E-Letter responses to:

special/viewpoint: William M. Adams, Dan Brockington, Jane Dyson, and Bhaskar Vira Managing Tragedies: Understanding Conflict over Common Pool Resources Science 2003; 302: 1915-1916 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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Knowledge and action

Jyotiraj Patra   (4 January 2005)

Knowledge and action 4 January 2005
Jyotiraj Patra, Research Student Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy,University of Helsinki.Finland-00014 Respond to this E-Letter: Re: Knowledge and action	Adams et al. dissect out the origin of conflict and traced its origin to a "deeper cognitive level." And they discuss the centrality of "knowledge which allows stakeholders to define the problems." It is crucial in this respect to look at the "origin of any such knowledge" pertaining to resource access and use. Very often this body of knowledge is a hybrid of the local knowledges and the global discourses, and the degree and extent of this hybridization is the guiding spirit for the genesis of any such knowledge. Secondly, the stakeholder is open to knowledges from all around, and then regurgitates, refines, and modulates it as per its own need. And with this "refined knowledge," the stakeholder enters the fray. The participation and action that follow are reminiscent of this dynamics. So stakeholders participate at more than one level and "shuttling stakeholders" will very much influence not only the policy formulation but also its implementation. Thus, the complexity associated with the processes of management of conflict over common pool resources demands greater understanding of the interplay of knowledge and action.