Ongoing and potential developments with regards to solid waste management have raised concerns about well being in African cities. There is also growing concern among environmental managers, scientists, and the public that the pace and scale of human activities may lead to adverse environmental and health impacts. These concerns have been worsened by two factors: (1.) That all attempts so far made at dealing with the present situation of solid waste handling in African cities have either failed or only met with moderate success; and, (2.) There is significant economic, spiritual and cultural value placed on the city's development in Africa, therefore, a deterioration in its environment spells further difficulties for improving conditions of development. To date however, very little research has been conducted on the role local knowledge has to play in managing urban solid waste in the context of African cities. This study is a contribution on this topic, using case study cities of Accra and Kumasi in Ghana, West Africa where it was found that local knowledge plays a role not only in the day-to-day decision making of the actors involved, but also in the management of solid waste activities through, the employment of appropriate technology, the creation of awareness around local waste practices, education, adherence to norms and beliefs, and also in stopping littering and encouraging proper waste practices.

Although much national and international attention has been given to the disastrous effects of oil spills in indigenous, Amazonian communities, virtually nothing is known about the effects of oil refinement, storage and shipping that takes place in the urban, largely Afro-descendent communities of Esmeraldas. This work addresses the near disregard of environmental suffering and injustice experienced by people in Esmeraldas and provides an understanding of both their resistance and acquiescence to the burdens created by the oil economy. I look at how these perspectives feed (and do not feed) collective action to demand protections from the environmental harms of the refinery and other industrial facilities in the area. In addition to exploring questions of mobilization, my hope is that this work gives voice to the environmental suffering in the city of Esmeraldas and that it adds to a growing body of work that considers the urban environmental suffering in Latin America. / text

Recurrent crises due to overexploitation of fishery resources have been among the biggest natural resource management failures of the 20th century. This problem has both biological and socio-political elements and understanding of human dimensions represents a key step toward the formulation of sound management guidelines for natural resources. One of the strategies proposed to understand human dimensions is through the use of local knowledge. Integrating local peoples' knowledge with scientific research and data analysis, could aid in the design of fisheries management strategies in a cost-effective and participatory way.I introduce an approach to incorporating fishers' local knowledge at a large, regional scale. I focused on the spatial and temporal distribution of fishing activities from 17 communities in the Northern Gulf of California, Mexico. Participatory mapping (maps produced by local fishers) through a rapid appraisal (survey methodology) were used to identify the spatial and temporal dimensions of fishing activities. A geographic information system was used to generate 764 map layers used for a preliminary analysis of rapid-appraisal spatial data. Post-survey workshops with fishers were organized to facilitate an internal validation of spatial information using geographic information system software. We characterized the information based on fishing communities, fishing methods, target species and spawning sites. We also applied spatial analysis techniques to understand the relative importance and use of fishing grounds, fishing seasons and the influence that fishing communities have over the region. This dissertation addressed the problem of integrating the human dimensions of small-scale fisheries using geospatial tools and local knowledge (LK) - data collection, integration, internal validation, analysis and access - into a multidisciplinary research to support decision making in natural resource planning for small-scale fisheries management and conservation in the Northern Gulf of California, Mexico.

Rodents cause significant damage to lowland rice crops across Cambodia and farmers are increasingly turning to chemical rodenticides for pest rodent management. Concern about the potential damage of these chemicals to human and environmental health provides the impetus for a search for alternative rodent management strategies, with particular interest in ecologically-based rodent management (EBRM). EBRM has a strong emphasis on non-chemical methods including the Trap Barrier System (TBS) and uses knowledge of pest rodent ecology to design effective interventions that limit population growth. For Cambodia, almost nothing was known at the start of this study regarding the identity, distribution and ecology of the country’s rodent pests. This research was designed to document this knowledge in parallel with a rodent management trial carried out at Somrong Commune in Kampong Cham Province of Cambodia, with the practical aim of informing on the outcomes of the trial and assisting with future development of EBRM in Cambodia. The large physical scale of the study and the relatively short time frame available for research led me to develop an action research approach that combined traditional positivist biological research with a more constructivist approach and participatory methods to gain access to and utilize local knowledge about rats. This research documents Cambodian pest rodents in lowland rice field cropping systems, through a combination of nation-wide collecting followed by detailed taxonomic assessments, and the use of farmer meetings and interviews to estimate the history and severity of the problem in each area. A total of nine rodent pest species were identified but both the pest rodent community and the severity of the associated problems vary from province to province. One species, the rice field rat (Rattus argentiventer), appears to be actively spreading and is not yet found in the northwestern provinces. A more detailed study in Somrong Commune found seven species and documented aspects of habitat use, breeding biology and movement. The inclusion of local knowledge in the study added a spatial and temporal scale to the study that could not have been obtained through conventional means, and which led to novel hypotheses about pest rodent ecology in the Somrong landscape, presented in the form of a heuristic landscape model. Criteria are developed for assessing the rigour and reliability or trustworthiness of the results. Particular attention is paid to the potential value of ‘expert’ knowledge which is rarely used in participatory research but which holds enormous potential for research into technical issues. The results of the TBS trial carried out in Somrong Commune were analysed to assess whether implementation of this method resulted in lower levels of rodent damage and higher rice yields relative to a single control commune, Lvea, and whether the farming community in Somrong is likely to adopt the method in the future. Although some farmer survey data suggest that yields improved in Somrong during the TBS trial, statistical analysis of the quantitative data set fails to yield compelling evidence of any benefit from use of TBS. The results emphasize the important role of landscape factors, especially the annual flooding cycle of the Mekong River, in determining the spatial and temporal distribution of rodent damage. Analysis of the relationship between rat captures and claimed yield increases also suggests that the TBS was not primarily responsible for the yield increase—too few rats were captured to account for the additional yield, even under extreme scenarios for how individual rodents cause damage to rice crops. Somrong farmers are unlikely to continue with the TBS method after completion of the project due to many perceived technical problems with implementing the method, and other concerns over its high labour and monetary costs. The ecological results of this study are used to suggest various alternative means by which Somrong farmers might combat the problem of rodent pests. Finally, a new approach is recommended for gaining an appreciation of rodent ecology on a landscape scale. This approach uses a combination of generalities about rodent biology and ecology, field observations, and incorporates local knowledge from local ‘experts’. This approach is likely to yield a faster and more complete understanding of the spatial and temporal dimensions of a local rodent community than more conventional approaches and will hopefully lead to more effective and relevant rodent management recommendations.

The technological revolution of the XX century led to big transformations in global culture, society and economy, but it did not reach equally to all. While science is today one of the main engines of industry, agriculture, and production of goods, billions of people in small communities still relay on local forms of knowledge, technologies and techniques to carry out their economic activities. This thesis aims to analyze the role of Local Knowledge and the Appropriate Technologies derived by said knowledge applied to the fish farms of peasants in the local Sustainable Development in the Vale do Jamari region, in the state of Rondônia, in Brazil. To achieve our goal, we initiate with a theoretical discussion that will provide tools for the analysis of the empirical data. Firstly, we discuss the concept of Sustainable Development, pointing its limitations and providing a perspective of an analysis of this type of development that favors the resources, interests and culture of a local community. Secondly, we bring the discussion over the accumulated knowledge of man over its environment and the conditions that it inhabits; the concept of Local Knowledge, its characteristics, its importance, limitations and its role in the contemporary world post-Green Revolution. The third moment of our theoretical discussion is dedicated to the movement of alternative technology and the concept of Appropriate Technology, its characteristics and the importance of the concept to the analysis of technologies that are apt to work in specific contexts in a way to be valid to its users. In the sequence, we present the method used for the empirical research, in which a case study was carried out. The case selected was of the peasant fish farms in the Vale do Jamari, region comprised of 9 municipalities in the center of the state of Rondônia, in the western amazon, in Brazil. Said region was colonized by rural workers migrating from other parts of the country between the 1960-1980s, resulting in great impact to the natural environment. The region presented in the last 8 years high rates of growth, partially due to small fish farmers acting with low technology and little access to technical assistance. Secondary data was selected through document research and primary data was collected from observation, photographs, field journals, technical visitations, participation in industry related events, open and semi-structured interviews carried out between mayjune, october-december 2016. The data gathered, upon careful analysis, pointed out that in the case of the peasant fish farmers of the Vale do Jamari: the existence of techniques and technologies developed through Local Knowledge and which are used in multiple situations in substitution, complementation or supplying the absence of technical/scientific knowledge and tools; that such local techniques and technologies can be said to be Appropriate Technologies; that there is disbelief on behalf of technical assistants of the validity of said technologies; that there is a lack of trust and there is a deficient communication between technical assistants and farmers; that such techniques and technologies developed by the fish farmers are compatible with a food production style of low environmental impact, coherent with the locally available resources and which create social and economic benefits to the local community; and, finally, that Local Knowledge, in the absence of conventional technologies appropriate to the found conditions, served as the base to the development of local technologies, appropriate and capable of guaranteeing the activity of fish farming for peasants in the Vale do Jamari.

The technological revolution of the XX century led to big transformations in global culture, society and economy, but it did not reach equally to all. While science is today one of the main engines of industry, agriculture, and production of goods, billions of people in small communities still relay on local forms of knowledge, technologies and techniques to carry out their economic activities. This thesis aims to analyze the role of Local Knowledge and the Appropriate Technologies derived by said knowledge applied to the fish farms of peasants in the local Sustainable Development in the Vale do Jamari region, in the state of Rondônia, in Brazil. To achieve our goal, we initiate with a theoretical discussion that will provide tools for the analysis of the empirical data. Firstly, we discuss the concept of Sustainable Development, pointing its limitations and providing a perspective of an analysis of this type of development that favors the resources, interests and culture of a local community. Secondly, we bring the discussion over the accumulated knowledge of man over its environment and the conditions that it inhabits; the concept of Local Knowledge, its characteristics, its importance, limitations and its role in the contemporary world post-Green Revolution. The third moment of our theoretical discussion is dedicated to the movement of alternative technology and the concept of Appropriate Technology, its characteristics and the importance of the concept to the analysis of technologies that are apt to work in specific contexts in a way to be valid to its users. In the sequence, we present the method used for the empirical research, in which a case study was carried out. The case selected was of the peasant fish farms in the Vale do Jamari, region comprised of 9 municipalities in the center of the state of Rondônia, in the western amazon, in Brazil. Said region was colonized by rural workers migrating from other parts of the country between the 1960-1980s, resulting in great impact to the natural environment. The region presented in the last 8 years high rates of growth, partially due to small fish farmers acting with low technology and little access to technical assistance. Secondary data was selected through document research and primary data was collected from observation, photographs, field journals, technical visitations, participation in industry related events, open and semi-structured interviews carried out between mayjune, october-december 2016. The data gathered, upon careful analysis, pointed out that in the case of the peasant fish farmers of the Vale do Jamari: the existence of techniques and technologies developed through Local Knowledge and which are used in multiple situations in substitution, complementation or supplying the absence of technical/scientific knowledge and tools; that such local techniques and technologies can be said to be Appropriate Technologies; that there is disbelief on behalf of technical assistants of the validity of said technologies; that there is a lack of trust and there is a deficient communication between technical assistants and farmers; that such techniques and technologies developed by the fish farmers are compatible with a food production style of low environmental impact, coherent with the locally available resources and which create social and economic benefits to the local community; and, finally, that Local Knowledge, in the absence of conventional technologies appropriate to the found conditions, served as the base to the development of local technologies, appropriate and capable of guaranteeing the activity of fish farming for peasants in the Vale do Jamari.

The significance of open space in addressing the socio-economic and historical content of townships (former homelands) specifically in Hammanskraal. / Dissertation (ML(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Architecture / unrestricted

Geração após geração, o saber molhar a terra em Mirorós (BA) desempenha na caatinga uma agricultura produtiva e diversificada. No entanto, sobre influência de profundas mudanças sociais ocorridas no fim do século XX, o conhecimento local foi desarticulado e hoje está em vias de desaparecimento. O conhecimento desenvolvido através da oralidade e do convívio social diz respeito às técnicas locais de manipulação da água para a produção de víveres, à divisão do recurso natural e à organização dada a partir da atividade camponesa. Este trabalho pretende o reconhecimento de um saber resguardado pela população de Mirorós, situada entre os municípios de Gentio do Ouro e Ibipeba, na zona central do Estado da Bahia. Inicia-se com a apresentação do contexto espacial, das particularidades do semiárido e do bioma caatinga, e do espaço onde se encontra o saber, nas margens do Rio Verde, que nasce nas serras da Chapada Diamantina e deságua no Rio São Francisco. O saber molhar o sertão tido como patrimônio imaterial é então descrito como um conjunto de técnicas, obras, condutas e conhecimentos sobre o espaço natural e sua produtividade, desempenhado localmente até a década de 1980. O recorte temporal refere-se à desarticulação do saber, com a construção da Barragem Manoel Novaes, em 1983 e a inauguração do Perímetro Irrigado Mirorós, em 1996, obras executadas pela Companhia de Desenvolvimento dos Vales do São Francisco e Parnaíba (Codevasf). As ações governamentais reordenaram o espaço, o acesso aos recursos naturais e privilegiaram técnicas importadas de produção agrícola. Tendo a história oral como metodologia, a memória dos sertanejos irrigantes possibilita o entendimento do saber local e também alcança as transformações dadas com a implantação de políticas públicas. Dessa maneira, busca-se evocar o conhecimento tradicional na realidade cultural e ambiental contemporânea e o modelo desempenhado pela política pública nas últimas décadas. / Generation after generation, the knowledge about irrigation in Mirorós (BA) transforms the savanna in a place with diverse and productive agriculture. However, under the influence of profound social changes in the late twentieth century, local knowledge was dismantled and is now disappearing. The knowledge developed through oral and social life concerning local manipulation techniques of water for the production of food, the division of natural resource and people organization. This work aims to recognize the knowledge kept by Mirorós population, situated between the towns Gentio do Ouro and Ibipeba, in the central part of the state of Bahia. It begins with the presentation of spatial context, the particularities of semiarid savanna and biome, and the space where the know, on the banks of the river Verde, which rises in the mountains of the Chapada Diamantina and empties into the river São Francisco. Knowing wet the backcountry considered intangible heritage is then described as a set of technical articles, conduct and knowledge about the natural environment and its productivity, played locally until the 1980s. The time frame refers to the disarticulation of knowledge, with the construction of the dam Manoel Novaes in 1983 and the inauguration of the Irrigated Place Mirorós in 1996, works executed by the Company for the Development of the Valley of the São Francisco and Parnaíba (Codevasf). Government actions reordered the space, access to the natural resources and favored techniques imported for agricultural production. Since the oral history methodology, the memory of local irrigators enables understanding of local knowledge and also achieves the transformations in hand with the implementation of public policies. Thus, seek to evoke the traditional knowledge in contemporary cultural and environmental reality and model played by public policy in recent decades.

Thesis advisor: Juliet B. Schor / Social science scholarship on climate change increasingly situates global climate change in the everyday experiences, practices, and knowledges of individuals and communities in local landscapes. Although climate change is a global phenomenon, it is experienced, negotiated, and adapted to at the local scale. In this dissertation, I situate and emplace global climate change in the everyday experiences and practices of people with land- and sea-based livelihoods in Maine. Maine is, in many ways, at the forefront of the climate crisis, and farmers, fishers and foresters—with their ongoing, intimate knowledge of and relations with particular places—are experiencing climate change and making meaning of its impacts. The aim of the dissertation, broadly conceived, is to particularize climate change and locate it in the embodied relations of people and places in Maine. I draw from several bodies of scholarship to locate the study of livelihoods and global climate change in Maine. First, I utilize the work of James O’Connor, Raymond Williams, and contemporary livelihoods scholars to position analysis of climate change impacts within broader historic relations of land and labor. Second, hybrid materialist perspectives, as well as relational perspectives on place, help to understand global climate change as a constellation of interrelated, but distinctly localized manifestations of a translocal process. Methodologically, I employ climate ethnography, which broadens the ethnographic lens to the more-than-human world. I draw from 45 ethnographic interviews, extensive participant-observation, a participant survey, and participant photography to co-investigate the profound ecological shifts farmers, fishers, and foresters are experiencing. I also employ public sociology to communicate data through creative nonfiction, art, and various public events. The dissertation probes how climate meanings are locally constructed and shaped by repeated encounters within multispecies communities in place. In addition, it documents the ways in which livelihood conditions in Maine are entangled with processes of gentrification and shifting economic conditions that, along with climate change, are putting additional pressures on nature-based livelihoods there. The dissertation contributes to an understanding of how climate change is a bundle of processes that cannot be neatly separated as natural or social. It also demonstrates the central role of livelihoods—and their contingent identities—in understanding and adapting to climate change. Ultimately, the dissertation bears witness to precarious land- and sea -based livelihoods, and agitates for greater attention to ways in which people, places, and climate change are irrevocably bound. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地域研究) / 甲第25413号 / 地博第331号 / 京都大学大学院アジア・アフリカ地域研究研究科アフリカ地域研究専攻 / (主査)准教授 金子 守恵, 教授 高橋 基樹, 教授 伊谷 樹一, 教授 大山 修一 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Area Studies / Kyoto University / DGAM