the other hand, contrasts the marginality of indigenous plant names in published texts with their far greater prominence in unpublished materials. For the purposes of this paper I draw particularly on Daniel Solander’s Plantae Otaheitensis, a manuscript virtually ignored by historians. The intention is threefold: to draw attention to a heretofore underutilized resource for Cook voyage historians; to augment a growing scholarly awareness of indigenous knowledge-making contributions to Enlightenment botany; and finally, in highlighting the disjuncture between exoteric print conventions and esoteric plant-collecting practices, to shed further light on the oft-observed correlation between botany and early Romantic epistemology.

Infrastructures are necessary to support the functionality of urban communities. Globalization, increased polycentricity, new trends in governance and tightening public budgets have increased interest in alternative ways of providing such infrastructures. One product of this trend is the ‘inverse infrastructure,’ which refers to a modularized, semi-autonomous and user-driven infrastructure that is a result of the self-organization of local actors. In this study, we discuss the nature of such infrastructures and the challenges they pose to local infrastructure policy with special reference to the case of water cooperatives in Finland. Our conclusion is that inverse infrastructures have a potential to contribute to local infrastructure services either as cost-effective alternative or as supplement to large technical systems. Their full utilization requires, however, enabling and integrative infrastructure policy.

Purpose – Climate change continues to pose a serious challenge to mankind. Given their socio-economic and vulnerable situations, resource-poor farmers will be hard hit and likely to be the most affected group in Africa – a continent that will bear the full brunt of inclement weather conditions. The purpose of this paper is to address the questions of how local farmers read and predict the weather, and how best they can collaborate with weather scientists in adapting to climate change and variability in the Okavango Delta of Botswana.

Design/methodology/approach – A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed in sampling a total of 592 households heads (both men and women) in eight rural communities in the Okavango Delta, Botswana.

Findings – Analysis indicates that about 80 per cent of the farmers had a good knowledge of weather forecasting. In a knowledge validation workshop organised and implemented in early August 2012, farmers and scientists identified a nine-point agenda and strategies for addressing the challenges
posed by climate change to community well-being and agricultural production. Knowledge sharing, installation of community weather stations and local-level capacity building are amongst the strategies identified.

Research limitations/implications – The research is only limited to the Okavango Delta, Botswana.

Originality/value – The paper emanates from original field research. The outcome of the paper provides pertinent information for policy formulation on how best to enhance small farmers’ adaptation to climate change.

In 2008, the Library of Congress (LC) posted a collection of historical photographs on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/), a photo sharing and social tagging service, with an intention of engaging the Web 2.0 community. Our project investigates a sample of 4500 records from the LC Flickr project with the purpose of understanding how Web 2.0 communities interact with the collections on Flickr. The goal is to develop a holistic picture of these interactions and analyse them from multiple perspectives: spatial, social, and semantic. The initial exploratory findings reveal that collections of photographs are enhanced by communities of taggers and commenters.  These communities contribute different kinds of knowledge to image collections. Taggers add tags; commenters contribute local knowledge, opinions, and sentiments. In anthropology, local knowledge is defined as knowledge strongly rooted in particular places and reflects personal and emotional awareness of an area (Geertz, 1983).
In this project we are closely investigating these communities with the purpose of determining who plays the key role in knowledge creation, and what collections benefit from such knowledge enhancements the most. To achieve this objective, we are planning to examine collections, users, and their contributions by means of social network, geographic, and semantic analysis. The application of SNA in this scenario is somewhat unusual. Commonly, SNA is used for analysis of communities of people.  Recent studies, however, have used SNA for analysis of other objects, namely: diseases (Goh et al., 2007), recipes (Teng, Lin, & Adamic, 2012), and images (Cha, Mislove, & Gummadi, 2009). Therefore, we assume that application of SNA to user interactions with images is justified. For SNA we mapped image-tagger and image-commenter relationships. To differentiate comments, we semantically analyzed and then categorized comments by content: local knowledge (that includes stories, opinions, questions, and corrections), and sentiments.  This allowed us to see the differences in the structure of interactions in different communities. Our initial findings demonstrate that user comments include more local knowledge statements than sentiments; there are more local knowledge commenters than taggers, but fewer than those who write sentiments. User nodes in the local knowledge community are larger than in the sentiment community. By size, nodes differ significantly: in the local knowledge community, the most prolific user has 330 relationships with images, but the most prolific user in the sentiment community has only 70 relationships. The overlap between local knowledge and sentiment communities is not large: those who provide local knowledge hardly provide any sentiments.

With geographic analysis, we intend to infer users’ expertise in local knowledge of places and people shown in images. To carry out such analysis, we will map locations featured in images and locations of contributors. The distances between images and contributors may provide clues to the degree of users’ expertise in the knowledge of a place or an event featured on a photograph.