Immunisation coverage estimates.

Chapter 8 - Importance of Local Knowledge in Building Resilience

Integrating local knowledge for climate change adaptation in Yucatán, Mexico

Reviewed by: The Land of Remorse: A Study of Southern Italian Tarantism, and: Storia biomedica del tarantismo nel XVIII secolo David Gentilcore Ernesto de Martino . The Land of Remorse: A Study of Southern Italian Tarantism. Originally published as La terra del rimorso (Milan: Il Saggiatore), 1961. Translated and annotated by Dorothy Louise Zinn. London: Free Association Books, 2005. xxiii + 332 pp. Ill. $34.50 (paperbound, 1-85343-784-0). [End Page 447] Gino L. Di Mitri . Storia biomedica del tarantismo nel XVIII secolo. Nuova serie della Biblioteca di "Lares." Florence: Olschki, 2006. xxiii + 322 pp. €34.00 (88-222 5508-9). During the early modern period, a whole range of scholars, medical doctors, and travelers entered into the debate concerning the phenomenon of tarantism. They argued whether sufferers of this ailment were the victims of actual tarantula bites and to what extent the only apparently effective treatment, to undergo a series of dances, was determined by the nature of the bite. Why was the phenomenon known only in southern Apulia, they asked, when poisonous spiders could be found throughout Italy and Europe? In the course of this Europe-wide debate a Celestine monk and scholar, Ludovico Valletta, stood up for local knowledge. In his De phalangio apulo (1706), Valletta asserted that no one could pronounce on the subject who had not lived in Apulia and experienced it firsthand in order to learn about the venomous insects of the area, the sufferers of the disease, its symptoms, and the nature of the treatment. Too many outsiders had offered judgments on the basis of secondhand knowledge and hearsay. Valletta, a native of Lucera, practiced what he preached, through direct observation of the phenomenon, investigating local insect life in order to determine which spider, if any, was responsible. The importance of local knowledge is what sent the first serious modern scholar of tarantism, the ethnologist Ernesto De Martino, into the field fifty years ago. He took with him an interdisciplinary team of scholars, whose interpretations formed an appendix to the resulting book, La terra del rimorso (1961). Why this pioneering and interdisciplinary masterpiece was not translated into English soon after it first appeared is something of a mystery. After all, what was called the "southern question," attempting to understand the backwardness (the word then used) of southern Italy, was then widely reported. These were the years of Edward Banfield's controversial notion of "amoral familism," based on his study of poverty in a town in nearby Basilicata, and Nobel prize–winning Danilo Dolci's investigations into Sicilian peasant conditions. Tarantism itself also attracted some interest from historians of medicine like Henry Sigerist and, writing in this journal in 1963, George Mora. De Martino himself died in 1965. Whatever the reason, De Martino's study remained largely unknown to Anglo-phone scholars, although a handful did come to it through a French translation of 1966. An English translation is certainly long overdue. We have the commitment of Dorothy Louise Zinn to thank for its final appearance. Zinn is an American anthropologist living in Matera (Basilicata), and the translation benefits from her local knowledge, complete with introduction and her own annotations to the original text. The careful translation has obviously been a labor of love and is faithfully rendered while also reading well in English. It is only unfortunate that, in this age of digital technology, the music that accompanied the very first edition of La terra del rimorso in the form of a record (remember them?) is not made available to readers of the translation. Local knowledge is the leitmotiv of Gino Di Mitri's detailed survey of what were crucial years in the debate over tarantism during the eighteenth century. This is [End Page 448] when scholars finally put to rest any notion that a real spider might lie behind tarantism, thus refashioning it as a "mere" cultural manifestation. If De Martino reduced this debate into one of Enlightenment physicians belittling and marginalizing popular culture, Di Mitri takes a fresh look at the role of local physicians. One doctor in particular, derided by De Martino, is rehabilitated by Di Mitri. He is Niccolò Caputi, a physician in Lecce. Not only was his own...

“We draw on what we know anyway”: The meaning and role of local knowledge in natural hazard management

The primary aim of the paper was to examine the role of climate forecasts information as a potential tool to reduce impact of climate change in the Vhembe District in Limpopo province. A representative sample of 90 farmers participated in the study. The study involved the Vhembe District with Tshakhuma, Rabali and Tshiombo as study sites. Vhembe district is located in a semi-arid area that is frequently troubled by dry spells, often escalating into severe drought. Such situations have compelled regular assistance from the Limpopo Province in the form of drought relief. Such reactive measures are, however, costly and alternative risk-reduction measures should be sought. One alternative measure to enhance adaptive capacity and possibly improve local decision-making is seasonal climate forecasts. A tool is needed to measure how farmers have responded to past events, what techniques and methods are being used, including forecasts, and a range of other coping and adaptive mechanisms. Many recent efforts to reduce vulnerability to such events include improved adaptation and risk reduction. Farmers in the Vhembe district in Limpopo Province, South Africa (including Tshakhuma, Rabali and Tshiombo study sites) have developed their own local climate forecast strategies and adaptation practices during times of climate risks. For many years the importance of local knowledge in small-scale farmer practices was overlooked. These farmers have developed their own indicators for monitoring climate conditions such as observing the behaviour of birds, behaviour of insects and the characteristics of plants. This paper shows how local knowledge forecasting and external knowledge forecasting can be used as a way to reduce impact of climate change. The following findings were found: (1) Local knowledge forecasting is useful to local farmers, (2) Young farmers, however, prefer to use or rely on external forecasting information, (3) Some farmers within Tshakhuma, Rabali and Tshiombo prefer to integrate both local knowledge and other types of forecasting, (4) Some farmers within the three areas use crop diversification as security measures during uncertain periods.

The article explores various views and complexities of rural community resilience in Zimbabwe. Although rural communities are often praised for their resilience in the face of adversity; the complexity of this resilience is frequently misunderstood or oversimplified. The study employs a systematic review approach to ensure rigor, transparency and replicability in examining rural community resilience in Zimbabwe. The review follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A set of inclusion and exclusion criteria guided the selection process. Peer-reviewed articles and reports focusing on rural resilience in Zimbabwe, particularly in the context of climate change, socio-economic challenges, governance, indigenous knowledge systems, gender dynamics and development interventions, are included. The article highlights the critical role of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in building rural community resilience in Zimbabwe. Although traditional knowledge is often overlooked in modern resilience building strategies, an integrated approach that combines both traditional and modern methods is essential for sustainable resilience building. Such an approach challenges common myths about rural communities suggesting that they are overly reliant on external aid yet, in essence, they have strong social networks and community solidarity which play a crucial role in enhancing resilience, demonstrating the significance of social capital in problem-solving and adaptation. Despite the importance of local knowledge and expertise, the literature indicates that rural community participation in disaster and climate resilience planning remains limited. Most strategies are designed and implemented by external stakeholders with minimal local involvement, threatening the long-term sustainability of resilience initiatives. To address this, the study recommends inclusive participation, ensuring that all stakeholders are actively involved in every stage, from problem identification to implementation and evaluation. Strengthening local ownership of resilience strategies is crucial to their success and sustainability

The Mekong Delta in Vietnam is one of the most productive areas in terms of rice cultivation and aquaculture in the world. Ambitious water resources management and flood control have largely contributed to this success. Nevertheless, agricultural intensification and diversification have generated new ecological and socio-economic challenges in the region. Vietnam’s science and technology policy, described in this chapter, emphasises research on the water sector, focusing on the delta’s sustainable and integrated water resources management. Several research institutes have been established and numerous research programmes, partly in cooperation with foreign organisations, have been initiated. The emergence of knowledge clusters of water-related research in these regions is the result of Vietnam’s science policy, in which Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta are playing decisive roles. Clustering has a positive effect not only on the increase of knowledge output, but also on the economic growth of these regions. Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho City are knowledge hubs with favourable conditions and a large pool of skilled people and advanced infrastructures. This chapter will analyse to what extent proximity and clustering have led to inter-organisational networking and knowledge sharing in academia. It will be shown that limited knowledge sharing has greatly reduced the effectiveness of water-related knowledge production and knowledge output in the south of Vietnam. This finding is mirrored at the local level, where the access of rural communities to water-related innovations and technologies will be examined and alternative local knowledge strategies of managing livelihood insecurities investigated. The current transformation process of agricultural modernisation – as heavily enforced in the Mekong Delta – will aggravate livelihood insecurities in the future. Water-related knowledge needs thus to be produced and disseminated more effectively to the targeted communities. Further, the importance of local knowledge has to be taken into account for a coherent strategy to develop a knowledge-based economy.

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsBen G. Blount BEN G. BLOUNT is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas at San Antonio and was formerly Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Coastal Anthropology Studies Laboratory at the University of Georgia. His research interests are focused on fishing communities in coastal zones. The theoretical approach is on local knowledge and understanding of resource bases, especially in response to competing demands and conflicts in larger regional, national, and global arenas. The applied approach is on the importance of local knowledge in fisheries management.

This chapter introduces and explains the first tenet and foundational principle of Unlocking Silent Histories (USH): the importance of local knowledge and voice as foundational to authentic learning. Local knowledge is defined as the ideas, practices, and norms associated with the given context. Voice reflects the expression of local knowledge as well as indicates the opportunity to speak and express oneself freely in participation of, in the case of USH, the design of learning environments (content and participation).

Extant evidence is mixed on whether local investors or foreign investors are better informed. To help shed light on this issue, we separately examine two market segments within one country that differ in the importance of local knowledge. Prior research documents that state ownership is associated with higher information asymmetry stemming from poorer governance structures and financial transparency, implying that investing in firms with state ownership requires more local knowledge and experience. We provide strong, robust evidence that the informational role that local and foreign institutional investors play in China hinges on the extent of state ownership: in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), local institutional owners have strong forecasting power for future stock returns but foreign institutional owners fail to exhibit this ability, whereas in non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) foreign institutional ownership strongly predicts future stock returns but local institutional ownership does not. Additional analysis reveals that the return-predictive ability of local institutional investors dissipates in SOEs with better corporate governance structures. Overall, our results help reconcile the opposing perspectives in the literature by indicating that local (foreign) institutional investors have an informational advantage that is concentrated in SOEs (non-SOEs), supporting that their relative performance in forecasting varies systematically with the relevance of local knowledge.

The four case studies are engaging, and are well framed by supporting chapters outlining not only the need and importance of local knowledge but also its juxtaposition with professional science. This book is refreshingly accessible and is an excellent supportive text for researchers, students, community members and local government professionals who are embarking on, or are currently engaged in, local knowledge gathering or community participation projects.

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification was one of the key conventions emerging from the 1992 Conference on Environment and Development. At this meeting, inter-governmental organisations, NGOs and scientists agreed that desertification and land degradation are ‘major economic, social and environmental problems in all regions of the world’ and that they ‘should be addressed through a United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification’ (Chapter 12, Agenda 21; UNCCD, 1994). This chapter outlines the early stages of a novel research project that aims to explore the links between this global environmental discourse on desertification and the practical, local socio-economic impacts and responses to land degradation in the Central Asia region. It first explores the changing role of science in combating desertification. Second, it provides some background to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, highlighting three key features of its approach: decentralisation, participation and the importance of local knowledge in anti-desertification activities. It then reviews the historical links between the environmental, social, political and economic dimensions of land degradation and desertification in Central Asia. A programme of activities is presented next, which is designed to investigate how the international approaches outlined in the UN Convention to Combat Desertification may impact upon national and local projects and policies to reduce land degradation and improve rural livelihoods. The paper concludes that there is a growing need for detailed, empirical case study research which reflects more intently on the tensions between international and local discourses of desertification. This is paramount in order to better understand the local challenges posed by the desertification issue, as well as contributing towards the creation of more appropriate and effective mitigation strategies at a regional level.

Water Heritage and the Importance of Local Knowledge in Climate Action

The problem of grazing planning in a non-equilibrated environment, from the analytical procedure toward the system approach

Educational emergencies, ranging from natural disasters to pandemics, threaten the continuity of learning and the well-being of students and educators worldwide. Despite education being a fundamental human right and social service, school systems are frequently disrupted due to insufficient preparedness and inadequate public administration responses. This paper examines the multifaceted role of public administration in managing educational emergencies, focusing on policy design, resource allocation, stakeholder coordination, and technology integration. Through case studies from Hurricane Harvey in Texas and the COVID-19 response in South Korea and Turkey, the study highlights the gaps, best practices, and adaptive measures taken to ensure educational resilience. Emphasis is placed on the importance of local knowledge, educator empowerment, early childhood support, and equitable digital access. The findings underscore the need for a systemic, collaborative, and data-driven approach in public sector management to safeguard education during crises. Recommendations include strengthening communication, decentralizing emergency planning, enhancing technological infrastructure, and integrating community actors in recovery efforts. Keywords: Public Administration, Educational Emergencies, Crisis Management, Natural Disasters, COVID-19, Policy Implementation, School Resilience.