Indigenous and local knowledge in sustainability transformations research:a literature review
Scholars, politicians, practitioners, and civil society increasingly call for sustainability transformations to cope with urgent social and environmental challenges. In sustainability transformations research, understandings of transformations are often dominated by Western scientific knowledge. Thr...
Published in: | Ecology and Society |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2020
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://fox.leuphana.de/portal/de/publications/indigenous-and-local-knowledge-in-sustainability-transformations-research(924d79e5-5cdf-4ef3-8284-518c0fc56217).html https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11305-250103 https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol25/iss1/art3/ |
id |
ftuluenebcrispub:oai:pure.leuphana.de:publications/924d79e5-5cdf-4ef3-8284-518c0fc56217 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftuluenebcrispub:oai:pure.leuphana.de:publications/924d79e5-5cdf-4ef3-8284-518c0fc56217 2023-05-15T15:00:34+02:00 Indigenous and local knowledge in sustainability transformations research:a literature review Lam, David Hinz, Elvira Lang, Daniel J. Tengö, Maria Wehrden, Henrik von Martín-López, Berta 2020-01 http://fox.leuphana.de/portal/de/publications/indigenous-and-local-knowledge-in-sustainability-transformations-research(924d79e5-5cdf-4ef3-8284-518c0fc56217).html https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11305-250103 https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol25/iss1/art3/ eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Lam , D , Hinz , E , Lang , D J , Tengö , M , Wehrden , H V & Martín-López , B 2020 , ' Indigenous and local knowledge in sustainability transformations research : a literature review ' , Ecology and Society , vol. 25 , no. 1 , 3 . https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11305-250103 indigenous and local knowledge knowledge system multiple evidence base approach traditional ecological knowledge transformation transition /dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/biology Ecosystems Research /dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/nachhaltigkeitswissenschaft Sustainability Science article 2020 ftuluenebcrispub https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11305-250103 2021-07-30T08:29:02Z Scholars, politicians, practitioners, and civil society increasingly call for sustainability transformations to cope with urgent social and environmental challenges. In sustainability transformations research, understandings of transformations are often dominated by Western scientific knowledge. Through a systematic literature review, we investigated how indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) is represented in peer-reviewed empirical scientific papers that apply ILK in contexts of transformation, transition, and change. Our results show, first, that all papers applied ILK to confirm and complement scientific knowledge in contexts of environmental, climate, social-ecological, and species change. Only four papers (5%) applied ILK to conduct research on transformations. Second, we identified four research clusters that apply ILK in contexts of transformation, transition, or change in (1) Arctic, (2) terrestrial, (3) coastal, and (4) grass and rangelands environments. These clusters are located along two axes: tropic to Arctic and marine to terrestrial. Finally, our results indicate that indigenous and local understandings of transformations are currently neglected in the scholarly transformations discourse. The reviewed papers do not focus on how indigenous peoples and local communities understand transformations, instead they focus on what changes indigenous peoples and local communities observe and describe, resulting from their daily experiences and activities. We argue that because of its in-depth local, place-based character, ILK can substantially contribute to a more plural understanding of transformations and the assessment of transformative change. We conclude that future research needs to investigate how to gain a more plural understanding of transformations that leads potentially to more inclusive actions toward more just, equitable, and sustainable futures on a local and global level. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Leuphana University of Lüneburg: Forschungsindex FOX Arctic Ecology and Society 25 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Leuphana University of Lüneburg: Forschungsindex FOX |
op_collection_id |
ftuluenebcrispub |
language |
English |
topic |
indigenous and local knowledge knowledge system multiple evidence base approach traditional ecological knowledge transformation transition /dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/biology Ecosystems Research /dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/nachhaltigkeitswissenschaft Sustainability Science |
spellingShingle |
indigenous and local knowledge knowledge system multiple evidence base approach traditional ecological knowledge transformation transition /dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/biology Ecosystems Research /dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/nachhaltigkeitswissenschaft Sustainability Science Lam, David Hinz, Elvira Lang, Daniel J. Tengö, Maria Wehrden, Henrik von Martín-López, Berta Indigenous and local knowledge in sustainability transformations research:a literature review |
topic_facet |
indigenous and local knowledge knowledge system multiple evidence base approach traditional ecological knowledge transformation transition /dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/biology Ecosystems Research /dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/nachhaltigkeitswissenschaft Sustainability Science |
description |
Scholars, politicians, practitioners, and civil society increasingly call for sustainability transformations to cope with urgent social and environmental challenges. In sustainability transformations research, understandings of transformations are often dominated by Western scientific knowledge. Through a systematic literature review, we investigated how indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) is represented in peer-reviewed empirical scientific papers that apply ILK in contexts of transformation, transition, and change. Our results show, first, that all papers applied ILK to confirm and complement scientific knowledge in contexts of environmental, climate, social-ecological, and species change. Only four papers (5%) applied ILK to conduct research on transformations. Second, we identified four research clusters that apply ILK in contexts of transformation, transition, or change in (1) Arctic, (2) terrestrial, (3) coastal, and (4) grass and rangelands environments. These clusters are located along two axes: tropic to Arctic and marine to terrestrial. Finally, our results indicate that indigenous and local understandings of transformations are currently neglected in the scholarly transformations discourse. The reviewed papers do not focus on how indigenous peoples and local communities understand transformations, instead they focus on what changes indigenous peoples and local communities observe and describe, resulting from their daily experiences and activities. We argue that because of its in-depth local, place-based character, ILK can substantially contribute to a more plural understanding of transformations and the assessment of transformative change. We conclude that future research needs to investigate how to gain a more plural understanding of transformations that leads potentially to more inclusive actions toward more just, equitable, and sustainable futures on a local and global level. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lam, David Hinz, Elvira Lang, Daniel J. Tengö, Maria Wehrden, Henrik von Martín-López, Berta |
author_facet |
Lam, David Hinz, Elvira Lang, Daniel J. Tengö, Maria Wehrden, Henrik von Martín-López, Berta |
author_sort |
Lam, David |
title |
Indigenous and local knowledge in sustainability transformations research:a literature review |
title_short |
Indigenous and local knowledge in sustainability transformations research:a literature review |
title_full |
Indigenous and local knowledge in sustainability transformations research:a literature review |
title_fullStr |
Indigenous and local knowledge in sustainability transformations research:a literature review |
title_full_unstemmed |
Indigenous and local knowledge in sustainability transformations research:a literature review |
title_sort |
indigenous and local knowledge in sustainability transformations research:a literature review |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://fox.leuphana.de/portal/de/publications/indigenous-and-local-knowledge-in-sustainability-transformations-research(924d79e5-5cdf-4ef3-8284-518c0fc56217).html https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11305-250103 https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol25/iss1/art3/ |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Lam , D , Hinz , E , Lang , D J , Tengö , M , Wehrden , H V & Martín-López , B 2020 , ' Indigenous and local knowledge in sustainability transformations research : a literature review ' , Ecology and Society , vol. 25 , no. 1 , 3 . https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11305-250103 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11305-250103 |
container_title |
Ecology and Society |
container_volume |
25 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766332656077766656 |