Listening to diverse knowledge systems

As every human society has developed its own ways of knowing nature in order to survive, dietitians can benefit from an emerging scholarship of “cross-cultural engagement” (CCE). CCE asks dietitians to move beyond the orthodoxy of their academic training by temporarily experiencing culturally diverse knowledge systems, inhabiting different background assumptions and presuppositions of how the world works. Although this practice may seem de- stabilizing, it allows for significant outcomes not afforded by conventional dietetics scholarship. First, culturally different knowledge systems including those of Africa, Ayurveda, classical Chinese medicine and indigenous societies become more empathetically understood, minimizing the distortions created when forcing conformity with biomedical paradigms. This lessens potential for erroneous interpretations. Second, implicit background assumptions of the dietetics profession become more apparent, enabling a more critical appraisal of its underlying epistemology. Third, new forms of post-colonial intercultural inquiry can begin to develop over time as dietetics professionals develop capacities to reframe food and health issues from different cultural perspectives. CCE scholarship offers dietetics professionals a means to more fully appreciate knowledge assets that lie beyond professionally maintained parameters of truth, and a practice for challenging and moving boundaries of credibility.

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Track 2.a Introduction

Conference Proceedings of the Academy for Design Innovation Management ◽

10.33114/adim.2019.2a ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Sucharita BENIWAL ◽

Sahil MATHUR ◽

Lesley-Ann NOEL ◽

Cilla PEMBERTON ◽

Suchitra BALASUBRAHMANYAN ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

Local Knowledge ◽

Ways Of Knowing ◽

Social Contexts ◽

Knowledge Systems ◽

Theoretical Frameworks ◽

Native Communities ◽

Cultural Systems ◽

Local Practices

The aim of this track was to question the divide between the nature of knowledge understood as experiential in indigenous contexts and science as an objective transferable knowledge. However, these can co-exist and inform design practices within transforming social contexts. The track aimed to challenge the hegemony of dominant knowledge systems, and demonstrate co-existence. The track also hoped to make a case for other systems of knowledges and ways of knowing through examples from native communities. The track was particularly interested in, first, how innovators use indigenous and cultural systems and frameworks to manage or promote innovation and second, the role of local knowledge and culture in transforming innovation as well as the form of local practices inspired innovation. The contributions also aspired to challenge through examples, case studies, theoretical frameworks and methodologies the hegemony of dominant knowledge systems, the divides of ‘academic’ vs ‘non-academic’ and ‘traditional’ vs ‘non-traditional’.

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Colonizing Innovation:

Conference Proceedings of the Academy for Design Innovation Management ◽

10.33114/adim.2019.01.261 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Abhinav CHATURVEDI ◽

Alf REHN

Keyword(s):

Indigenous Knowledge ◽

Postcolonial Theory ◽

Knowledge Systems ◽

Frugal Innovation ◽

Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽

Management Literature

Innovation is one of the most popular concepts and desired phenomena of contemporary Western capitalism. As such, there is a perennial drive to capture said phenomena, and particularly to find new ways to incite and drive the same. In this text, we analyze one specific tactic through which this is done, namely by the culturally colonial appropriation of indigenous knowledge systems. By looking to how jugaad, a system of frugal innovation in India, has been made into fodder for Western management literature, we argue for the need of a more developed innovation critique, e.g., by looking to postcolonial theory.

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Indigenous Environmental Justice, Knowledge, and Law

Kalfou A Journal of Comparative and Relational Ethnic Studies ◽

10.15367/kf.v5i2.213 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Deborah McGregor

Keyword(s):

Environmental Justice ◽

Indigenous Knowledge ◽

Knowledge Systems ◽

Indigenous Worldviews ◽

Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽

The World ◽

Innovative Approaches

This article aims to introduce a distinct conception of Indigenous environmental justice (IEJ) based on Indigenous legal orders, knowledge systems, and conceptions of justice. This is not to suggest in any way that the existing environmental justice (EJ) scholarship is flawed; in fact, the scholarship and activism around EJ have been central in diagnosing and drawing attention to injustices that occur on a systematic basis everywhere in the world. This article argues instead that such discussions can be expanded by acknowledging that concepts of environmental justice, including distinct legal orders informed by Indigenous knowledge systems, already existed on Turtle Island for thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans. It also suggests that environmental justice framed within Indigenous worldviews, ontologies, and epistemologies may make significant contributions to broader EJ scholarship, particularly in relation to extending justice to other beings and entities in Creation. This approach acknowledges ongoing colonialism and emphasizes the need to decolonize in order to advance innovative approaches to IEJ.

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