Nature Of Local Knowledge Research Articles

Participatory GIS to inform coral reef ecosystem management: Mapping human coastal and ocean uses in Hawaii

Sociospatial information is critical to marine and coastal ecosystem management. The Hawaii Coastal Uses Mapping Project used a participatory geographic information systems (PGIS) methodology to gather local knowledge regarding the location and intensity of coastal human activities in Hawaii's priority sites for coral reef management. PGIS provided an efficient and effective means of obtaining information in a data-poor context, particularly at a scale and location where considerable local knowledge is held by community members and resource users. We detail the PGIS methods developed to collect sociospatial data on human uses in the project regions and discuss important considerations regarding the practice of PGIS that emerged from the mapping process, as well as implications for the production and documentation of spatial knowledge. Key themes include: issues of scale and appropriateness in using PGIS as a method for mapping human coastal and marine activities; data validity, authority, and the nature of local knowledge; community trust, engagement, and collaboration; and utility for coral reef management. While several factors limit local agencies' ability to use this spatial information to date, natural resource managers found the participatory mapping process to be highly valuable for stakeholder identification and engagement, and the maps provide a resource to state and federal managers to better understand the human implications of future management scenarios.

The nature of local knowledge and new firm formation

Knowledge spillovers in a region often co-vary with the size of knowledge created in the region, i.e. local knowledge. Local knowledge is, however, open to competition between incumbents and new entrants. Given this competition, the size of local knowledge is not always conductive to new entrants. This study examines which types of local knowledge may increase the potential for knowledge spillovers, and eventually entrepreneurial activities.

Street Science: Community Knowledge and Environmental Health JusticeJasonCorburn. . Street Science: Community Knowledge and Environmental Health Justice. . 2005. . MIT Press. : Cambridge, MA. . ISBN: ISBN: 0-262-53272-7. . $24

Street Science: Community Knowledge and Environmental Health JusticeJasonCorburn. . Street Science: Community Knowledge and Environmental Health Justice. . 2005. . MIT Press. : Cambridge, MA. . ISBN: ISBN: 0-262-53272-7. . <b>$24</b>

Original theories: science and the currency of the local

In 1960 the Royal Geographical Society published The making of the Broads: a reconsideration of their origin in the light of new evidence. This monograph, the work of an interdisciplinary team, argued that the shallow lakes of the Norfolk Broads in eastern England had their origins in the medieval peat-digging industry. This paper shows how the origins work can be understood in terms of debates and tensions concerning the cultural authority of science over landscape and the nature of local knowledge, and addresses the implications for the currency of the local within studies of scientific knowledge. Drawing on archival work and oral history, the paper shows how local acceptance or rejection of the theory turned on assertions of scientific or non-scientific cultural authority. First publication of the theory in 1953 triggered angry exchanges in the local press over the next decade; the paper reconstructs these debates in terms of their claims to local knowledge, and the constitution of authority over the field. Science and local knowledge are opposed categories for some but mutually constituted for others, such that science itself becomes a matter of local pride. The paper concludes by considering the relationship between the origins research and debates over the past, present and future of the region.

Snow‐avalanche hazards, Southern Glacier National Park, Montana: The nature of local knowledge and individual responses

A survey was conducted of well‐educated residents of East Glacier Park, Montana, who are frequently isolated by snow avalanches. It showed that people in this area do not alter driving habits during times of avalanche danger, are not aware of the local avalanche warning system, and have not efficiently garnered information about the avalanche hazard.