Indigenous Knowledge
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Item Rural technology and collective analysis: Improving water supplies and sanitation(1979) Jackson, TedThe late 70s witnessed the problem of the insufficient supply of water and sanitation in rural areas become a serious threat to health and everyday living. Set in this period, this paper aims to demonstrate the way in which the described issue integrated into the life of the villages and towns. In this way, the research was concentrated on the implementation of technologies and the ideas behind them and the reactions of people who were a part of the process. This paper, therefore, tries to demonstrate the importance of such projects in context of changing people’s perceptions and building awareness, rather than focusing on the scale of the innovation itself. The research, thus, raises more questions than it answers, leaving the reader amazed by the ability of one idea to change the lives of thousands of people but at the same time skeptical about the potential role of similar movements in other contexts.Item Education for women's empowerment(ASPBAE, 1996) Batliwala, SrilathaEducation for Women’s Empowerment reflects on education as a means to challenge gender inequality and advance women’s empowerment. The paper states that women’s empowerment requires overcoming social, economic, political, and cultural relations and structures that undermine women. Education for literacy, basic and women’s rights, self-reliance, citizenship, reproductive health, critical thinking, and self-determination are presented as pivotal forces for social change. The paper is a call for decentralizing and democratizing education, engaging women and their communities, integrating traditional knowledge, gender-responsive curricula, and training materials, and enhancing the role of NGOs and civil society in education. It also calls for advocacy, networking, monitoring, and evaluation, and participatory approaches to research, as well as strategies for policy implementation at various levels. To advance women’s empowerment, the paper suggests that education can contribute to enhancing women’s participation, voice, resources, and control and promote gender justice and social change.Item Report of the international workshop PRA, literacy and empowerment: The reflect method(1994) Actionaid Bangladesh; Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE)The report discusses participatory research and its use in communities through PAR, PRA, and the reflect method. The report emphasizes that communities should not be passive providers of knowledge for research but active participants in diagnosing problems, sharing their knowledge, and finding solutions to these problems. The report provides many examples of participatory research from Caribbean, Africa, South Asia, Latin America, Canada, Indigenous knowledge, adult literacy, empowerment, and social change. The report also recognizes some of the challenges that participatory research faces, such as ensuring rigorous research, combining the expertise of professionals and community members, and applying research findings to actual action. Overall, the report shows that participatory research is used to make research more relevant to the communities in which it is conducted.Item Land and people No. 3, July-September 1988(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 1988-09) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)This report covers the third issue of Land and People, a PRIA newsletter on land ownership and alienation, published between July and September 1988. It opens with the Supreme Court's August 1988 ruling ordering the closure of limestone mines in the Doon Valley after nearly three decades of local resistance. It examines India's National Water Policy, questioning whether its emphasis on river-basin planning and large-scale groundwater recharge benefits marginal farmers or reinforces their exclusion. The focus article revisits land reform four decades after independence, highlighting the gap between legal provisions and the land held by small and tenant farmers. A review of Vijay Paranjpye's study of the Tehri Dam questions official estimates of economic returns, displacement, and ecological risks. It also reports on protests against the Narmada Valley Project in Bombay, a fast at the Sardar Sarovar dam site, and a march in North Bihar over recurring floods and drinking water scarcity. It concludes with a letter from Thailand's Project for Ecological Recovery on the shelving of the Nam Choan dam following sustained cross-border solidarity, and a report on the first International Rivers Network conference in San Francisco.Item Zapatistas in Chiapas(1984-03-23) Tandon, RajeshAt a moment when Mexico was entering a new era of economic liberalisation under NAFTA, an unexpected uprising in Chiapas reshaped debates on democracy, land, and indigenous rights. This paper examines the Zapatista movement within the longer history of indigenous struggle while drawing attention to its distinctive way of combining traditional claims with new tools of communication and solidarity. The research also considers how the movement’s vision travelled beyond Chiapas, raising questions about development, autonomy, and cultural survival. In doing so, it argues for seeing the Zapatistas not only as a regional rebellion but as a reminder that struggles over dignity and self-determination can unsettle dominant ideas of governance in ways that remain unresolved.
