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Calder, Scott C. "Local knowledge matters : knowledge, technology, and power in Newfoundland cod farming /." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp04/mq25827.pdf.
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Marcus, Adam Scott. "Local government citizen academies : is knowledge power?" Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39852.
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Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2007.<br>This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-116).<br>Government decision-makers and especially urban planners increasingly face difficulties engaging citizens given trends of public apathy, cynicism towards government, language and cultural barriers, and the growing complexity of government bureaucracy. As municipal governments increasingly focus on the long-term engagement of citizens, particularly special interest, advocacy, and community organizations, a key dilemma is how to create an on-going process for training stakeholders to participate in consultation and conflict resolution efforts. Many individuals and interest groups are ill prepared for participation in public planning processes and do not understand how municipal government functions, the key dilemmas it faces, or the urban planning concepts and procedures that shape economic, social and physical life. Likewise, many planners are not trained to understand and integrate "local knowledge" --the specific expertise and on-the-ground information brought by local citizens--with technical information and bureaucratic processes. As a result, communication with the public is often constrained as citizens perceive government as a "black box" that is unapproachable.<br>(cont.) To address these challenges there is a growing trend among municipal governments to conduct citizen academies. These efforts to educate the public on the basic functions of municipal government, urban planning, and the land development process are distinct from other forms of citizen training because they occur on a regular basis, are geared towards a broader public, and are coordinated by municipal government staff. This thesis evaluates the effectiveness of three citizen academy programs in the United States in terms of their ability to improve citizen engagement capacity. This research measures such improvements through changes in citizens' and planners' perceptions about citizen-government relations, learning and knowledge exchange, and citizen action. The findings indicate that these academies do broaden citizen understanding of planning and government, foster improved personal relations between citizens and planners, improve citizen's (perceived) ability to influence decision-makers, and invigorate public interest in government boards and commissions.<br>(cont.) However, academies rarely integrate local and professional knowledge into what they teach and they face an inherent conflict between "capacity building" and "allegiance building." To improve citizen academies local governments might want to foster collaboration between planning and neighborhood services departments, to partner with a local community-based organization, and employ case-based learning approaches in the way they teach.<br>by Adam Scott Marcus.<br>M.C.P.
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Naess, Lara Otto. "Local knowledge, institutions and climate adaptation in Tanzania." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.533723.
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The aim of this thesis is to explore the role of local knowledge for climate adaptation. Despite increasing interest over recent years in people's knowledge and capacity for adaptation to climate change, there have been few systematic studies of what this implies for adaptation theory and practice, particularly in a developing country setting. The motivation for the thesis is that a better understanding of the current use of local knowledge in responses to climate variability and change is needed for policies to support adaptation. The thesis addresses this gap by examining what role local knowledge plays in household and community level responses to drought. Building on an environmental entitlement framework, the thesis examines the preferences, actions and outcomes at household level, and the role of informal and formal institutions in shaping responses and outcomes. A case study was conducted in Kigwe and Nzali villages in the Dodoma Region, Tanzania. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, data were collected on people's perceptions and actions in response to an ongoing drought, and the reasons for them. The study further considered the role of local informal and formal institutions in providing support during droughts. Data were derived from household questionnaire surveys, semi-structured interviews and group discussions, as well as observations and transect walks. Key findings are, first, that a widely held perception of a changing rainfall regime has made a large proportion of farmers change their resource use strategies. Second, the study documents changes in informal institutions, from past systems of reciprocal exchange and mutual dependency to market-based systems of seasonal labour and loans with high interests. Third, it explains how formal interventions and support systems, as translated and implemented at the local level, may not improve long-term adaptation, but rather put short term constraints on farming activities, undermining farmers' own responses. The thesis concludes that local knowledge plays an important role in observing environmental changes and explaining their causes. However, there is a widespread sensethat rainfall changes mean that some local knowledge-based options are no longer feasible. Findings suggest local knowledge plays an important role in understanding farmers' agency, perceptions and responses to climatic changes, preferences, and the barriers to the introduction of new strategies. Such contextual aspects may be as important a contribution for adaptation policy as documentation of the local skills and practices normally associated with local knowledge 6
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Pilgrim, S. E. "A cross-cultural study into local ecological knowledge." Thesis, University of Essex, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.434403.
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Mohamed, O. "Knowledge sharing initiatives in local authorities in Malaysia." Thesis, University of Salford, 2014. http://usir.salford.ac.uk/32260/.
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This research investigates the knowledge sharing initiatives in local authorities in Malaysia. It focuses on to what extent knowledge sharing initiatives impact on the planning permission process and how best this impact can be conceptually modelled and presented for the purpose of improving the process. The aim of this research is to establish the significance of knowledge sharing initiatives in the planning permission process and to develop guidance in this regard for local authorities in Malaysia with a view to improving the process. The needs of this research arise due to the importance and the rapid flow of information, which is transforming business processes and procedures, and resulting in the rise of a knowledge-based economy. It also responds to the government’s intention to achieve “Developed Nation” status in 2020. Knowledge sharing initiatives are organisational approaches to manage knowledge in an organisation. In order to exploit effective knowledge sharing; the organisation has to establish the significance of knowledge sharing initiatives approaches. Nevertheless, strong demand and expectation from citizens for efficient service delivery, coupled with global challenges in the knowledge based economy have fuelled the need for government agencies to consider the effectiveness of knowledge sharing as a strategy to improve service delivery. Effective knowledge sharing initiatives have the potential to benefit local authorities in view of their role. This research, one of the most comprehensive ever undertaken in this area, comprises interviews and distributions of questionnaires to local authorities in Malaysia. The list of local authorities was acquired from the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. The data were obtained from embedded questionnaire surveys, online survey and interviews; 103 (34.56%) data were obtained through the survey method, and 20 interviewees participated. The research findings of this study have several implications for research into the role of knowledge sharing initiatives concerning the planning permission process. First, the nature of knowledge sharing tools and techniques in local authorities is dependent on the variety of tasks and complexity of the sub-process of the planning permission process. Second, the effectiveness, the use and exploitation of knowledge sharing tools (technologies) and techniques are dependent on the sub-process of the planning permission process and type of local authority and the resources available. Third, the results show that there is a difference in the impact of organisational structure, culture and motivational construct in the effective sharing of knowledge in local authorities of various sizes. Developing a model and guidance for improving the planning permission process through knowledge sharing initiatives have enable management to guide towards establishing the significance of knowledge sharing initiatives in the process of planning permission. The guidance in knowledge sharing initiatives includes the following steps: identify knowledge, gathering and finding knowledge, organising, sharing, applying and evaluating. It also gives clear responsibility to various levels of team members including top management, managerial and supporting staff in implementing knowledge sharing initiatives in the planning permission process. There is extensive scope for more empirical studies to explore and document the issue of knowledge sharing in local authorities in Malaysia. An in-depth investigation into regional culture and its impact on knowledge sharing is needed and would lead to results of practical utility. A study on other local authorities that adopt a similar research methodology to the current study would contribute to the body of knowledge in this area.
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Lakareber, Janet. "A framework for local knowledge preservation and transmittance." Thesis, London South Bank University, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.646860.
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The term local knowledge is still not very popular in the world of academia. Yet this is a primary knowledge that individuals acquire from parents/guardians and society. Local knowledge is embedded in mother tongue languages; and each community has a sense of ownership towards it. Accessibility as well as transmittance of local knowledge requires acquaintance with mother tongue languages plus their environments. Unfortunately current studies show that many world languages are getting extinct. This means vast amounts of local knowledge would not be available for future posterity. Language revitalization projects have so far failed due to lack of communities’ involvement coupled with lack of understanding communities’ languages and cultures. This inquiry has proposed a framework called Community Specific Pedagogical Framework (CSPF) to help capture local knowledge traditionally and technologically. CSPF serves to highlight the pedagogical ways that are suitable for a community in terms of its knowledge preservation and transmittance. The study has investigated and developed the framework CSPF with the participatory role of Acoli community members. The first phase of the investigation involved collection and analysis of data to ascertain the community’s ways of knowledge preservation and transmittance. The second phase involved the development of the framework CSPF. The third phase involved a demonstration of the framework’s configuration into Computer Assisted Language Learning technology (CSPF-CALL). Grounded Theory methodology was employed in phases one and two due to its inductive principles. Case Study methodology was employed in the last phase for its deductive purpose. The analysis of empirical data showed that a community’s ways of knowledge preservation and transmittance are multifaceted. However, despite the multiplicity of ways, the study demonstrated that it is still possible for a researcher to identify the main strategies of knowledge preservation and transmittance within a community. Thereafter, use such strategies as itineraries for the framework CSPF. The outcome of this investigation shows that the framework CSPF is a useful model for local knowledge preservation and transmittance both traditionally and technologically. It is a framework that can be employed to study pedagogical ways of any community.
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Blad, Johan. "Boundaries of Knowledge : Foreign-Local Knowledge Exchange through Community Cooperation in Rural Guatemala." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Kulturgeografiska institutionen, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-388288.
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This thesis studies the learning process between foreign and local knowledge in a community of organic farmers by the name Atitlán Organics in Tzununa, rural Guatemala. Foreign settlers with formal education and contemporary farming experience work alongside indigenous local Guatemalan farmers in this community, which also takes on international volunteer workers. These people of various background and differing intentions cooperate to develop the community and its business of organic food production while learning from each other. The foreigners bring global theories that relate to farming such as permaculture designs and scientific knowledge while the Guatemalans know the local land and how to work with it. This thesis outlines the learning process between these different competencies and presents a nuanced discussion on how these types of knowledge exchange can be beneficial for the people and the community. Diverse competencies can complement each other and enhance collaborative work but limitations can also occur due to difficulties of understanding other socio-cultural contexts, while risks of neo-colonial tendencies and western knowledge hegemony lure in these situations. The discussion in this thesis highlights the importance of mutual consciousness about this process in the community and what that can be done to enhance collaborative learning while avoiding such risks.
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Carvey, Kimberly N. "Local People, Local Forests; Using the Livelihood Framework to Evaluate the Representation of Local Knowledge in Ghanaian Forest Policy." Ohio : Ohio University, 2008. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ohiou1212793160.
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Strong, Ernest L. "Increasing knowledge about biblical faith in a local congregation /." Free full text is available to ORU patrons only; click to view, 2008. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1790275471&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=456&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Bean, C. L. "Rough set clustering using local and global data knowledge." Thesis, University of Hull, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.411927.
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This thesis presents the design and implementation of a knowledge-oriented clustering algorithm that can be applied to data of both single and mixed-attribute type. The algorithm has a simple framework, based on that of hierarchical clustering, and the main clustering tool is a form of indiscernibility relation modified from the field of rough set theory. The research focuses on extracting maximal knowledge from data, both local and global, with minimal human intervention in order to obtain clusters that are meaningful and free from user-bias. This is achieved by employing well-defined numerical procedures to set key threshold parameters and by making use of a cluster accuracy measure to yield representative clusters within the boundaries of the given application. The algorithm is unified in its approach to clustering, which ensures consistency in the results when used to cluster the same data by different users, and knowledge can be represented tangibly throughout the clustering process as a series of classification rules sets, thus enhancing interpretability of the results. The research in this thesis makes specific contribution to the area of knowledge-oriented clustering which stem from the design and implementation of the proposed algorithm. Numerical techniques control the setting of initial threshold parameters in order to obtain an initial clustering of a given data set and a defined accuracy measure quantifies the notion of cluster 'meaningfulness'. Throughout the clustering process, clusters are automatically modified using a 'gamma threshold selection rule' and quick supervised clustering of a data set can be achieved using the classification rules obtained from the clustering of a similar data set. This tangible clustering knowledge represented by the rules can further be modified to provide a strategy for automatic decision-making.
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Johnson, Tom. "Law, space, and local knowledge in late-medieval England." Thesis, Birkbeck (University of London), 2014. http://bbktheses.da.ulcc.ac.uk/73/.
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This thesis explores the manifold ways that people encountered and adapted to legal processes and concepts in late-medieval England. It argues that these encounters with law were inextricably related to space and local knowledge, that is, to particular physical places, and the localized information that was produced within those places. The thesis makes two historiographical interventions. Firstly, it argues that the huge variety of different law courts operating in late-medieval England created a situation of ‘legal pluralism’, meaning that there were far more opportunities to become involved with legal institutions than has generally been assumed. Secondly, it argues that previous attempts to understand how ordinary people interacted with law have been too focussed on the central and ecclesiastical law courts. In order to redress these problems, the thesis posits the idea of the ‘local legal regime’: the localized cultural logic that informed people’s encounters with the particular formulation of legal pluralism in the locality within which they lived. The thesis examines three case studies of different local legal regimes. The first chapter looks at the provincial city of Hereford; the second chapter examines the coast of East Anglia; the third chapter looks at the Forests of Yorkshire. In each case, particularly local institutional arrangements, landscapes, and socioeconomic and demographic features crucially shaped the way that people encountered and drew upon law in their everyday lives. Overall, the thesis has two important implications. Firstly, what we often take to be generic aspects of the late-medieval English legal system – such as property rights or nuisance litigation – were in fact underpinned by distinctively local arrangements and expectations. Secondly, we ought to understand law as something rooted physically in the locality. As people moved through the late-medieval landscape, they were encountered with, and able to adapt to, a variety of different legal claims.
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Gwilliams, Christopher. "Using local and global knowledge in wireless sensor networks." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2015. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/73423/.
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Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have advanced rapidly in recent years and the volume of raw data received at an endpoint can be huge. We believe that the use of local knowledge, acquired from sources such as the surrounding environment, users and previously sensed data, can improve the efficiency of a WSN and automate the classification of sensed data. We define local knowledge as knowledge about an area that has been gained through experience or experimentation. With this in mind, we have developed a three-tiered architecture for WSNs that uses differing knowledge-processing capabilities at each tier, called the Knowledge-based Hierarchical Architecture for Sensing (KHAS). A novel aligning ontology has been created to support K-HAS, joining widely used, domain-specific ontologies from the sensing and observation domains. We have shown that, as knowledge-processing capabilities are pushed further out into the network, the profit - defined as the value of sensed data - is increased; where the profit is defined as the value of the sensed data received by the end user. Collaborating with Cardiff University School of Biosciences, we have deployed a variation of K-HAS in the Malaysian rainforest to capture images of endangered wildlife, as well as to automate the collection and classification of these images. Technological limitations prevented a complete implementation of K-HAS and an amalgamation of tiers was made to create the Local knowledge Ontology-based Remote-sensing Informatics System (LORIS). A two week deployment in Malaysia suggested that the architecture was viable and that, even using local knowledge at the endpoint of a WSN, improved the efficiency of the network. A simulation was implemented to model K-HAS and this indicated that the network became more efficient as knowledge was pushed further out towards the edge, by allowing nodes to prioritise sensed data based on inferences about its content.
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King, H. Peter. "Historical local knowledge and cartography within GIS Kaua'i, Hawai'i /." abstract and full text PDF (UNR users only), 2009. http://0-gateway.proquest.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:1464444.
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Majury, Niall Charles. "Local knowledge, global markets and the geography of investment banking." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape8/PQDD_0003/NQ41226.pdf.
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Capps, Patricia A. "Assessing Lyme disease knowledge of Indiana local health department nurses." Virtual Press, 1997. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1048370.
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Lyme disease is a multisystemic, infectious disease caused by the tick-borne spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. The CDC designated LD as a reportable disease in 1990 and evidence suggests underreporting of the disease in Indiana. Local health department nurses have a major role in the areas of disease recognition, reporting, and education about LD. The present study assessed local health department nurses' knowledge of LD to determine their competence as LD educators.The study consisted of 428 nurses in 92 counties and three cities with independent health departments who were mailed a questionnaire containing 30 multiple-choice and/or true/false questions. Twenty-four nurses participated in a pilot study to establish the reliability of the instrument.The results were: (1) nurses did not differ in knowledge regardless of their duties, (2) urban and rural counties did not differ in knowledge, (3) experience did not make a difference in knowledge, and (4) less educated nurses were more knowledgeable. The nurses were least knowledgeable about LD reporting criteria, late stage symptoms, and and description of EM and most knowledgeable about prevention. The following are some of the recommendations suggested: more research with nurses on vector- borne diseases, better dissemination of information from CDC and ISDH, inservice programs for nursing personnel, and educational materials to distribute to the public.<br>School of Nursing
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Li, Shenxue. "Strategic management of China local knowledge : European multinationals in China." Thesis, Durham University, 2004. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1265/.
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China has been attracting significant foreign investment since it opened up. Yet, foreign investors' performance in this strategic market has been variable. Previous literature does not fully investigate the causes and forces that explain their performance differences. This study contributes to our understanding of this issue by looking into the role of local knowledge and investigating its management strategies. It examines the concept and the nature of local knowledge, identifies local knowledge sources, explores the local knowledge management process, and investigates its implementation in terms of resistances and strategies. The study first advances a general framework of knowledge management. It then introduces the key argument of this theoretical framework into the Chinese business context and develops a theoretical model of strategic management of China local knowledge, from which eight qualitative hypotheses are derived. A multi-method qualitative empirical study was undertaken in order to examine the concept of local knowledge and investigate how local knowledge was actually exploited by multinational firms. Eleven face-to-face interviews with managers from 11 European multinationals in 10 sectors, field observation of 2 Chinese projects involving 6 European companies, and 17 multi-level interviews with local managers from 4 Chinese organizations were conducted. The empirical findings were compared with the key arguments of the theoretical model in order to assess the extent to which they support the theoretical stand, and propose a justified model of strategic management of China local knowledge. It is concluded that the findings supported many, but not all, of the theoretical arguments. The most striking findings are as follows: First, unlike global knowledge transferred to China market, which is codified and accessible, China local knowledge is highly tacit, undiffused and fast-changing. It is this intrinsic and fast-changing nature of China local knowledge determines its greater impact upon the multinational firm's business performance in this dynamic market. Second, local knowledge cannot be effectively managed unless specific management conditions are created. These conditions include common knowledge, multi-layered knowledge interfaces, and a 'pull and push' system. Third, knowledge transfer is not an optimal choice of managing local knowledgc~ to exploit the full value of local knowledge both knowledge transfer approach and knowledge integration mechanism should be employed.
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Chaffey, Heather. "Integrating scientific knowledge and local ecological knowledge (LEK) about common eiders (Somateria mollissima) in southern Labrador /." Internet access available to MUN users only, 2003. http://collections.mun.ca/u?/theses,165662.
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Paes, Diego Cristóvão Alves de Souza. "Conhecimento local, tecnologias apropriadas e o desenvolvimento sustentável local na piscicultura familiar do Vale do Jamari/RO." reponame:Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFRGS, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10183/169042.
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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.
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Bäcklund, Jonas. "Arguing for relevance : global and local knowledge claims in management consulting /." Uppsala : Företagsekonomiska institutionen, Univ, 2003. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-3490.
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Visser, Alvin-Jon. "Rural students' local knowledge of learning in formal and informal contexts." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002588.
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The general aim of this thesis is to illuminate the process of learning as it occurs in formal and informal contexts. The study focuses on South African scholars attending school in rural areas where the contrast between learning in formal and informal learning contexts is more pronounced than that in urban areas. The research draws on rural scholars' local knowledge of formal and informal learning contexts in order to gain a rich insight into how cognition is situated in different learning contexts. This is accomplished through investigating the structure of the respective learning tasks, the mediators involved, the task objectives and the means for achieving these objectives in the different learning contexts. The thesis draws on a socio-cultural approach to the study of cognitive development to probe the activity of learning in a formal and informal learning context. Through the use of a context sensitive methodological methods especially Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools and techniques, it was possible to illuminate tacit local knowledge structures and to get participants to actively explicate their understandings related to learning in different contexts The research results illustrate the assertion that the activity of learning is fundamentally situated in the learning context from which it arises. Learning is framed by the community of practice which structures affordances for situated learning, through mediation, within zones of proximal development. Learning in a formal context such as the school is often abstract, rule-based, standardised and theory related. Learners also find it difficult to reflect on the learning tasks and the mediational means used in a formal learning context. In contrast, the learning which takes place in an informal setting is often practical, individualised, flexible and environment based. This learning is structured around everyday activities and is dynamically defined and supported. In a situation where a learner is exposed to dislocated learning contexts, the essential goal of educational initiatives is to bridge the gap between the two. This can be achieved through mediators creating effective zones of proximal development which facilitate the individuals adaptation between learning contexts. Exposing rural scholars' local knowledge of learning in formal and informal contexts allows for a fuller understanding of the cognitive development structured within formal and informal communities of practice. It is this understanding that is necessary to address the situation where learning contexts, drawing on different knowledge bases find ways of thinking, prove challenging and/or conflicting to the scholar.
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Peteru, Swetha. "Integrating Local Knowledge about Plants into Conservation Practice in Dominica, West Indies." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1282332269.
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Järvinen, I. (Inka). "Revisiting knowledges in education:whose knowledge are we acquiring and imparting and how does that affect local community development?" Bachelor's thesis, University of Oulu, 2017. http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-201708302772.
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Education is often defined as imparting knowledge and skills for the rising generations. If this is the case, it must be asked who gets to define the knowledge being imparted and knowledge left out. For a long time only a certain kind of knowledge, most often that based on a European worldview, has been regarded as scientific and academic. Recently there has been an increasing amount of research and discourse on different knowledge systems and the knowledge and know-how being gained in the communities at grassroot level are gaining more attention. This development sometimes manifests itself as a dichotomy or a duality between a Western and a local or also known as traditional knowledge systems. In this dichotomous view, Western or Eurocentric science and knowledge is regarded as predominantly white theoretical knowledge that has lost its touch with the real world whereas local and traditional knowledge is viewed as superstitious, irrational and underdeveloped. In this research I am searching for answers and points of view on what kinds of conceptualizations and expectations education promotes of knowledge — what knowledge is regarded as valid and scientific and what not seen as belonging to this category — and how these views affect local community development. My assumption is that there is a correlation between what is being regarded as an authoritarian and scientific knowledge and that of the development of various local communities and whether these communities believe themselves to be able of taking ownership of the development of their own locality. Due to this assumption, I want to see how education can utilize and integrate various knowledge systems. To reach this goal and to answer the questions stated above, I studied literature and research on knowledge, knowledge systems, community development, development work with the aid of perspectives such as the theory of the oppressed by Paulo Freire, the discourse on decolonizing education and the experience of that of FUNDAEC on integrating Western and local knowledge systems in the creation of an educational system serving the needs of rural communities in Latin America. I am hoping for this research, albeit a very initial and superficial one, to assist anyone in becoming more conscious of the knowledge-basis on which their own upbringing and education is based on. More importantly, however, it is aiming for creating awareness among teachers and other educators on what kind of conceptions on knowledge they are strengthening or ignoring in their tasks. As Paulo Freire states, when asking what we are educating for we also need to ask ourselves what we are educating against. (Freire & Shor, 1987, s. 46)<br>Kasvatus usein määritellään tietojen ja taitojen edelleenvälittämisenä kasvavalle sukupolvelle. Jos näin on, on kysyttävä kuka määrittää sen millaisen tiedon pohjalta oppilaita opetetaan ja mitä tietoa heille ei välitetä. Pitkään vain tietynlaista, usein eurooppalaiseen maailmankäsitykseen perustuvaa tietoa on pidetty tieteellisenä ja akateemisena. Nykyään on kertynyt kuitenkin enenevissä määrin tutkimusta ja keskustelua erilaisista tietojärjestelmistä ja paikallistasolla eri yhteisöissä kertyvä tieto ja sen rooli tieteen edistämisessä on saamassa enemmän kuuluvuutta. Tämä kehitys näyttäytyy toisinaan vastakkainasetteluna länsimaalaisen ja paikallisen tai toisinaan perinteiseksi tiedoksi kutsuttujen tietojärjestelmien välillä. Länsimainen tiede ja tieto nähdään ‘valkoisena’ teoreettisena tietona, joka on menettänyt kosketuspintansa oikeaan todellisuuteen kun taas paikallinen ja perinteinen tieto nähdään taikauskoisena, irrationaalisena ja kehittymättömänä. Tässä tutkimuksessa etsin vastauksia ja näkökulmia siihen millaisia käsityksiä ja oletuksia kasvatus edistää ‘tiedosta’ — mikä tieto koetaan validiksi ja tieteelliseksi ja millainen tieto taas ei sitä ole. Oletuksenani on että sillä, mitä pidetään autoritäärisenä ja tieteellisenä tietona, on vaikutusta erilaisten väestöryhmien kehitykseen ja siihen kokevatko nämä kykenevänsä ottamaan vastuun oman yhteisönsä edistyksestä ja kehityksestä. Tästä johtuen haluan nähdä miten kasvatus voi hyödyntää useita tietojärjestelmiä (knowledge systems). Kyseiseen tavoitteeseen päästäkseni tutkin kirjallisuutta ja tutkimuksia liittyen tietoon, tietojärjestelmiin, yhteisöjen kehitykseen, kehitystyöhön sekä hyödynnän Paulo Freiren teoriaa sorrettujen pedagogiasta, kasvatuksen ja tieteen dekolonisaatioon liittyvää kirjallisuutta ja länsimaista sekä paikallista tietoa koulutusjärjestelmässään yhdistävän FUNDAEC-nimisen järjestön kokemuksia Latinalaisessa Amerikassa. Toivon tämän tutkimuksen auttavan ketä tahansa tulemaan tietoiseksi siitä tietopohjasta johon heidän oma kasvatuksensa ja koulutuksensa perustuu, mutta myös erityisesti opettajia ja kasvattajia tulemaan tietoiseksi siitä millaisia oletuksia tiedosta he vahvistavat tai jättävät huomiotta omassa tehtävässään. Kuten Paulo Freire sanoo, kysyessään minkä puolesta kasvatan, kasvattajan on myös kysyttävä itseltään mitä vastaan kasvatukseni sotii. (Freire & Shor, 1987, s. 46)
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Horta, Joana Crivelente. "Saber molhar o sertão, patrimônio cultural imaterial em Mirorós - Bahia." Universidade de São Paulo, 2014. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/100/100134/tde-03062014-212331/.
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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.<br>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.
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McFarland, Kelly. "Twenty-First Century Local Food Farmers in North Texas: An Evaluation of Farming Methods, Best Practices, and Common Struggles." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2019. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1609143/.
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Research with local farmers and local food consumers in the North Texas area which captures a contemporary understanding of the challenges and successes present in North Texas local farm-and-food networks. Through ethnographic research methods, including participant-observation and semi-structured interviews, the network of producers and consumers around several farmers' markets were evaluated to understand where the strengths of local food lie, and where networks need development to promote a more stable local food environment. Texas is newer to the trend of farmers' market development, with the local food system developed to foster community, educate, and promote the advantages of locally sourced goods. This research led to the academic discovery of climate adaptive ecological knowledge and farm commodification strategies; which are tools that farmers may use to build greater defense against threats to a farm's livelihood.
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Goulding, Sarah, and sarahgoulding@yahoo com au. "Gender and Technologies of Knowledge in Development Discourse: Analysing United Nations Least Developed Country Policy 1971-2004." Flinders University. School of Geography, Population and Environmental Management, 2006. http://catalogue.flinders.edu.au./local/adt/public/adt-SFU20070619.123607.
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The United Nations category Least Developed country (LDC) was created in 1971 to ameliorate conditions in countries the UN identified as the poorest of the poor.
Its administration and operation within UN development discourse has not been explored previously in academic analysis. This thesis explores this rich archive of development discourse. It seeks to situate the LDC category as a vehicle that both produces and is a product of development discourse, and uses gender analysis as a critical tool to identify the ways in which the LDC category discourse operates. The thesis draws on Foucauldian theory to develop and use the concept technologies of knowledge, which places the dynamics of LDC discourse into relief. Three technologies of knowledge are identified: LDC policy, classification through criteria, and data. The ways each of these technologies of knowledge operates are explored through detailed readings of over thirty years of UN policy documents that form the thesiss primary source material. A central question within this thesis is: If the majority of the worlds poor are women, where are the women in the policy about the countries that are the poorest of the poor? In focusing the analysis on the representation of women in LDCs, I place women at the centre of the analytic stage, as opposed to the marginal position I have found they occupy within LDC discourse. Through this analysis of the
reductionist representations of LDC women, I explore the gendered dynamics of development discourse.
Exploring the operation of these three technologies of knowledge reveals some of the discursive boundaries of UN LDC category discourse, particularly through its inability to incorporate gender analysis. The discussion of these three technologies of knowledge policy, classification through criteria, and data is framed by discussions of development and gender. The discussion on development positions this analysis within post-development critiques of development policy, practice and theory. The discussion on gender positions this analysis within the trajectory of postmodern and postcolonial influenced feminist engagements with development as a theory and praxis, particularly with debates about the representation of women
in the third world. This case study of the operation of development discourse usefully highlights gendered dynamics of discursive ways of knowing.
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Gosselin, Claudie. "Campaigning against excision in Mali, global and local hierarchies, hegemony and knowledge." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/NQ58912.pdf.
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Roberts, Susan Maria. "Targeting agri environmental stewardship, based on the value of farmers' local knowledge." Thesis, Bangor University, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.506168.
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Ng, King-hang, and 伍經衡. "An investigation into local senior secondary students' competence in English vocabulary knowledge." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10722/193554.
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Various research has been done to investigate the relationship between learners’ vocabulary size and collocation knowledge (Gyllstad, 2007; Brown, 2012; Nizonkita, 2012). However, none has been done on Hong Kong senior secondary students who are taught under the new education curriculum and take the new Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education examination before pursuing their university studies. This study involved 90 secondary five students as participants who were divided into high-, medium- and low-ability groups. They were asked to do a test paper for the assessment of their vocabulary sizes and collocation knowledge. Also included in the test paper was a task to assess their vocabulary levels, aiming to find out the word levels they need to work on for the improvement of their academic vocabulary for university pursuit.
The results found a significant positive correlation between the vocabulary size and collocation knowledge for the 90 participants as a whole group; interestingly, when divided into three proficiency groups, such a correlation was obtained only in the medium-ability group. Findings also indicated that the academic vocabulary level (AVL) closely correlated with the 3,000 and 5,000 word levels. Most of the students in the high-ability group performed well at AVL, and this group needed only to work on the 5,000 word level for the improvement of their academic vocabulary, whereas the other two groups needed to work on both the 3,000 and 5,000 word levels for the same purpose. The study concluded with suggested ways for teachers to help their students develop a bigger vocabulary size and improve their collocation knowledge.<br>published_or_final_version<br>Applied English Studies<br>Master<br>Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics
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Schulman, Alexis. "Bridging the divide : incorporating local ecological knowledge into U.S. natural resource management." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/42266.
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Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2007.<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-88).<br>For the past 100 years, natural resource management in the United States has reflected a belief that the top-down application of science to predict and control the natural world will, in the words of Gifford Pinchot, the Nation's first head of the U.S. Forest Service, "support the wise use of the earth and its resources for the lasting good of men." However, over the past two decades, a growing number of critics have challenged the technocratic optimism of this "conventional management", arguing that the public should be more deeply engaged in the decision-making that drives natural resource management and policy. Part of the rationale for this argument is based on the growing recognition that Western, scientific management has discounted the value of local ecological knowledge (LEK), a system of knowledge developed over time through observation and interaction with the natural environment. Although advocates have expounded the benefits of using LEK, in practice, LEK is rarely integrated into the scientific assessments that drive management decisions. To understand what affects whether or not LEK is incorporated into management science, this thesis examines: 1. What are the particular barriers to integrating LEK into management science? 2. When LEK is integrated into management science, why is it used and how are specific barriers to its use overcome? These questions are addressed through an intensive examination of two U.S. cases: the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan in Pima County, Arizona and the evolution of fishery management science in the New England groundfishery. This study confirms academics and practitioners' claims that a major barrier to incorporating LEK is a "language" divide: LEK is rarely presented in scientific terms and thus it is difficult for scientists to understand its relevance or confirm its accuracy.<br>(cont.) Furthermore, scientific studies are often too complex for untrained locals to understand and thus engage with. However, this study also reveals that conflicting interests and values between scientists and bearers of LEK are not only common in resource management, but also significantly discourage knowledge exchange by embedding risk in the very acts of eliciting and divulging LEK. Furthermore, although individuals who are able "translate" between the local and scientific communities can overcome the language divide, interest and value conflicts are rarely overcome by similar translation. Instead, this analysis suggests that incentives must be created to encourage the sharing and eliciting of LEK and outweigh the associated perceived risks. Collaborative research programs in the New England fishery provide one such model. Based on these findings, recommendations for improving knowledge sharing and incorporating LEK into natural resource management are made<br>by Alexis Schulman.<br>M.C.P.
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Coburn, Jason. "Street science : the fusing of local and professional knowledge in environmental policy." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8522.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2002.<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 280-300).<br>his dissertation analyzes how local knowledge improves environmental decisions. The premise is that controlling pollution and addressing public health disparities are not problems that professionals alone can solve. Concerned lay publics, especially low-income populations and people of color that experience the greatest environmental health risks, are demanding a greater role in describing, researching and prescribing solutions for the hazards they face. Seeking environmental justice, these communities are demanding to "speak for themselves," often drawing on their first hand experience-here called local knowledge -to challenge expert-lay distinctions and how professionals define and prioritize which problems warrant attention. Community participation in environmental decisions is putting pressure on policy-makers to find new ways of fusing the expertise of professional scientists with insights from the local knowledge of communities. This dissertation asks how the local knowledge of community members can improve environmental decision-making? In answering this question, I explore the ways residents of the Greenpoint/Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, are organizing and using their knowledge of local environmental and health hazards to both improve local conditions and influence the judgments of professionals. In particular, this study analyzes how local knowledge was fused with professional insight in four neighborhood environmental health problems:<br>(cont.) (1) risks from subsistence fish diets; (2) asthma afflicting the Latino population; (3) childhood lead poisoning; and, (4) the mapping of air pollution sources. Through these cases, I describe local knowledge, reveal how it differs from professional knowledge, show the different contributions it makes to environmental politics, and highlight some conditions that contribute to the successful professional uptake of local knowledge. Ultimately, I show that local knowledge can improve environmental policy making in at least four ways: a) epistemology - adding to the knowledge base of environmental policy; b) procedural democracy - including new and previously silenced voices; c) efficiency - providing low cost policy solutions; and, e) distributive justice - highlighting inequitable distributions of environmental burdens.<br>by Jason Coburn.<br>Ph.D.
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O'Donnell, Kye. "An investigation into methods for capturing corporate knowledge in an Australian local government context." Thesis, Curtin University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/1649.
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This research project investigates the processes of capturing corporate knowledge in an Australian local government context. The City of Perth, the capital city local government of Perth, Western Australia, is the organisation within which this study was conducted. A qualitative research methodology was utilised for this study in order to understand all the factors involved in knowledge sharing, including the human aspects. Data was collected exclusively through structured interviews consisting of a series of open questions. Digital transcripts of these interviews were produced and analysed by the researcher using qualitative data analysis software. The application of the research methodology has produced a rich set of results. The different types and sources of corporate knowledge used by participants and their views on knowledge capture processes are explored. Participants provide insight into their motivations in undertaking knowledge capture, the extent knowledge is shared in the organisation and barriers to sharing knowledge that they had encountered. The utilisation of the organisation’s information management processes and the overall purposes of knowledge capture were also explored by the study. Some of the results are quite predictable and generally supported by the literature, such as a preference for interpersonal communication in the sharing of knowledge. Other results are more unexpected including strongly expressed altruistic support for the good of the employing organisation as their motivation in supporting knowledge management activities and an understanding of the need for knowledge codification.
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Holmner, Marlene Amanda. "A critical analysis of information and knowledge societies with specific reference to the interaction between local and global knowledge systems." Thesis, Pretoria : [s.n.], 2008. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11102008-143543/.
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Grant, Julian Maree, and julian grant@flinders edu au. "Colliding Realities: An Ethnographic Account of the Politics of Identity and Knowledge in Intercultural Communication in Child and Family Health." Flinders University. Nursing and Midwifery, 2008. http://catalogue.flinders.edu.au./local/adt/public/adt-SFU20081111.095203.
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ABSTRACT
Cultural beliefs and values implicitly shape every aspect of the way we parent our children and how we communicate about parenting. For parents who are migrants and experiencing parenting in a new country it is essential that child and family health professionals better understand how the cultural self influences practice. Child and family health professionals work with families who come from cultures other than their own on a daily basis. How they communicate with these families is the subject of this ethnographic study into culture and communication in child and family health.
Taking culture as its starting point this study explored the everyday communication experiences of child health professionals including child and family health nurses, social workers and doctors in a statewide child and family health service in South Australia. Data included participant observation, video and in-depth interview data. Drawing on insights from cultural studies including postcolonial and feminist scholarship the analysis showed that child health professionals attempted to use contemporary discourses of service provision such as partnership with enthusiasm and with genuine intent. However their application of partnership was limited by unexamined binary constructs within dominant pedagogic tools of culture and communication. Analysis showed that four key binaries structured the communication practice of participants in this study; public or private knowledge, ideologies of sameness or difference, organisational or professional philosophies of practice and the expert or partner in intercultural communication.
Three body analysis is introduced as a strategy to work with these binary challenges that seem to present when practice attempts to incorporate theory without consideration of the contexts of use. The combination of postcolonial feminist critique and three body analysis stimulates an explicit examination of health care inequalities as they intersect with the ongoing effects of colonisation.
Current professional strategies for working with people who are new arrivals or migrants to Australia focus on understanding differences associated with particular ethic and cultural groups. Despite much work being undertaken to understand difference, in practice this culturalist approach underpinned by a belief in the essential nature of human kind, has resulted in people who are migrants or new arrivals continuing to report poor communication by health professionals as a primary barrier to their health care. Theoretical analysis suggests that this approach ignores differences in power relations among ethnic groups and ultimately manifests in racism.
Further, contemporary communication pedagogies in child and family health reinforce this inattention to relations of power when health professionals are instructed to communicate in ways that are regardless of difference. By advocating that people are treated the same, historic and situated issues of gender, race, and socioeconomic inequalities are ignored. In this way binaries of sameness/difference are perpetuated. Those parents located in marginalised positions of difference experience inequities in health care.
In this study, child and family health professionals frequently drew from their own personal experiences of parenting to determine the content of information given to new parents, and to inform their approach to intercultural communication. In doing so they unselfconsciously conflated their personal and professional pedagogies and presented all information as professional. Child and family health practices are deeply cultured. Many practices are not scientifically proven and as such do not fit comfortably with the rational scientific medical paradigm with which they are aligned. Where disciplinary knowledge can be assessed and evaluated, this study found that there was no equivalent place for the evaluation of understanding of cultural knowledge it was assumed as universal.
Deeply cultured personal information tendered by participants represents a normative world that is white, western, middle class and gendered. Participants did not recognise themselves as cultured, nor did they recognise the potential impact of bringing this unexamined cultural self into the professional encounter. This resulted in seepage of practice that was democratically racist. This is where outward commitments to justice equality and fairness paradoxically exist with conflicting personal ideologies of sameness. Challenged to find a place for these constructs to coexist participants outwardly identify with the organisationally preferred position of social justice or evidence-based practice. However, participant observation and discussion of practice demonstrated that when conflicting personal beliefs and values were left unattended they found ways of surreptitiously creeping into and shaping the consultation. It seems that modernist theories do not provide adequate ontological and epistemological understandings for working with, and valuing pluralism in multiculture. Rather they constrict and limit practice which leads to an unrecognised perpetuation of colonising agendas in child and family health.
Findings from this study contribute to the growing need to find ways to work with and unsettle existing binaries of communication and culture. The methods also suggest ways forward to support change in practice leading to professional development that is mindful and regardful of plurality in culture and communication. Interweaving three body analyses with postcolonial feminism offers a decolonising strategy for application in the multiculture that is Australia. Due to the spatial and temporal spaces created by using three bodies alongside postcolonial feminism, this combination becomes a tangible approach to deconstruction, for child and family health professionals that is both theoretical and practical.
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Osborne, Elijah R. "Financial Literacy in Local At-Risk Appalachia." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2017. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/375.
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Unfortunately, rural Appalachia is perennially one of the poorest areas of the United States. Many scholars have offered opinions as to why this trend of poverty continues in this region, but one potential cause has not been the subject of much research: do residents in Appalachia have a functional knowledge of the financial system, or even a simple understanding of basic savings, which is necessary for achieving certain levels of financial security?
We conduct a survey modeled after a national study which measures basic financial literacy in local Appalachia, expecting to find that at-risk Appalachians would have less financial literacy than the national average. While our initial response rate was too low to justify a concrete claim, our preliminary findings suggest that local at-risk Appalachians were more likely to incorrectly answer basic financial literacy questions, and we believe that a larger study into this issue is warranted. Should a concrete outcome arise in the affirmative, we offer suggestions for policy responses, including implementation of free personal finance classes to combat the issue.
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O'Donnell, Kye. "An investigation into methods for capturing corporate knowledge in an Australian local government context." Curtin University of Technology, Dept. of Media and Information, 2007. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=21532.
Full textAbstract:
This research project investigates the processes of capturing corporate knowledge in an Australian local government context. The City of Perth, the capital city local government of Perth, Western Australia, is the organisation within which this study was conducted. A qualitative research methodology was utilised for this study in order to understand all the factors involved in knowledge sharing, including the human aspects. Data was collected exclusively through structured interviews consisting of a series of open questions. Digital transcripts of these interviews were produced and analysed by the researcher using qualitative data analysis software. The application of the research methodology has produced a rich set of results. The different types and sources of corporate knowledge used by participants and their views on knowledge capture processes are explored. Participants provide insight into their motivations in undertaking knowledge capture, the extent knowledge is shared in the organisation and barriers to sharing knowledge that they had encountered. The utilisation of the organisation’s information management processes and the overall purposes of knowledge capture were also explored by the study. Some of the results are quite predictable and generally supported by the literature, such as a preference for interpersonal communication in the sharing of knowledge. Other results are more unexpected including strongly expressed altruistic support for the good of the employing organisation as their motivation in supporting knowledge management activities and an understanding of the need for knowledge codification.
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Walker, Deirdre I. "Homeland Security Knowledge Management for local law enforcement in the national capital region." Thesis, Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from National Technical Information Service, 2005. http://library.nps.navy.mil/uhtbin/hyperion/05Sep%5FWalker.pdf.
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Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Homeland Security and Defense))--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2005.<br>Thesis Advisor(s): David Brannan, Phyllis McDonald. Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-53). Also available online.
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Khilji, Nasrullah. "Innovative communication, effective coordination and knowledge management in UK local authority planning departments." Thesis, University of West London, 2015. https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/2949/.
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This thesis sets out to examine the scope for integrated knowledge based planning systems. Five planning departments in the South East Midlands of the UK have been investigated through environmental appraisal, conceptual modelling and empirical evidence gathering. The results of analyses suggest a number of configurations, which could provide reformation instruments in the context of technological innovation, social coordination and knowledge management for sustainable development. This research study provided the insights and learning into how to successfully develop and implement an integrated knowledge based planning system. The primary aspiration of this research was to develop a robust pragmatic framework to support an efficient and effective delivery of the planning system in the UK local government towards sustainable development. A mixed research methodology was employed for the research fieldwork. Firstly, an extensive review of literature took place to summarise and synthesise the arguments of the key research propositions contributing to the development of an integrated knowledge based planning system. Secondly, exploratory fieldwork took place as an appropriate methodology in this study, applying the semi-structured interview and questionnaire techniques to gather data from senior level planning officials who were directly involved in the planning system transformation. This study was initiated by examining the previous planning environment in the UK local government and its transformation from its conventional state to a contemporary emergent state. The fieldwork was carried out to identify the key supportive and preventive knowledge factors for both explicit and tacit knowledge domains. As a result, the nature of successful technology based initiatives was determined and solutions to the possible emerging challenges were appraised.
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McGarry, Shawna. "Local ecological knowledge of flooding in the Madison Valley neighborhood of Seattle, Washington." Online pdf file accessible through the World Wide Web, 2007. http://archives.evergreen.edu/masterstheses/Accession86-10MES/McGarry_S%20MESThesis%202007.pdf.
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Thesis (M.E.S.)--The Evergreen State College, 2007.<br>Title from title screen (viewed 1/23/2008). "A thesis: essay of distinction submitted in partial fulfillment of the Master of Environmental Studies, The Evergreen State College, June 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-70).
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Murray, Andrea Elizabeth. "Footprints in Paradise: Ethnography of Ecotourism, Local Knowledge, and Nature Therapies in Okinawa." Thesis, Harvard University, 2012. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:10297.
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Social and political life on small subtropical islands is frequently shaped by the economic imperative of sustainable tourism development. In Okinawa, “ecotourism” promises to provide employment for a dwindling population of rural youth while preserving the natural environment and bolstering regional pride. In this dissertation, I consider how new subjectivities are produced when host communities come to see themselves through the lens of the visiting tourist. I further explore how Okinawans’ sense of place and identity are transformed as their language, landscapes, and wildlife are reconstituted as “cherishable,” yet vulnerable resources. I present a case study of how local ecological knowledge moves inter-generationally (between Okinawan elders and youth) and cross-culturally (between Okinawan nature guides and international and mainland Japanese tourists, who are often also considered “foreign”). By tracing the formal and informal social networks through which specific attitudes, beliefs, and sensibilities about the environment are circulated and reproduced, I demonstrate how nature-based therapies marketed to tourists for stress relief and lifestyle rehabilitation (e.g., forest therapy, dolphin therapy, and coral “gardening”) also influence Okinawan attitudes toward health and wellness. These kinds of activities reconfigure human relationships with non-human animal species; creatures previously “good to eat” (Harris 1985) are now even better to heal. “Sustainability” in Okinawa always begins with the question of military bases. The ecotourism concept poses a compelling, if problematic, economic alternative to the expansion of US bases into northern Okinawa, the hub of environmentally oriented conservationist, educational, and tourist programs on the main island. My analysis of the ecological and cultural effects of sustaining the tourism industry in Okinawa speaks to small islands facing similar economic and environmental challenges in East Asia, the Caribbean, Oceania, and beyond.<br>Anthropology
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McKee, Jonathan. "The dynamics of local knowledge of botanical pest management in Wag Hamra, Ethiopia." Thesis, University of Kent, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.418549.
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DaSilva, Christian M. (Christian Michael) Carleton University Dissertation International Affairs. "Divergence or convergence? Local environmental knowledge, secondary schools, and environmental education in Tanzania." Ottawa, 1995.
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Davis, Brittany Y. "Angling for Inclusion: Marine Conservation, Livelihoods, Local Knowledge, and Tourism on Utila, Honduras." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/333221.
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Over the past two decades, developing countries have recognized the economic value of attractive marine resources and the need to actively protect these resources. Many of these conservation projects rely on limiting extractive activities to protect habitats, which restricts local livelihoods, and promoting marine resource-based tourism to provide financing for conservation. Using a political ecology framework, this dissertation investigates two connected aspects of tourism and conservation: tourists' seafood consumption and the Go Blue Central America, a geotourism project initiated by National Geographic. It also explains the value of considering the local environmental knowledge of a diverse group of resource users, with a specific focus on professional scuba divers. Given the importance of scuba diving as an activity and tourism attractor on Utila, professional scuba divers on the island are well-positioned to serve as a source of environmental knowledge data on Utila's dive sites, including on their condition, species sightings, and changes over time. This knowledge is not without its problems as it may lead to conceptions of local participation that fail to include those actually from the community of concern. Thus, this dissertation calls attention to the possibilities of using divers' environmental knowledge in conservation and environmental management while also remaining attuned to the potential complications that may arise from doing so. Ultimately, this dissertation calls for the development of additional tourism alternatives and more comprehensive tourism planning and management which includes the potential for damage done by nonextractive resource users. For Utila, this will entail altering existing business practices to increase local ownership, shifting away from backpacker and budget oriented tourism toward a more expensive product, and involving more of the local community in the decision-making processes which affect tourism and the environment.
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Fernández-Llamazares, Onrubia Álvaro. "Indigenous knowledge of a changing environment: An ethnoecological perspective from Bolivian Amazonia." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/327020.
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Los pueblos indígenas se enfrentan a un creciente número de amenazas causadas por el Cambio Ambiental Global. Dado el ritmo sin precedentes de los cambios ambientales actuales, los investigadores debaten si dichas amenazas podrían perjudicar también la capacidad de adaptación que confiere el conocimiento indígena. Al hallarse a caballo entre las ciencias naturales y sociales, la etnoecología cuenta con una posición estratégica para examinar hasta qué punto el conocimiento indígena puede ayudar a la adaptación ante cambios ambientales rápidos.
Esta tesis doctoral es el resultado de un estudio interdisciplinar de tres años que aborda las relaciones entre el Cambio Ambiental Global y el Conocimiento Ambiental Local de una sociedad nativa de la Amazonia boliviana: los cazadores-recolectores tsimane’. Al enfrentarse a condiciones socio-ecológicas cambiantes y estando aún muy alejados del discurso científico sobre el cambio global antropogénico, los Tsimane’ constituyen un caso de estudio adecuado para entender cómo las percepciones locales del Cambio Ambiental Global son captadas en la memoria social de los pueblos indígenas.
La principal línea argumental del presente trabajo es que el Cambio Ambiental Global cuenta con manifestaciones directas a escala local, incluyendo cambios en el clima, el ecosistema y la disponibilidad de recursos naturales. En sus cuatro capítulos centrales, esta disertación investiga de forma empírica: (a) el uso potencial del conocimiento indígena para complementar los modelos científicos que evalúan el cambio climático; (b) la relación entre las observaciones locales de cambio climático y la asimilación de información científica; (c) los límites de la capacidad adaptativa del Conocimiento Ambiental Local en un contexto de cambio rápido; y (d) el papel de las percepciones locales de cambio como estímulo de adaptación a los impactos ecológicos.
Esta investigación incluyó la recolección de datos cualitativos y cuantitativos durante 15 meses de trabajo de campo en 23 comunidades del Territorio Tsimane’. Utilicé métodos comunes en investigación etnoecológica tales como la observación participativa, los grupos focales, y la recogida sistemática de datos. Realicé específicamente entrevistas semi-estructuradas sobre la percepción de cambio ambiental (n = 300 adultos), pruebas de conocimiento para evaluar los niveles individuales de Conocimiento Ambiental Local (n = 99) y una prueba controlada aleatorizada (n = 442). Adicionalmente, se recogieron datos climáticos y ecológicos para obtener estimaciones científicas de los cambios ambientales en el área de estudio.
Los resultados de esta disertación muestran que los Tsimane’ identifican un amplio número de indicadores locales de cambio ambiental. Dichos indicadores podrían ayudar a completar vacíos en los registros instrumentales de Cambio Ambiental Global. Esta tesis también muestra la existencia de una superposición entre el conocimiento indígena y los registros científicos de cambio climático, así como el papel instrumental que juegan las percepciones locales en propiciar respuestas colectivas para adaptarse al cambio. Sin embargo, los hallazgos de esta tesis también ilustran cómo el Cambio Ambiental Global supone un desafío para la capacidad de adaptación del Conocimiento Ambiental Local, al ensanchar la brecha temporal entre la velocidad de cambio del ecosistema y la velocidad de cambio del conocimiento indígena.
La presente tesis aporta nuevos conocimientos a la discusión teórica sobre la efectividad del Conocimiento Ambiental Local en un contexto de cambios socio-ecológicos rápidos y sin precedentes. Los resultados de este trabajo destacan la importancia de trazar planes estratégicos para apoyar la adaptación del conocimiento indígena ante cambios ambientales cada vez más significativos. Esta investigación también muestra la importancia del Conocimiento Ambiental Local para informar y facilitar procesos de adaptación, particularmente en territorios indígenas. Dados estos resultados, abogo por la integración de los pueblos indígenas en los foros globales de políticas ambientales, así como el reconocimiento de sus sistemas de conocimiento en el ámbito científico.<br>Indigenous peoples are increasingly facing threats resulting from a changing global environment. Given the unprecedented rates of ongoing Global Environmental Change, there is scholarly debate on whether these threats might also undermine the adaptive capacity of indigenous knowledge. Due to its strategic position bridging the natural and social sciences, ethnoecology is well-placed to examine to what extent indigenous knowledge is adaptive in the face of rapid environmental changes.
This PhD thesis is the result of a three-year interdisciplinary study aiming to understand the relations between Global Environmental Change and the Local Environmental Knowledge held by a native society in Bolivian Amazonia: the Tsimane’ hunter-gatherers. Facing rapidly changing social-ecological conditions and with the scientific discourse on anthropogenic global change still largely inaccessible to this group, the Tsimane’ constitute a suitable case study for casting light on how local perceptions of Global Environmental Change are captured in the social memory of indigenous peoples.
The main argumentative line of this work is that Global Environmental Change has direct expressions at the local scale, including changes related to climate, the ecosystem and the availability of natural resources. In its four central chapters, this dissertation empirically investigates: (a) the potential use of indigenous knowledge for complementing scientific models assessing climate change; (b) the interplay between local observations of climate change and the uptake of scientific information; (c) the limits of the adaptive capacity of Local Environmental Knowledge in a context of rapid change; and (d) the role of local perceptions of change as drivers of adaptation to ecological shocks.
This research involved qualitative and quantitative data collection during 15 months of fieldwork in 23 villages of the Tsimane’ Territory. I used a number of methods common to ethnoecological research, including participant observation, focus groups and systematic data collection. I specifically conducted semi-structured interviews on environmental change perceptions (n = 300 adults), knowledge tests to assess individual levels of Local Environmental Knowledge (n = 99) and a randomised controlled trial (n = 442). Additional climate and ecological data were sourced to obtain scientific estimates of environmental changes in the study area.
The results of this dissertation show that the Tsimane’ identify a wide array of local indicators of environmental change. Such indicators could help to fill gaps in instrumental records of Global Environmental Change. This thesis also shows the existence of a significant overlap between Tsimane’ indigenous knowledge and scientific climate change records, as well as the instrumental role that local perceptions play in sparking collective responses for adapting to change. However, findings from this work also illustrate how Global Environmental Change challenges the adaptive capacity of Local Environmental Knowledge by widening the temporal gap between the rates of change in the ecosystem and the rates of change in the knowledge held by indigenous societies.
This thesis brings new insights to the theoretical discussion on the effectiveness of Local Environmental Knowledge in the context of rapid and unprecedented social-ecological changes. Results of this work stress the importance of devising strategic plans to support the resilience of indigenous knowledge in the face of ever encroaching environmental changes. This study also shows the importance of building upon Local Environmental Knowledge for informing and facilitating adaptive processes, particularly in areas inhabited by indigenous groups. Given these findings, I argue for an integration of indigenous peoples in global environmental policy fora, as well as for the recognition of their knowledge systems in scientific scholarship.
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Ncoyini, Samuel. "Factors that influence knowledge management systems to improve knowledge transfer in local government: a case study of Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality." Thesis, University of Fort Hare, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10353/1918.
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The demand for improved service delivery requires new approaches and attitudes from local government. One of the ways this can be achieved is to focus on continuous improvement by driving innovation and lessons learnt from the municipalities’ past successes and failures. For local government authorities to rethink service delivery, they need to find better ways to share information assets, business processes and staff expertise with their citizens and business partners. The lack of Knowledge Management (KM) and, therefore, a low level of information and knowledge transfer in the public services have been identified as two of the main contributors to poor service delivery. The implementation of knowledge transfer process is one of the factors that will impact on the improvement of service delivery. The main purpose of this research study was to investigate how knowledge management systems can be used to improve the knowledge transfer at Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM). The research study focused on knowledge transfer within the Municipality as the general area of research. The objective of this study was to produce critical success factors that would improve knowledge management systems and knowledge transfer among employees at BCMM, which would ultimately improve service delivery.
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Figus, Elizabeth Carroll. "Using Local Knowledge to Inform Commercial Fisheries Science and Management in Poland and Alaska." Thesis, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10747800.
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<p> Science and decision making in commercial fisheries management take place in the context of uncertainty. This research demonstrates ways that local knowledge held by fishermen can be used to mitigate that uncertainty. This dissertation documents local knowledge of fishermen in Poland and Alaska, and contributes to the development of methods for utilizing that local knowledge in commercial fisheries management. Specific case study examples were developed through exploratory interviews with fishermen in the two study regions. Interviews were conducted with Baltic cod (<i>Gadus morhua</i>) fishermen in Poland and Pacific halibut (<i>Hippoglossus stenolepis</i>) fishermen in Alaska. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyze local knowledge about ecosystems, as well as preferences held by fishermen about regulations. Cultural consensus analysis was used to quantify agreement among fishermen in Poland about the abundance and condition of cod, and generalized additive modeling was used to show how fishermen and scientists attributed different causes to similar observed phenomena. Multiple factor analysis and logistic regression were used to demonstrate how fishing characteristics influence encounters with incidental catch in the commercial fishery for halibut in Southeast Alaska. Finally, an analytic hierarchy process model was used to shed light on preferences halibut fishermen have about data collection methods on their vessels. All findings show how the inclusion of fishermen’s local knowledge in fisheries management need not be limited to informal conversations or public testimony at meetings in order to be meaningfully interpretable by managers.</p><p>
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Byrne-Armstrong, Hilary, of Western Sydney Hawkesbury University, and Faculty of Social Inquiry. "Dead certainties and local knowledge : postculturalism, conflict and narrative practices in radical/experiential education." THESIS_FSI_XXX_Byrne-Armstrong_H.xml, 1999. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/563.
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This thesis documents the development of a narrative epistemology and an associated pedagogic practice around the conflicts that occur in experiential learning settings. The thesis traces a progressive shift away from individualistic accounts of conflicts and dilemmas in learning being primarily embedded in psychological spaces, to a recognition of the importance of the social space - the cultural discourses that shape our everyday activity and interactions. This recognises that conflict is not simply a consequence of difference arising from personality, or other psychological factors, but a consequence of prevailing cultural narratives that instruct/construct us into the identities that we are. This pedagogic practice involves a change from internalising conversations to externalising conversations, thus keeping the discursive space open to the different stories, which are usually silenced by prevailing taken-for-granted explanations. For me, it is this refusal of what we are (i.e. our culturally bestowed identities), and a critique of the forces that shape us, that opens spaces within the social fabric to enable different stories to be heard and appreciated and creates opportunites for new, radical learning to occur.<br>Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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Harrison, Kate. "The Community Resource Registry, a mechanism for the protection of indigenous and local knowledge." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp03/MQ52350.pdf.
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Georgiadis, Pavlos. "Local plant knowledge for livelihoods an ethnobotanical survey in the Garhwal Himalaya, Uttarakhand, India." Weikersheim Margraf, 2008. http://d-nb.info/987714694/04.
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Darnell, Ervan. "Cache coherence using local knowledge." Thesis, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/1911/19146.
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Hiding memory latency is critical in modern machines. Typically, machines have used cache and addressed the ensuing cache coherence problem with hardware or VM-based strategies that rely on global inter-cache communication. However, global communication limits scalability. "Local knowledge" coherence strategies, which use compile-time information to avoid run-time global communication, offer better scalability, but suffer additional cache misses. We develop a framework for understanding the relation of coherence strategies, previous and newly proposed. Within this framework, it is possible to define, independent of implementation considerations, an "ideal" local strategy with respect to cache hit rate. No local strategy could ever do better. For Fortran programs with readily analyzable subscripts, ideal local strategies achieve the same hit rates as global strategies.
We develop three new local coherence strategies, CTV, TS1, and TS$\sp\prime$, designed to exploit minimal, aggressive, and reasonable hardware support, respectively. CTV is suitable for machines with no hardware assistance for cache coherence except the bare minimum of an exposed invalidate instruction. TS1 implements the abstract theorems of ideal local coherence as a concrete algorithm. Though the implementation is probably too expensive for a real implementation, TS1 is a vehicle for studying the limits of local coherence. TS$\sp\prime$ treats coherence over array sections as a graph coloring problem. So long as there are sufficient colors (realized as bits per cache line), TS$\sp\prime$ is an ideal local strategy. We found that four colors are adequate for many programs. When more colors are needed, TS$\sp\prime$ degrades gracefully. Its execution overheads are negligible and its hardware implementation costs moderate.
Our data shows that TS$\sp\prime$ has better hit rates than the best previous local strategy, time-stamping, for nearly all programs, and thus better expected performance. Our data also shows that TS$\sp\prime$ achieves hit rates equal to global strategies for analyzable programs, and nearly so for partially analyzable programs. We indirectly compared the performance of TS$\sp\prime$ and a particular VM-style global strategy. TS$\sp\prime$ has better expected performance on our test suite. For machines without global coherence hardware, local strategies are an effective approach for an important class of programs.
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"Local Sociophonetic Knowledge in Speech Perception." Thesis, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1911/70300.
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Sociophonetic studies of speech perception have demonstrated that the social identity which listeners attribute to a speaker can lead to predictable biases in the way speech sounds produced by that speaker are linguistically categorized (e.g., Strand & Johnson 1996; Niedzielski 1999; Hay, Warren & Drager 2006). This has been observed where listeners use available social information about a speaker to resolve lexical ambiguity. However, less is known about the role of sociophonetic knowledge in speech perception when listeners are not faced with global linguistic ambiguity. Drawing on Strand's (2000) study of the processing effects of gender typicality, this dissertation investigates whether sociophonetic knowledge can facilitate or inhibit unambiguous spoken word recognition. Based on a survey of sociophonetic variation in the Houston metropolitan area, predictions are formulated for the processing of words containing four vowels: /ei/ and /[varepsilon]/ in the speech of older and younger Anglos, and /α/ and /Λ/ in the speech of young Anglos and young African-Americans. Houston listeners identified words containing variants of these vowels in a congruent condition and in an incongruent condition. In the congruent condition the combination of speaker identity and vowel variant was designed to match the listener's knowledge of local language variation. In the incongruent condition, it was designed to contradict it. A congruency effect was found for some but not all vowels. The results indicate that social information about a speaker can also affect speech perception in the absence of lexical ambiguity, but only where words are at least temporarily ambiguous. Where there is no linguistic ambiguity at all, perception can be unaffected by sociophonetic knowledge. These results are discussed in the context of Luce, McLennan & Charles-Luce's (2003) time course hypothesis and in the context of exemplar-based models of sociophonetic knowledge (Johnson 1997, Pierrehumbert 2001).