INTEGRATING SCIENTIFIC WITH INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE: CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE ALLIANCES FOR LAND MANAGEME

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INTEGRATING SCIENTIFIC WITH INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE
CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE ALLIANCES FOR LAND
MANAGEMENT IN INDIA
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IS in LDCs

• Increasing recognition in IS literature of the
  potential of ICTs as enablers of socio-economic
  growth.
• The agenda of promoting ICTs also driven by
  international donor agencies.
• Knowledge for Development

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Suggested prescriptions

• Knowledge about technology (e.g. S/W).
• Based on scientific rationalities.
• Agendas of the Information Society.
• Addressing the digital divide.
• Above approaches reflected in national policy
  enunciations etc.

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Counterview proposed in the paper

• Knowledge is contested, fragmented.
• Also arises from domains other than those based
  on Western scientific thought.
• Therefore, the need to recognize the multiplicity
  of knowledge domains, and to
• Seek their integration for better ISD this paper
  suggests one potential approach.

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KM in IS literature

• Extensive and topical.
• Org knowledge described as explicit or tacit.
• How to convert tacit to explicit a central Q?
• Visualized as a commodity in these perspectives.
• Critiques of the above.

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KM in IS literature (contd)

• Human-centered approaches.
• Multiple, context specific, situated in practice.
• Distributed, indeterminate, contested, emergent,
  difficult of central control in Orgs.
• Contextual embeddedness may render it
  non-migratory.
• Communities of knowing, perspective making and
  perspective taking.

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Preparing Land and Water Resource Development
Plans (IMSD)
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Knowledge domains implicated in the case discussed

• Technology specific.
• Application Specific.
• Community Specific.
• Implementation Specific.

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Technology Specific

• Scientific explicit, universally applicable,
  analytical, objective, codifiable.
• Use of satellite-based remote sensing.
• Mathematical modeling.
• Implication of computer technology.
• GIS roots in scientific principles of drawing
  maps, scientific rationalities inscribed in it.

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Application Specific

• Relevant spatial themes chiefly derived from
  satellite remote sensing.
• Scientific knowledge base.
• Interpretation of remotely sensed data.
• Data modeling.

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Community Specific

• Indigenous knowledge
• Context specific.
• Historically excluded from scientific models.
• Gradual change in the above perspective.
• Agenda 21, Earth Summit, for example.

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Implementation Specific

• Resource managers knowledge.
• Built upon bureaucratic rules.
• Specified financial norms.
• Guidelines given by donor agencies.

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Co-construction of multipleknowledge systems

• Three key concepts used in the paper
• CoPs - A community comprises people who develop
  social bonds through traditions and identity.
  Communities thus develop their own distinctive
  languages, shared norms, values and practices
  over time.

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Co-construction of multipleknowledge systems
(contd)

• Boundary Objects - objects that both inhabit
  several communities-of-practice and satisfy
  informational requirements of each of them
  (Bowker Star, 1999, p. 297), and as satisfying
  different concerns simultaneously. Boundary
  objects are used as a means of coordination and
  alignment (Fischer Reeves, 1995) of differing
  perspectives across boundaries, ...
• Participation.

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Theoretical Perspective Construction and
articulation of boundary Objects
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Three facets of a boundary object(theorized)

• Content the scope of knowledge embedded,
• Technology that goes into its production, and,
• Practices which go into the utilization of
  knowledge inscribed in it.
• These attributes determine the effectiveness of a
  BO in aligining and harmonizing different
  perepectives and the different knowledge domains
  implicated.

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Participatory mapping in progress
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Final shape of the resource map
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Historical situation w.r.t. GIS implementation

• BO IMSD-based action plans and maps -
• Technology GIS modeling
• Content restricted to scientific knowledge
  ignoring social factors of land degradation
• Practices preference for interpreted remotely
  sensed data.

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Revised approach adopted at the empirical site

• BO Resource maps produced by communities through
  participatory mapping -
• Technology Home-grown
• Content communitys knowledge of the local
  landscape and ecology
• Practices based on local ethos and everyday
  methods used by local communities to communicate
  amongst themselves.

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