On local knowledge

Abstract

This chapter describes the dynamic nature of local ways of knowing and discusses the multidimensional relation and dynamics between local knowledge and scientific knowledge. Fulvio Mazzocchi has estimated that one difficulty in studying local knowledge is that there is no universal concept for local knowledge. Mazzocchi, the concept of local knowledge links knowledge to a certain geographical context, but at the same time it can mean that knowledge loses the specificity which the concept of traditional knowledge carries. Understanding place as activity space is useful for the study of local knowledge. First of all, the concept of activity space reveals that every place is its own kind of mixture of activity spaces and social groups, all of which are influencing the formation of local knowledge. Second, the concept of activity space shows how the dynamism of place and supra-local is part of the formation of local knowledge.