About the Book
This book develops an integrated perspective on the practices and politics of making knowledge work in inclusive development and innovation.
While debates about development and innovation commonly appeal to the authority of academic researchers, many current approaches emphasise the plurality of actors with relevant expertise for addressing livelihood challenges. Adopting an action-oriented and reflexive approach, this volume explores the variety of ways in which knowledge works, paying particular attention to dilemmas and controversies. The six parts of the book address the complex interplay of knowledge and politics, starting with the need for knowledge integration in the first part and decolonial perspectives on the politics of knowledge integration in the second part. The following three parts focus on the practices of inclusive development and innovation through three major themes of learning for transformative change, evidence, and digitisation. The final part of the book addresses the governance of knowledge and innovation in the light of political struggles about inclusivity.
Exploring conceptual and practical themes through case studies from the Global North and South, this book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and practitioners researching and working in development studies, epistemology, innovation studies, science and technology studies, and sustainability studies more broadly.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Making knowledge work differently: The politics of knowledge in inclusive development and innovation, David Ludwig, Cees Leeuwis, Birgit K. Boogaard, Phil Macnaghten Part I Crossing Epistemic Boundaries Chapter 1: Making transdisciplinarity work: An epistemology of inclusive development and innovation, David Ludwig and Birgit K. Boogaard Chapter 2: Making knowledge from below, Senna Middelveld, Harro Maat, and Phil Macnaghten Chapter 3: A transdisciplinary perspective on gender mainstreaming in international development: the case of the CGIAR, Diana E. Lopez and David Ludwig Part II Decolonizing Knowledge Integration Chapter 4: A systemic approach to the decolonization of knowledge: implications for scholars of development studies, Sarah Cummings, Nyamwaya Munthali and Peter Shapland Chapter 5: How the elite capture critique is used to legitimize top-down control of development resources, Peter Shapland, Annemarie van Paassen and Conny Almekinders Chapter 6: ‘Development’ perspectives from the Global South: Learning from Ubuntu and Buen Vivir philosophies, Birgit K. Boogaard and Dorine van Norren Part III Learning for Transformative Change: Creating Space for Diversity and Dialogues Chapter 7: Learning and change in and through action-oriented research, Barbara van Mierlo, Annemarie van Paassen, Rico Lie, Elias Damtew, and Loes Witteveen Chapter 8: Towards design principles for diversity sensitive learning, Rico Lie, Birgit K. Boogaard, and Loes Witteveen Chapter 9: Learning from histories of gender and racial segregation in agricultural education and extension worldwide, Margreet van der Burg Part IV Rethinking Evidence in Development Chapter 10: Theorizing theories of change in international development: What counts as evidence, Katarzyna Cieslik and Cees Leeuwis Chapter 11: The politics of evidence-based advocacy by civil society organizations, Margit van Wessel Part V Negotiating Technological Change and Digitalization Chapter 12: A problematization of inclusion and exclusion: Trade-offs and nuances in the digitalization of African agriculture, Mariette McCampbell, Kelly Rijswijk, Hannah Wilson, and Laurens Klerkx Chapter 13: Responsibly designing digital agriculture services under uncertainty in the Global South: The case of Esoko-Ghan, Andy Bonaventure Nyamekye, Laurens Klerkx, and Art Dewulf Chapter 14: Mobilising knowledge sharing in the Agricultural Advisory System: The Case of ICT-facilitated Plant Doctor Chat Groups, Šarūnas Jomantas, Nyamwaya Munthali, Annemarie van Paassen, Conny Almekinders, Anna Wood, Christina Aloki, Birgitta Oppong-Mensah, Willis Ochilo, and Dannie Romney Part VI Governing Knowledge and Innovation Chapter 15: Making dialogue work: Responsible innovation and gene editing, Phil Macnaghten, Esha Shah and David Ludwig Chapter 16: Making knowledge work in practice: an integrative methodology for researching performance in global commodity chains and local food market, Sietze Vellema, Faustina Obeng Adomaa and Mirjam Schoonhoven Chapter 17: The conundrum of articulating societal knowledge and technology demand, Cees Leeuwis
About the Author :
David Ludwig is associate professor in the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation (KTI) group at Wageningen University and the principal investigator of the ‘Global Epistemologies and Ontologies’ (GEOS) project. He works at the intersection of philosophy and social studies of science with a focus on global negotiations of knowledge diversity.
Birgit Boogaard is postdoc in the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation (KTI) group at Wageningen University, where she teaches courses on African philosophy as well as on social justice, technology, and development. She has an interdisciplinary PhD in Rural Sociology and Animal Science from Wageningen University.
Phil Macnaghten is professor in the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation (KTI) group at Wageningen University. His PhD is from Exeter and he has held appointments at Lancaster, Durham and Campinas before joining Wageningen in 2015. His research background is in science and technology studies (STS) and sociology.
Cees Leeuwis is professor in the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation (KTI) group at Wageningen University. He studies processes of socio-technical innovation and transformation, inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration, research for development policy, the functioning of innovation support systems, and the role of communication, extension, and brokers therein.
Review :
"Development pathways are plural and political, as is the knowledge that shapes and contributes to them. Not shirking from the real difficulties and conundra of including diverse perspectives amidst complex dynamics, and deftly weaving theory and practice through a host of real-world examples, this volume helps chart the way. A thoughtful and robust contribution to the burgeoning literature on knowledge in/for development that contests some of its most treasured assumptions." - Melissa Leach, Director of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, UK
"The view that development in the modern world is knowledge driven does not explain the disparities in development across continents, countries and communities. There is contestation around what form of knowledge is essential for inclusive development. Knowledge is not universal and neither are the processes of its generation and application neutral. This book inspires reconstruction of valid knowledge for and rethinking the concept of inclusive development." - Paul Kibwika, Associate Professor, Department of Extension and Innovation Studies, Makerere University, Uganda
