Small voices against the wind: Local knowledge and social transformation.

Abstract

In all settings, people have interpretive frameworks and knowledge borne out of engaging in everyday activities. This local knowledge is tacit and contains the prior assumptions and recipes for life in the local setting. In times of rapid social change, this local knowledge is under threat, especially when change agents introduce systems of knowledge exogenous to the local milieu. This clash between the old and the new, at a cognitive level, can be a constructive force for change but it also has the potential to destroy self-esteem and the capacity to understand and manage change. Drawing on examples arising out of work in rural communities in South Africa, the dynamics of the conflict between local and exogenous knowledge during a period of social transformation are examined. Dislocations occur when people become obliged to engage in new activities whose origins lie outside the local context. Whether or not the dislocations constitute productive or destructive moments for constructing new ways of thinkin...