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20 - A Dynamic View of Local Knowledge and Epistemic Bonds to Place

Implications for Senses of Place and the Governance of Biodiversity Conservation

from Part VI - Technological and Legal Transformations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 July 2021

By
Paula Castro
Edited by
Christopher M. Raymond ,
Lynne C. Manzo ,
Daniel R. Williams ,
Andrés Di Masso  and
Timo von Wirth
Christopher M. Raymond
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki, Finland
Lynne C. Manzo
Affiliation:
University of Washington, Seattle
Daniel R. Williams
Affiliation:
USDA Forest Service, Colorado
Andrés Di Masso
Affiliation:
Universitat de Barcelona
Timo von Wirth
Affiliation:
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
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Summary

This chapter argues that a better understanding of people–place relations and their role in the local reception – and frequent contestation – of today’s supra-national legal orders for biodiversity conservation requires considering the epistemic dimension. This means paying more attention to local knowledge and the epistemic bonds to place it weaves, recognising local cultural-worlds not just as meaning and identity-worlds, but also as knowledge-worlds. It illustrates these arguments with extracts from fishers and farmers governed by Natura 2000 biodiversity laws, showing how local knowledge provides a relevant lens for local assessment of such laws, a process sometimes leading to contestation, sometimes to acceptance, and a process always done together with others. This calls for the creation of these legal orders to not rely exclusively on expert views, instead incorporating local inputs. By adding the epistemic dimension, senses of place can become a more relational, dynamic and plural concept, encompassing the three processes of attachment, meaning-making and knowing.

Keywords

epistemic bonds to placelocal knowledgelegal innovationsupra-national legal ordersmeaning and knowledge
Type
Chapter
Information
Changing Senses of Place
Navigating Global Challenges
 , pp. 259 - 270
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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