Bridging knowledge systems to enhance governance of environmental commons: A typology of settings

Abstract

Abstract:We offer a typology of settings to bridge scientific and indigenous knowledge systems and to enhance governance of the environmental commons in contexts of change. We contribute to a need for further clarity on how to incorporate diverse knowledge systems and in ways that contribute to planning, management, monitoring and assessment from local to global levels. We ask, what settings are discussed in the resource and environmental governance literature to support efforts to bridge indigenous and scientific knowledge systems? The objectives are: 1) to offer a typology that organizes various settings to bridge knowledge systems; and 2) to elaborate on how these settings function independently and in concert, using examples from a diverse literature in addition to field research experience. Our focus is on indigenous and scientific knowledge, but the typology offers lessons to bridge diverse knowledge systems more generally, and in ways that are sensitive to a moral, political and process-based approach. The typology includes specific methods and processes, brokering strategies, governance and institutional contexts, and the arena of epistemology. We describe each setting in the typology, and provide examples to reflect on the function and potential outcomes of different settings. Insights from our synthesis can inform policy and participatory action. 852Kaitlyn Joanne Rathwell et al. Keywords:Arctic, Environmental governance, indigenous knowledge, knowledge systems, multi-level governance, traditional knowledge Acknowledgements: We would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for helpful feedback on an earlier version of this manuscript. Rathwell

Creative convergence: exploring biocultural diversity through art

“…Many important research tools and methodologies have been developed to enable cross-cultural collaborations and to bridge knowledge systems (Berkes 2004, Tengö et al 2014, Gavin et al 2015, Rathwell et al 2015. Among these, art and artistic processes have the potential to enhance collaborative research processes by improving the effectiveness of numerous social-ecological fields, including occupancy mapping (Tobias 2000), complex systems science (Vervoort et al 2014), social-environmental health and resilience (Castleden et al 2008, Rathwell andArmitage 2016), and ethnographic communication (Thomsen 2015), among others.…”

Art and artistic processes bridge knowledge systems about social-ecological change: An empirical examination with Inuit artists from Nunavut, Canada

“…The capacity of art to communicate complex ecology has also been described (Curtis et al 2012, Vervoort et al 2014. Scholars have discussed the need to integrate aesthetics more rigorously into the process of scenario planning (Ramırez and Ravetz 2011), into governance (Armitage et al 2014), and in how knowledge bridging is approached (Elgin 2002, Rathwell et al 2015. For example, Maffie (2009:59) reflects on a case where a researcher may have learned much more had he heeded the words of his study subject, a Shinto priest: "We have no theology, we dance."…”

“…Connecting ways of knowing, such as scientific and Indigenous ways of knowing, is argued to play a key role in fostering collaborative governance and community adaptation, and in enhancing overall understandings of, and responses to, environmental change (Mitchell et al 2006, Reid et al 2006. Art and artistic processes can make a valuable and unique contribution to nurturing Indigenous knowledge and bridging that knowledge with other ways of knowing (Zurba and Berkes 2014, Zurba and Friesen 2014, Rathwell et al 2015.…”

“…There are now also international and national legal mandates to better promote and protect Indigenous knowledge (UN 2007, Koutouki et al 2015. Connecting ways of knowing to create novel insights about complex environmental change while also maintaining the integrity of those knowledge systems, termed bridging knowledge systems, is an increasingly important area of applied research (Tengö et al 2012, Thaman et al 2013, Rathwell et al 2015.…”

“…Many potential settings exist to bridge knowledge systems (McCarter et al 2014, Rathwell et al 2015. Popular techniques within an environmental change and natural resource governance context include processes such as mapping, hunting trips (Krupnik et al 2010), creation of databases (McCarter et al 2014), codevelopment of tools or toolkits, e.g., mobile geospatial devices (Gearheard et al 2012), and local governance structures such as comanagement boards (Armitage et al 2011).…”