Abstract
Scholars have recognized the importance of local and indigenousknowledge in less industrialized countries. Few studies havebeen done on the diversity of knowledge communities in moreindustrialized countries, however, because of researcherassumptions about the spatial and temporal dimensions of localand scientific knowledge. A distinguishing feature of knowledgecommunities is the way that time and space are perceived. Thesedifferences are reflected in farmers' decision-making.Depending on farmers' knowledge orientations, they may utilizequite different criteria to determine the reliability andapplicability of new information. Advocates of sustainableagriculture, and proponents of on-farm research will benefit byrecognizing the diverse ways that farmers know and understandtheir farming systems in both less and more industrializedcountries.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, K. & Bernhardt, K. (1995). Farming practices and adherenceto an alternative-conventional agricultural paradigm,Rural Sociology 60: 297–309.
Altieri, M. (1989). Agroecology: A new research and development paradigm for world agriculture, in Paoletti, Stinner, & Lorenzoni (eds.), Agricultural ecology and environmen(pp. 37–46). New York: Elsevier.
Altieri, M., ed. (1987). Agroecology: The scientific basis of alternative agriculture. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Banuri, T. & Marglin, F.A., eds. (1993). Who will save the forests? Knowledge, power and environmental destruction. London: Zed Books.
Barlett, P., ed. (1980). Agricultural decision making: Anthropological contributions to Rural development. New York: Academic Press.
Bennett, J.W. (1982). Of time and enterprise: North American family farm management in a context of resource marginality. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Benvenuti, B. (1962). Farming in cultural change. Assen: Royal Van Gorcum and Co.
Berry, W. (1977). The unsettling of America: Culture and agriculture. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
Beus, C. & Dunlap, R. (1990). Conventional versus alternative agriculture: The paradigmatic roots of debate, Rural Sociology 55: 590–616.
Bezdicek, D. & DePhelps, C. (1994). Innovative approaches for integrated research and educational programs, American Journal of Alternative Agriculture 9: 3–8.
Biggelaar, C. den (1991). Farming systems development: Synthesizing indigenous and scientific knowledge systems, Agriculture and Human Values 8 (1-2): 25–36.
Bourdieu, P. (1997). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brokensha, D., Warren, D.M. & Werner, O. (1980). Indigenous knowledge systems and development. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Browder, J. (1995). Redemptive communities: Indigenous knowledge, colonist farming systems, and conservation of tropical forests, Agriculture and Human Values 12 (1): 17–30.
Bultena, G., Hoiberg, E., Jarnagin, S. & Exner, R. (1992). Transition to a more sustainable agriculture in Iowa. Ames, IA: Department of Sociology, Sociological Report 166.
Busch, L. (1978). On understanding understanding: Two views of communication, Rural Sociology 43: 450–473.
Busch, L., Lacy, W., Burkhardt, J. & Lacy, L. (1991). Plants, power, and profit. Cambridge: Basil Blackwell.
Bye, P. & Fonte, M. (1993). New functions of rural space in Western Europe: A challenge for agricultural techniques, International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food 3: 81–95.
Chambers, R., Pacey, A. & Thrupp, L.A. (1989). Farmer first: Farmer innovation and agricultural research. London: Intermediate Technology Publications.
De Certeau, M. (1984). The practice of everyday life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Douglass, G. (1984). Agricultural sustainability in a changing world order. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Fitchen, J. (1991). Endangered spaces, enduring places. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
FitzSimmons, M. (1986). The new industrial agriculture: The regional integration of specialty crop production, Economic Geography 62 (4): 334–353.
Foucault, M. & Gordon, C., eds. (1972). Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings. New York: Pantheon Books.
Freudenberger, C.D. (1984). Food for tomorrow? Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House.
Gale, R.P. & Cordray, S.M. (1994). Making sense of sustainability: Nine answers to 'What should be sustained?', RuraSociology 59: 311–332.
Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gladwin, C. (1989). Indigenous knowledge systems, the cognitive revolution, and agricultural decision making, Agriculture and Human Values 6 (3): 32–41.
Gottdiener, M. (1993). A Marx for our time: Henri Lefebvre and the production of space, Sociological Theory 11: 129–134.
Greider, T. & Garkovich, L. (1994). Landscapes: The social construction of nature and the environment, Rural Sociology 59: 1–24.
Harvey, D. (1990). The condition of postmodernity. Cambridge: Basil Blackwell.
Harwood, R.R. (1979). Small farm development: Understanding and improving farming systems in the humid tropics. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Hassaein, N. & Kloppenburg Jr, J.R. (1995). Where the grass grows again: Knowledge exchange in the sustainable agriculture movement, Rural Sociology 60: 721–740.
Howes, M. & Chambers, R. (1980). Indigenous technical knowledge: Analysis, implications and issues, in D. Brokensha, D.M. Warren & O. Werner (eds.), Indigenous knowledge systems and development(pp.323–334). Landham, MD: University of America Press.
Jackson, W. (1980). New roots for agriculture. San Francisco: Friends of the Earth.
Kloppenburg Jr, J. (1988). First the seed: The political economy of plant biotechnology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kloppenburg Jr, J. (1991). Social theory and the de/reconstruction of agricultural science: Local knowledge for an alternative agriculture, Rural Sociology 56: 519–548.
Kluckhohn, F. & Strodbeck, F. (1961). Variations in valueorientations: A theory tested in five cultures. Evanston, IL: Row Peterson.
Kuhn, T. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Latour, B. (1979). Laboratory life: The social construction of scientific facts. Beverely Hills: Sage Publications.
Lefebvre, H. ([1974] 1991). The production of space. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Logsdon, G. (1994). At nature's pace: Farming and the American dream. New York: Patheon Books.
Long, N. & Long, A. (1992). Battlefields of knowledge. London: Routledge.
Lyden, F. (1988). Value orientations in public decision making, Policy Studies Journal 16: 843–856.
Mann, S. & Dickinson, J.M. (1978), Obstacles to the development of a capitalist agriculture, Journal of Peasant Studies5: 466–481.
Marsden, T., Lowe, P. & Whatmore, S., eds. (1990). Rural restructuring: Global processes and their responses. London: David Fulton Publishers.
Mazur, R. & Titilola, S.T. (1992). Social and economic dimensions of local knowledge systems in African sustainable agriculture, Sociologia Ruralis 32: 264–286.
McCorkle, C. (1989). Toward a knowledge of local knowledge and its importance for agricultural RD and E, Agriculture and Human Values 6 (3): 4–12.
Mormont, M. (1987). Rural nature and urban natures, Sociologia Ruralis27: 3-20.
Newby, H. (1990). Urbanization and the rural class structure, in W. Friedland, L. Busch, F. Buttel & A. Rudy (eds.), Toward a New Political Economy of Agriculture(pp. 255–283). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Raedeke, A., Rikoon, J.S. & Heffernan, W. (1994). Nitrogen fertilizer management: A qualitative examination of the decision making process. Paper presented at the Southern Rural Sociological Association annual meeting, Nashville, Tennesse.
Rhoades, R.E. & Booth, R.H. (1982). Farmer-back-to farmer: A model for generating acceptable agricultural technology, Agricultural Administration 11: 127–137.
Richards, P. (1993). Cultivation: Knowledge or performance?' in M. Hobart (ed.), An Anthropological Critique of Development: The Growth of Ignorance(pp. 61–78). London: Routledge.
Richards, P. (1985). Indigenous agricultural revolution: Ecology and food production in West Africa. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Rikoon, J.S. (1995). Conflicts of knowledge and the cultural construction of the environment: Implications for the mediation of ecology and democracy, Zemědělskå Ekonomika 41: 161–166.
Rikoon, J.S. (1992). Sociological factors affecting farmers' adoption of alternative farming practices for water quality protection and improvement, in Missouri MESA Project Plan, Vol. 2: Research(pp. 225–240). Columbia: USDAAgricultural Research Service, University of Missouri, and US Geological Survey.
Rogers, E.M. (1983). Diffusions of innovations. NewYork: The Free Press.
Rosmann, R. (1994). Farmer initiated on-farm research, American Journal of Alternative Agriculture 9: 34–37.
Rouse, J. (1987). Knowledge and power: Toward a political philosophy of science. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Swidler, A. & Arditi, J. (1994). The new sociology of knowledge, Annual Review of Sociology 20: 305–329.
Thompson, J. & Scoones, I. (1994). Challenging the populist perspective: Rural people's knowledge, agricultural research, and extension practice, Agriculture and Human Values 11 (2-3): 58–76.
Warren, D.M. (1994). Indigenous agricultural knowledge, technology, and social change, in G, McIsaac & W.R. Edwards (eds.), Sustainable agriculture in the American midwest(pp. 35–53). Urbana: University of Chicago Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Raedeke, A.H., Rikoon, J.S. Temporal and spatial dimensions of knowledge: Implications for sustainable agriculture. Agriculture and Human Values 14, 145–158 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007346929150
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007346929150