Here is a recording of our latest webinar for the PECS webinar series.
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Title:
Place-based knowledge transfer in a local-to-global and knowledge-to-action context: key steps and facilitative factors
Abstract:
Place-based research can enhance effectiveness of global sustainability policies and actions by providing contextualized knowledge underpinning bottom-up solutions. However, the use and transfer of place-based knowledge remains a major challenge. In this study, we analyze place-based knowledge transfer in a local-to-global and knowledge-to-action context. We aim to provide insights on when, how, and why place-based research can inform decision making at the global scale and lead to action toward more sustainable and just futures. We identified four key steps (place-based knowledge production, knowledge synthesis, knowledge use at the global scale, and knowledge revision and lessons learned) and five facilitative factors (bridging organizations, knowledge brokers, boundary organizations, institutionalized knowledge governance, and polycentric governance systems), which provide a comprehensive understanding of place-based knowledge transfer. Our conceptual framework provides suggestions on how to set up place-based knowledge transfer to be more effective, complete, and inclusive. Finally, we discuss two major structural barriers that currently inhibit place-based knowledge transfer and show ways forward for science and policy to overcome these. We argue that place-based knowledge transfer can be an effective means to undo dominant power relations and the epistemic status quo and enable a shift from short-termism in science and policy toward more long-term SES goals. Therefore, it is seminal to open up the predominant value system to more diverse knowledge systems, signifying a shift away from global decision making that is guided by neoliberal capitalist principles and over-emphasizes short-term and individual gains. Finally, it is crucial to prioritize learning over knowing to exploit the long-term value of place-based knowledge transfer.
Bio:
Eva has a study background in Physical Geography (BSc) and Governance of Sustainability (MSc), from which she graduated in 2022. She worked as a research assistant at Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) (Department of Environmental Politics) focussing on social-ecological systems research and water-energy-food-ecosystem (WEFE) nexus governance. As part of the European Union’s Horizon2020 programme funded project NEXOGENESIS, she helped developing a WEFE nexus governance assessment tool and was in the lead of applying it to the Inkomati-Usuthu river basin in South Africa. Last year, Eva started an interfaculty PhD on transformative change at Leiden University involving the Institutes of Environmental Sciences, Cultural Anthropology and Public Administration (supervised by Marja Spierenburg, Jan Willem Erisman and Alexander van Oudenhoven). In her PhD research, Eva explores different facets of transformative change, trying to gain a deeper understanding of how the concept can be dismantled to make it more actionable on the ground and how action by local initiatives can contribute to fundamental, system-wide change processes.
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This is the latest in a series of webinars. Past recordings can be found here.
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