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1 – 10 of 731This study aims to explore the similarities and differences between the three concepts that are commonly used to describe the knowledge of traditional and indigenous communities…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the similarities and differences between the three concepts that are commonly used to describe the knowledge of traditional and indigenous communities, namely, indigenous knowledge, traditional knowledge and local knowledge, with a view to contributing to the discourse on conceptualizing indigenous knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was extracted from the Scopus database using the main terms that are used for indigenous knowledge, namely, “indigenous knowledge” (IK), “traditional knowledge” (TK) and “local knowledge” (LK). Data were analyzed according to the themes drawn from the objectives of the study, using the VOSviewer software and the analytical tool embedded in the Scopus database.
Findings
The findings indicate that whereas IK and LK are older concepts than TK, TK has become more visible in the literature than the former; there is minimal overlap in the use of the labels in the literature; the three labels’ literature is largely domiciled in the social sciences; and that there were variations in representation of the labels according to countries and geographic regions.
Practical implications
The author avers that the scatter of literature on the knowledge of traditional and indigenous peoples under the three main labels has huge implications on the accessibility and use the literature by stakeholders including researchers, students, information and knowledge managers and information service providers.
Originality/value
This study demonstrates the application of informetrics beyond is traditional use to assess trends, nature and types of research patterns and mathematical modeling of information patterns to encompass the definition of the scope of concepts as covered in the literature.
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Shakir Ullah, Usman Khan, Abida Begum, Heesup Han and Abdullah Mohamed
This paper explores the indigenous climate knowledge (ICK) of the Gwadar fishing community in Pakistan. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the accuracy of ICK and how…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the indigenous climate knowledge (ICK) of the Gwadar fishing community in Pakistan. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the accuracy of ICK and how climatic change brings changes to it and the social lives of local fishers.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative research methods, including participant observation, in-depth interviews and oral histories, were used to collect the data.
Findings
Finding from this long fieldwork shows that this fishing community has a harmonious relationship with nature and local ecology. Their knowledge of local ecology enables them to have equal access to natural resources, sustainable resource management, disaster risk reduction and strong social organization on the coast of Gwadar. Recently their deep relationship with local ecology and sociocultural organization has been disturbed due to huge climate changes caused by human manipulation of the environment. Their ability to foresee climatic events has been reduced. They are finding it impossible to estimate fish availability due to massive climate changes. Local communities are losing their traditional livelihoods and socioeconomic autonomy as a result of growing climate change. Climatic change adds to the existing poverty situation and increases political instability in the region.
Practical implications
The study suggests using the fishermen’s valuable indigenous knowledge of local ecology, climate and its ties to local traditions, culture and resource management for a scientific understanding of climate change and marine resource management in Gwadar, Pakistan.
Originality/value
This is an ethnographic study based on a long term field work. Fishing community is passing through catastrophic climatic changes in the region. This community has been ignored by both government and researchers to record their problems and bring them to academia and media. Therefore, this study will help them raise their voices.
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The purpose of this study is to highlight the indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) preservation efforts in South Africa, with a focus on the National Recordal System and the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to highlight the indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) preservation efforts in South Africa, with a focus on the National Recordal System and the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Documentation Centres (IKSDCs) across South Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
Anchored in the interpretivist paradigm, the qualitative research approach was adopted to explore the objectives of the study. The multiple case study method was considered appropriate and adopted for the study. The data for this study was collected through comprehensive face-to-face interviews and Web content analysis. The population of the study consisted of the staff at the IKSDCs in the selected academic institutions. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the following set of participants in each academic institution: IKS managers/coordinators, digitization officers and online collection administrators.
Findings
The findings provide an in-depth understanding of the IKS landscape in South Africa. The findings and recommendations of this paper would be useful to researchers who wish to know more about digitization efforts in South Africa. It would also be useful to all stakeholders and policymakers.
Originality/value
The paper brings to the fore the efforts of the South African government in preserving IKS through documentation and digitization. The paper highlights the sources of indigenous knowledge, types of indigenous knowledge captured, how the indigenous knowledge is ingested in the repositories and how the data is captured. Generally, the roles of the IKSDCs in the capture and preservation of IKS are highlighted.
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Nelson Chanza and Walter Musakwa
Against a milieu of fragmented research that documents indigenous practices related to food security, and the heterogeneous settings from which the studies have been conducted…
Abstract
Purpose
Against a milieu of fragmented research that documents indigenous practices related to food security, and the heterogeneous settings from which the studies have been conducted, this study aims to synthesize the evidence of indigenous knowledge-food security nexus to strengthen the call for the revitalization of indigenous knowledge (IK) as part of the mechanisms to manage food security challenges being aggravated by climate change.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on insights from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), this study reviews 122 articles accessed from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, which covered indigenous methods used for producing, gathering, processing, preserving and storing diverse food sources that indigenous people deploy in securing their food systems.
Findings
The surge in attention to focus on IK-food security nexus tends to be influenced by the growing acknowledgement of climate change impacts on food systems. Essentially, the IK-based practices adopted address all the four food security pillars that are specified by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) as availability, accessibility, utilization and stability. The main motivation behind the continued use of IK-based ways relates largely to the interest to be food secure against climatic shocks and partly to the desire to maintain people’s food cultures and food sovereignty.
Originality/value
This study deploys the food security pillars provided by the FAO (2012) to demonstrate that IK-based ways of food management are capable of addressing all the four food security dimensions, a critical observation toward revitalizing IK in managing growing food security challenges that are intensified by climate change in SSA.
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Sarah Lambert and Johanna Funk
The authors respond to the special edition call for papers which explore the intersection between equity pedagogy and open educational practices (OEPs). The purpose of this study…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors respond to the special edition call for papers which explore the intersection between equity pedagogy and open educational practices (OEPs). The purpose of this study is to address the question “In what ways are educators ensuring equity in open educational practices (OEP)?” by investigating the use of OEPs in a first-year Cultural Capability unit at an Australian University. The Cultural Capability unit and this study are underpinned by concepts of border crossings (Aikenhead, 1996) across the cultural interface (Nakata, 2007) enabled by modelling and practicing collaborative power relations (Cummins, 2000).
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a qualitative content analysis method to analyse three textual data sets from students (interviews, writing samples and unit evaluation comments), for insights into students’ learning experiences and outcomes related to OEPs used in the unit.
Findings
The OEPs used in the unit support working across multiple knowledge systems, disciplines and conceptual boundaries. The unit’s OEPs facilitate border crossings amongst multiple subcultures and share power to induce participation and give students language to discuss how they might cross borders in the wider cultural interfaces they are learning and working in.
Originality/value
This study extends the theorising of OEP to introduce cultural border crossings and collaborative relations of power as examples of values-centred OEPs in the service of emancipatory learning in multi-cultural contexts. This study extends the practical applications of OEPs to making space for Indigenous and global students’ perspectives as valuable in the development of cultural capabilities.
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Dramani J.M. File and Emmanuel Kanchebe Derbile
This paper aims to draw on community risk assessment (CRA) for assessing vulnerability to climate change in north-western Ghana, focusing on sunshine, temperature and wind…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to draw on community risk assessment (CRA) for assessing vulnerability to climate change in north-western Ghana, focusing on sunshine, temperature and wind, elements of climate which are seldom explored in vulnerability assessments to climate change.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on data collected from a qualitative research design that used participatory rural appraisal methods, particularly, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and seasonal calendar analysis in three selected rural communities of the Sissala East District. Furthermore, an inter-generational framework was adopted for comparative assessment of vulnerability and changes in vulnerability to climate change.
Findings
The results show that the current generation of smallholder farmers is more vulnerable to climate change than the past generation, the era of grandparents. Thus, farmers are exposed to higher-intensity sunshine, temperature and wind in contemporary times than was the case in the past. Consequently, their livelihoods are affected the most by the damaging effects of these climatic hazards. The CRA process revealed the relevance of indigenous knowledge systems for vulnerability assessments and at the same time, underpins the need for adaptation of such knowledge if it is to sustain smallholder farmer efforts at climate change adaptation at community levels.
Practical implications
The paper recommends an endogenous development approach to climate change adaptation planning (CCAP), one that will build on indigenous knowledge systems for effective community education, mobilization and participatory response to climate change. Policy interventions should aim at enhancing climate change adaptation through innovations in soil and water conservation, access to water for irrigation and domestic use, climate smart-housing architecture and agro-forestry within the framework of decentralization and district development planning.
Originality/value
This paper will contribute to climate change research in two ways: first, by drawing attention to the usefulness of CRA in vulnerability assessment; and second, by focusing on climate elements which are critical for CCAP but rarely given sufficient attention in vulnerability assessments.
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Glenn Finau, Diane Jarvis, Natalie Stoeckl, Silva Larson, Daniel Grainger, Michael Douglas, Ewamian Aboriginal Corporation, Ryan Barrowei, Bessie Coleman, David Groves, Joshua Hunter, Maria Lee and Michael Markham
This paper aims to present the findings of a government-initiated project that sought to explore the possibility of incorporating cultural connections to land within the federal…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present the findings of a government-initiated project that sought to explore the possibility of incorporating cultural connections to land within the federal national accounting system using the United Nations Systems of Environmental-Economic Accounting (UN-SEEA) framework as a basis.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting a critical dialogic approach and responding to the calls for critical accountants to engage with stakeholders, the authors worked with two Indigenous groups of Australia to develop a system of accounts that incorporates their cultural connections to “Country”. The two groups were clans from the Mungguy Country in the Kakadu region of Northern Territory and the Ewamian Aboriginal Corporation of Northern Queensland. Conducting two-day workshops on separate occasions with both groups, the authors attempted to meld the Indigenous worldviews with the worldviews embodied within national accounting systems and the UN-SEEA framework.
Findings
The models developed highlight significant differences between the ontological foundations of Indigenous and Western-worldviews and the authors reflect on the tensions created between these competing worldviews. The authors also offer pragmatic solutions that could be implemented by the Indigenous Traditional Owners and the government in terms of developing such an accounting system that incorporates connections to Country.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to providing a contemporary case study of engagement with Indigenous peoples in the co-development of a system of accounting for and by Indigenous peoples; it also contributes to the ongoing debate on bridging the divide between critique and praxis; and finally, the paper delves into an area that is largely unexplored within accounting research which is national accounting.
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Louis Nyahunda and Happy Mathew Tirivangasi
This study documented adaptation strategies employed by rural women in Vhembe district as they reel with climate change impacts. Women are heavily plagued by climate change…
Abstract
Purpose
This study documented adaptation strategies employed by rural women in Vhembe district as they reel with climate change impacts. Women are heavily plagued by climate change impacts than any other genders worldwide. This is attributed to their high dependence on the natural resources for survival, low adaptive capacity, illiteracy, social ascribed roles that limit their participation in climate change initiatives like men and high poverty levels. Despite the daunting fact of women's vulnerability to climate change and its vagary impacts, women are agents of social change who have not remained passive victims to climate change and its impacts.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a qualitative methodology guided by multi-case study design. A sample of 25 participants was selected through simple random and purposive sampling techniques. Data were collected using Focus Group Discussions and individual interviews and analysed thematically. Rural women and traditional leaders served as key informants and participated in the study.
Findings
The study established that the effects of climate change on rural women are real; however, there is a cocktail of strategies employed by women in Vhembe district in response to these effects. The strategies include livelihood and crop diversification, use of indigenous knowledge systems and harnessing of social capital among other household-based adaptation strategies.
Originality/value
The study recommends that the best way of assisting rural women in adapting to climate change is through the amelioration of poverty, enhancing capacity building for women and elimination of all systems that serve as barriers to effective adaptation.
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This paper illustrates how Guba and Lincoln's parallel criteria for establishing trustworthiness, can be adapted and applied to qualitative research on indigenous social…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper illustrates how Guba and Lincoln's parallel criteria for establishing trustworthiness, can be adapted and applied to qualitative research on indigenous social protection systems. It provides insights for social protection researchers, exploring plausible qualitative research rigor evaluation criteria, on plausible alternatives.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on qualitative evidence from a larger ethnographic study on the dynamics of indigenous social protection systems in Nigeria. It illustrates the systematic application of Guba and Lincoln's parallel criteria.
Findings
Available evidence from the study shows that Guba and Lincoln's parallel criteria is viable for establishing trustworthiness of qualitative research on indigenous social protection systems. The criteria can facilitate credible and reliable research outcomes in research on improving social protection policy and practice.
Research limitations/implications
Qualitative inquiries that draw on Guba and Lincoln's parallel criteria as evaluation criteria for trustworthiness can complement quantitative research on social protection. This makes it imperative to incorporate both, in social protection research for a holistic system. How this can be done is beyond the scope of this paper but needs to be explored by future research.
Originality/value
Contrary to the use of Guba and Lincoln's parallel criteria in qualitative research in other contexts, the use of the criteria has not been carefully examined in qualitative research on indigenous social protection systems. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap.
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Dandub Palzor Negi and E.P. Abdul Azeez
This paper critically examines the state of tribal health in India by analyzing the accessibility and availability of traditional medicine and modern healthcare.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper critically examines the state of tribal health in India by analyzing the accessibility and availability of traditional medicine and modern healthcare.
Design/methodology/approach
This essay is the product of an extensive review of the literature and authors' personal experience in working with the tribal communities.
Findings
The traditional medicinal practices once very prevalent among the tribal communities are diminishing due to various socio-economic, environmental and political factors. Modern healthcare in India's tribal region is characterized by a lack of availability, accessibility and affordability. As a result of the diminishing traditional practices and inaccessible modern healthcare provisions, tribal communities depend on quacks and magico-religious practices.
Originality/value
This essay advocates for urgent policy interventions to integrate traditional medicine and modern healthcare practices to address critical tribal health issues. Preservation of traditional medicinal knowledge-base and improving research in the field have the potential to address the health of tribal communities and of others. The accessibility and availability of modern healthcare facilities in tribal regions should be improved to ensure better health outcomes.
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