Abstract
This paper looks at the languages of empowerment and control as they are expressed by authors writing about “indigenous knowledge.” We performed a content analysis on CIKARD News, a newsletter dealing with the concept of indigenous knowledge. This concept has become increasingly prominent in the discourse of alternative development, addressing issues of ecological sustainability and the empowerment of the rural poor. However, mediated by institutions that perpetuate global and local power asymmetries, the empowering potential of indigenous knowledge may be bypassed. Instead, officials, researchers, and practitioners may utilize this knowledge for their own perceived ends, however good their intentions. In addition, there is already evidence that an indigenous knowledge approach is seen by major agencies as beneficial for integrating poorer populations into the global economy. Our analysis suggests that tensions persist among and within the writings of these authors between the desire to empower and the tendency for development to control rural populations.
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William E. O'Brien is currently a doctoral student in Environmental Design and Planning at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. His masters and bachelors degrees are both in Geography; the masters also from Virginia Tech, the bachelors degree from Radford University. His research interests center around the use of indigenous knowledge in pastoral development and agroforestry, particularly in East Africa.
Cornelia Butler Flora is professor of sociology and head of that department at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She has worked extensively with farming systems and sustainable agriculture in the United States and in developing countries. She is part of the ECOGEN project, which integrates gender with natural resource management.
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O'Brien, W.E., Flora, C.B. Selling appropriate development vs. selling-out rural communities: Empowerment and control in indigengous knowledge discourse. Agric Hum Values 9, 95–102 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02217631
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02217631