Abstract
We offer a typology of settings to bridge scientific and indigenous knowledge systems and to enhance governance of the environmental commons in contexts of change. We contribute to a need for further clarity on how to incorporate diverse knowledge systems and in ways that contribute to planning, management, monitoring and assessment from local to global levels. We ask, what settings are discussed in the resource and environmental governance literature to support efforts to bridge indigenous and scientific knowledge systems? The objectives are: 1) to offer a typology that organizes various settings to bridge knowledge systems; and 2) to elaborate on how these settings function independently and in concert, using examples from a diverse literature in addition to field research experience. Our focus is on indigenous and scientific knowledge, but the typology offers lessons to bridge diverse knowledge systems more generally, and in ways that are sensitive to a moral, political and process-based approach. The typology includes specific methods and processes, brokering strategies, governance and institutional contexts, and the arena of epistemology. We describe each setting in the typology, and provide examples to reflect on the function and potential outcomes of different settings. Insights from our synthesis can inform policy and participatory action.
Highlights
Navigating environmental change and sustaining environmental commons will depend, in a large part, on coordinated action across levels and knowledge systems (Reid et al 2006; Armitage 2008; Berkes 2012)
We offer a typology of settings to bridge scientific and indigenous knowledge systems and to enhance governance of the environmental commons in contexts of change
We followed an inductive process that involved: 1) reviewing expert advised reading lists on the topic of indigenous knowledge in environmental governance to discover how authors describe and apply bridging knowledge; 2) based on this initial process, we developed the overarching question – what settings are discussed in the resource and environmental governance literature to support efforts to bridge indigenous and scientific knowledge systems? This question was used to guide the systematic literature review; and 3) creating the typology to conceptualize how insights from the literature fit together, and to help further refine current thinking on the different ways that knowledge systems can be bridged
Summary
Navigating environmental change and sustaining environmental commons (e.g. the climate system, wildlife, freshwater) will depend, in a large part, on coordinated action across levels (local, regional, global) and knowledge systems (Reid et al 2006; Armitage 2008; Berkes 2012). Effective governance responses to multi-scale challenges must align action with values of social justice and democracy, and Bridging knowledge systems to enhance governance must validate the legitimacy of diverse knowledge systems in both sense making about environmental change and the strategies used to navigate impacts of environmental changes (Mitchell et al 2006; Armitage 2008; Henry and Dietz 2011). We contribute to this growing need and emphasize the moral/political and practical motivations to connect diverse knowledge systems at the indigenous and scientific knowledge interface. Arctic peoples are the first to be affected by changes, and taking their insights about change and their impacts seriously has required a moral, political and process-based approach
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