Indigenous knowledge: A false dawn for development theory and practice?

Abstract

Recent debates on indigenous knowledge have tended to focus on building up even more case study material of good practice in indigenous knowledge at the local level; the integration of indigenous and scientific knowledge; and the trend towards increased co-option of indigenous knowledge into the current neoliberal discourse. However, indigenous knowledge may have reached something of an impasse in that it has had little impact on development practice. A way around the impasse may be to conceptualize indigenous knowledge more as a way of knowing, or as a process or practice, with less emphasis on content and more on epistemology.