COMMON CONCEPTS IN KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS FOR
AGRO-ECOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS
Prof.
Zake
1. Knowledge
Philosophical view
·
What does it take to know something?
o
if the business of knowing
things was so simple, we’d all agree on a bunch of things that we currently
disagree about – such as how to treat each other, what value to place on the
environment, and the optimal role of government in a society.
o
Knowledge seems to be more like
a way of getting at the truth – but how do we exactly get to the truth?
o
State conditions that are
individually necessary and jointly sufficient for propositional knowledge,
thoroughly answering the question, what does it take to know something?
o
Not all truths are established
truths. If you flip a coin and never check how it landed, it may be true that
it landed heads, even if nobody has any way to tell. Truth is a metaphysical,
as opposed to epistemological, notion: truth is a matter of how things are,
not how they can be shown to be.
o
demarcation between what we
believe and what we know
o
we live in a world in which the
sources of information are rapidly proliferating and in which
"authoritative" sources of knowledge, problematic as they may always
have been, are now becoming endangered species.
o
“I don’t know” — is an
indication of intellectual honesty.
o
When someone makes a claim,
simply ask whether what’s been asserted is a fact or an interpretation (i.e., a
subjective judgment); and then follow up by asking for justification.
o
How do you know if you are
thinking rationally?
o
Distinguish between "knowing
that" (know a concept), "knowing how" (understand an operation),
and "acquaintance-knowledge" (know by relation), with epistemology
being primarily concerned with the first of these.
·
Epistemology
o (/ɪˌpɪstɪˈmɒlədʒi/ (
listen); from Greek
ἐπιστήμη, epistēmē, meaning
'knowledge', and λόγος, logos,
meaning 'logical discourse') is the branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge
listen); from Greek
ἐπιστήμη, epistēmē, meaning
'knowledge', and λόγος, logos,
meaning 'logical discourse') is the branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge
o the theory of
knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the
distinction between justified belief and opinion.
o a careful, systematic
examination of what we know and how we know it.
o
is about understanding how we
come to know that something is the case, whether it be a matter of fact such as
“the Earth is warming” or a matter of value such as “people should not just be
treated as means to particular ends”.
o
the study of knowledge and
justified belief
o
epistemology is concerned with
the following questions:
§ What are the necessary and sufficient conditions of knowledge?
§ What are its sources?
§ What is its structure, and what are its limits?
§ As the study of justified belief, epistemology aims to answer
questions such as: How we are to understand the concept of justification? What
makes justified beliefs justified? Is justification internal or external to
one's own mind?
o
Understood more broadly,
epistemology is about issues having to do with the creation and dissemination
of knowledge in particular areas of inquiry.
§ Empiricism - empiricism
is generally a theory of knowledge focusing on the role of experience,
especially experience based on perceptual
observations by the senses.
·
Certain forms exempt
disciplines such as mathematics
and logic from these requirements.
·
we are to analyse ideas and
objects in the world for their practical value
§ Pragmatism – empiricism by Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey.
·
understands truth as that which
is practically applicable in the world
·
values were historically
contingent and dependent upon their utility
§ Idealism – Innate reason
·
asserts the primacy of
consciousness
·
assert that reality, or reality
as humans can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or
otherwise immaterial
·
Many idealists
believe that knowledge is primarily (at least in some areas) acquired by a
priori (knowledge which proceeds from
theoretical deduction rather than from observation or experience) processes
or is innate—for example, in the form of concepts not
derived from experience.
·
The relevant theoretical
processes often go by the name "intuition".
·
The relevant theoretical
concepts may purportedly be part of the structure of the human mind
(as in Kant's
theory of transcendental idealism), or they
may be said to exist independently of the mind (as in Plato's theory of Forms)
§ Rationalism - empirical, the theoretical and the abstract.
·
"regards reason
as the chief source and test of knowledge"[3]
or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or
justification".
·
More formally, rationalism is
defined as a methodology
or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not
sensory but intellectual and deductive".
·
reality has an intrinsically
logical structure.
·
Because of this, the
rationalists argued that certain truths exist and that the intellect can
directly grasp these truths.
·
That is to say, rationalists
asserted that certain rational principles exist in logic, mathematics, ethics, and
metaphysics that are so fundamentally true that
denying them causes one to fall into contradiction.
·
The rationalists had such a
high confidence in reason that empirical proof and physical evidence were regarded
as unnecessary to ascertain certain truths – in other words, "there are
significant ways in which our concepts and knowledge are gained independently
of sense experience"
§ Constructivism
·
all "knowledge is a
compilation of human-made constructions"
·
Whereas objectivism is
concerned with the "object of our knowledge", constructivism
emphasizes "how we construct knowledge".[50]
Constructivism proposes new definitions for knowledge
and truth that form a new paradigm,
based on inter-subjectivity instead of the classical objectivity, and on viability
instead of truth.
·
Piagetian constructivism,
however, believes in objectivity (cognitivism) — constructs can be validated
through experimentation
o
Schema
·
Social constructivism –
Vygotsky - rejected the assumption made by cognitivists such as Piaget and
Perry that it was possible to separate learning from its social context.
o
emphasized the role of language
and culture in cognitive development.
o
Scaffolding
·
Ontology
o
The compound word ontology
combines onto-,
from the Greek
ὄν,
on (gen. ὄντος,
ontos), i.e. "being; that which is",
o
Nature of knowledge
o
the philosophical
study of being
o
deals with questions concerning
what entities exist or may be said to exist and how such
entities may be grouped, related within a hierarchy,
and subdivided according to similarities and differences
o
all nouns (including abstract nouns) refer to existent entities
o
Principal
questions of ontology include:[citation needed]
§ "What can be said to exist?"
§ "What is a thing?"[7]
§ "Into what categories, if any, can we sort
existing things?"
§ "What are the meanings of being?"
§ "What are the various modes of being of entities?"
o
One common approach involves
dividing the extant subjects and predicates into groups called categories
o
René
Descartes, with je pense donc je suis
or cogito
ergo sum or "I think, therefore I am", argued that
"the self" is something that we can know exists with epistemological certainty
o
What did people mean when they
said "A is B", "A must be B", "A was B"...?
2. Systems
·
The term "system"
comes from the Latin word systēma,
in turn from Greek
σύστημα systēma: "whole concept made of several parts or members,
system", literary "composition"
·
a set of things working
together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network; a complex
whole.
·
a set of principles or
procedures according to which something is done; an organized scheme or method.
·
a regularly interacting or
interdependent group of units forming an integrated whole.
o
Every system is delineated by
its spatial and temporal boundaries, surrounded and influenced by its
environment, described by its structure and purpose and expressed in its
functioning.
·
It is important not to confuse
these abstract definitions.
o
Natural systems subatomic
systems, living systems, the solar system, galaxies,
and the Universe.
o
Artificial systems include our
physical structures, hybrids of natural and artificial systems, and conceptual
knowledge.
§ The human elements of organization and functions are emphasized with
their relevant abstract systems and representations.
§ A cardinal consideration in making distinctions among systems is to
determine how much freedom the system has to select its purpose, goals,
methods, tools, etc. and how wide is the freedom to select itself as
distributed or concentrated.
·
A cultural system may be
defined as the interaction of different elements of culture.
o
While a cultural system is
quite different from a social
system, sometimes both together are referred to as a
"sociocultural system".
o
A major concern of the social
sciences is the problem
of order.
·
Theoretical framework
o
Most systems are open systems,
exchanging matter and energy with its surroundings; like a car, a coffeemaker,
or Earth.
o
A closed system exchanges
energy, but not matter, with its environment; like a computer.
o
An isolated system exchanges
neither matter nor energy with its environment. A theoretical example of such
system is the Universe.
·
Environment and boundaries
o
One scopes
a system by defining its boundary; this means choosing which
entities are inside the system and which are outside—part of the environment.
o
One can
make simplified representations (models) of the system in order to
understand it and to predict or impact its future behavior.
·
Application
of the system concept
o
Systems
modeling is generally a basic principle in engineering and in social sciences.
o
The system
is the representation of the entities under concern.
o
Hence
inclusion to or exclusion from system context is dependent on the intention of
the modeler.
3. Agro-ecology
·
Agroecologists do not always agree about what agro-ecology is or
should be in the long-term.
o
Different definitions of the term agro-ecology can be distinguished
largely by the specificity with which one defines the term “ecology,” as well
as the term’s potential political connotations.
o
Definitions of agro-ecology, therefore, may be first grouped
according to the specific contexts within which they situate agriculture.
·
Agro-ecology is defined by the OECD - “the study of the
relation of agricultural crops and environment.”
o
This definition refers to the
"-ecology" part of "agro-ecology" narrowly as the natural
environment.
o
Following this definition, an
agroecologist would study agriculture's various relationships with soil health,
water quality, air quality, meso- and micro-fauna, surrounding flora,
environmental toxins, and other environmental contexts.
·
Dalgaard et al. – agro-ecology is the
study of the interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment
within agricultural systems.
o
Consequently, agro-ecology is
inherently multidisciplinary, including factors from agronomy, ecology,
sociology and economics.
§ In this case, the “-ecology” portion of "agro-ecology is
defined broadly to include social, cultural, and economic contexts as well.
·
Agroecology is also defined differently according to geographic
location.
o
In the global south, the term
often carries overtly political connotations.
o
Such political definitions of
the term usually ascribe to it the goals of social and economic justice;
special attention, in this case, is often paid to the traditional farming
knowledge of indigenous populations
o
North American and European
uses of the term sometimes avoid the inclusion of such overtly political goals.
§ In these cases, agro-ecology is seen more strictly as a scientific
discipline with less specific social goals.
·
The study of ecological
processes applied to agricultural production systems.
·
Bringing ecological
principles to bear in agroecosystems can suggest novel management approaches
that would not otherwise be considered.
·
Agro-ecology provides an
interdisciplinary framework with which to study the activity of agriculture.
o
In this framework, agriculture
does not exist as an isolated entity, but as part of an ecology of contexts.
o
Agro-ecology draws upon basic
ecological principles for its conceptual framework.
·
Agro-ecological
strategy
o
Agroecologists
study a variety of agroecosystems, and the field of agro-ecology is not
associated with any one particular method of farming, whether it be organic,
conventional, intensive or extensive.
o
Furthermore,
it is not defined by certain management practices, such as the use of natural
enemies in place of insecticides, or polyculture in place of monoculture.
o
Do not
unanimously oppose technology or inputs in agriculture but instead assess how,
when, and if technology can be used in conjunction with natural, social and
human assets
o
Proposes a
context- or site-specific manner of studying agroecosystems, and as such, it
recognizes that there is no universal formula or recipe for the success and
maximum well-being of an agroecosystem.
o
May study
questions related to the four system properties of agroecosystems:
productivity, stability, sustainability and equitability
o
As opposed
to disciplines that are concerned with only one or some of these properties,
agroecologists see all four properties as interconnected and integral to the success
of an agroecosystem.
o
Recognizing
that these properties are found on varying spatial scales, agroecologists do
not limit themselves to the study of agroecosystems at any one scale: farm,
community, or global.
o
Agroecologists
study these four properties through an interdisciplinary lens, using natural
sciences to understand elements of agroecosystems such as soil properties and
plant-insect interactions, as well as using social sciences to understand the
effects of farming practices on rural communities, economic constraints to
developing new production methods, or cultural factors determining farming
practices.
·
Ecosystems
agro-ecology
o
Driven by
the ecosystems biology of Eugene Odum.
o
Based in
the hypotheses that the natural systems, with its stability and resilience,
provide the best model to mimic if sustainability is the goal.
o
Normally,
ecosystems agro-ecology is not actively involved in social science; however,
this school is essentially based on the belief that large-scale agriculture is
inappropriate. The work of Steve Gliessman is prototypical of this approach.
·
Agronomic
ecology
o
Chuck
Francis, Richard Hardwood, Ricardo Salvador, and Matt Liebman are exemplars of
this approach
o
Basically
is derived mostly from agronomy, including the traditional agricultural
production sciences.
o
This
approach also does not actively involve social sciences in the agro-ecological
analysis, but uses social sciences to understand the processes by which
agriculture became unsustainable.
o
Miguel
Altieri (ecosystem biologist), John Vandermeer (population ecologist), Richard
Lewontin, and Richard Levins provide examples of this politically charged and
socially-oriented version of agro-ecology
o
The
driving force behind this form of agro-ecology is a political-economical
critique of modern agriculture.
o
Believes
that only radical changes in political economy and the moral economy of
research will reduce the negative costs of modern agriculture.
·
Agro-population
ecology
o
David
Andow and Alison Power are cited as examples of professionals espousing this
view
o
This
approach is derived from the science of ecology primarily based on population
ecology, which over the past three decades has been displacing the ecosystems
biology of Odum. Buttel explains the main difference between the two
categories, saying that “the application of population ecology to agro-ecology
involves the primacy not only of analyzing agroecosystems from the perspective
of the population dynamics of their constituent species, and their
relationships to climate and biogeochemistry, but also there is a major
emphasis placed on the role of genetics.”
o
This approach
focuses on the multi-functionality of the landscape, instead of focusing solely
on the agricultural enterprise.
o
Agriculture
and the food system are considered parts of an institutional complex that
relates to and integrates with other social institutions.
o
Scholars
adopting this highly integrated approach, mostly Europeans, do not consider any
one discipline the leader of agro-ecology.
·
Holon
agro-ecology
o
First
introduced in 2007 by the soil scientist William T. Bland and the environmental
sociologist Michael M. Bell of the University of Wisconsin–Madison
o
Draws on
Koestler's notion of a "holon" which is both part and whole and
develops it with ideas of narrative, intentionality, and incompleteness or
un-finalizability, within an ever-changing "ecology of contexts".
o
In
contrast to systems thinking, holon agroecology stresses seeing the
agricultural endeavor as an unfinished accomplishment that is constantly
adjusting itself to its many contexts and their conflicts and
incommensurabilities.
o
Represents
a kind of "holding together" in order to persist through change, but
a holding together that is never fully unified and worked out.
·
Applications
of agro-ecology
o
An
agroecologist would first seek to understand the contexts in which the farm(s)
is(are) involved.
o
Each farm
may be inserted in a unique combination of factors or contexts.
o
Each
farmer may have their own premises about the meanings of an agricultural
endeavor, and these meanings might be different than those of agroecologists.
o
Generally,
farmers seek a configuration that is viable in multiple contexts, such as
family, financial, technical, political, logistical, market, environmental,
spiritual.
o
Agroecologists
want to understand the behavior of those who seek livelihoods from plant and
animal increase, acknowledging the organization and planning that is required
to run a farm.
4. Intervention
·
Intervening – why, where, when
and how?
·
A
combination of program elements or strategies designed to produce behavior
changes or improve the status among individuals or an entire population.
·
May
include educational programs, new or stronger policies, improvements in the
environment, or a health promotion campaign.
·
Multiple
strategies are typically the most effective in producing desired and lasting
change because of the potential to reach a larger number of people in a variety
of ways.
·
May be
implemented in different settings including communities, worksites,
schools, health care organizations, faith-based organizations or in the home.
·
Evidence
has shown that interventions create change by:
o
influencing
individuals’ knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and skills;
o
increasing
social support; and
o
creating
supportive environments, policies and resources.
Interventionism
- The theory of interventionism examines the nature and justifications of interfering with another polity (that is, political organization) or with choices made by individuals.
- Characterized by the use or threat of force or coercion to alter a political or cultural situation nominally outside the intervenor's moral or political jurisdiction.
- Thus as an aspect of political philosophy, it can also be extended to interventions in others' cultures, religions, lifestyles, and economic activities--and thus can fit into applied ethics, covering such issues as paternalism, imperialism, and topics in business, medical, and environmental ethics.
- The context of interventionism requires an epistemological consideration
- Could involve interventions in the lives of individuals; that essentially it does not matter whether the individuals are part of one's political entity or belonging to another--interventionism applies solely to individuals - will focus on issues that infringe or attempt to alter individuals' rights or choices
- A methodological holist on the other hand will identify the object of interventionism as groups--cultural, political, religious, national, and so on - draw attention to issues affecting groups and their identities.
- Methodological compatibilism holds that interventions do affect individual rights or choices but individuals also identify themselves with groups who can also be separately affected by interference.
- For example, demanding that all female bank employees wear blue dresses affects the individual's choice of clothes in the workplace but also interferes with the banking corporation's right to determine its own standard of dress.
- Reasoning includes all forms of rhetoric, example, persuasion, exhortation, counselling, discourse, and so on.
Arguments for
Interventionism
- Utilitarian or consequentialist prescriptions are open-ended: they could support interventions either generally or in particular circumstances, depending on expected results.
- Other positions offer more principled cases for interventionism, for example on epistemological grounds, political realism or rights analyses.
- Epistemological Reasons
- Intervening can be justified on grounds of the government possessing better knowledge than individual agents, or from paternalistic reasons, which presume the target agents are incapable of making informed choices themselves.
- Political Realism
- Political realism is defined by the primacy of national interest in international affairs.
- This can be viewed as either a moral duty or as a description of the ruling state of affairs.
- Policy prescriptions involve pursuing interventions as they benefit the national interest.
- The theory implies that states should be left alone to seek and to defend their own interests.
- In the realist tradition, of which there are many shades, such supporters include Thucydides, Machiavelli, and Hobbes.
- Political realism offers a broad interventionist doctrine that can justify intervening for reasons of economic profit as well as for balance of power considerations.
Realism, also known
as political realism, is a view of international politics that stresses its
competitive and conflictual side. It is usually contrasted with idealism or
liberalism, which tends to emphasize cooperation. Realists consider the
principal actors in the international arena to be states, which are concerned
with their own security, act in pursuit of their own national interests, and
struggle for power. The negative side of the realists’ emphasis on power and
self-interest is often their skepticism regarding the relevance of ethical
norms to relations among states. National politics is the realm of authority
and law, whereas international politics, they sometimes claim, is a sphere
without justice, characterized by active or potential conflict among states.
Not all realists,
however, deny the presence of ethics in international relations. The
distinction should be drawn between classical realism—represented by such
twentieth-century theorists as Reinhold Niebuhr and Hans Morgenthau—and radical
or extreme realism. While classical realism emphasizes the concept of national
interest, it is not the Machiavellian doctrine “that anything is justified by
reason of state” (Bull 1995, 189). Nor does it involve the glorification of war
or conflict. The classical realists do not reject the possibility of moral
judgment in international politics. Rather, they are critical of
moralism—abstract moral discourse that does not take into account political
realities. They assign supreme value to successful political action based on
prudence: the ability to judge the rightness of a given action from among
possible alternatives on the basis of its likely political consequences.
- Rights Theories
- Some claim that rights only pertain to individuals, and that nations and governments only acquire any rights or privileges by virtue of the civilians giving them power.
- Rights theorists thus argue that individual rights supersede or 'trump' the rights or privileges of governments.
- On this basis, interventions in support of rights are morally justifiable.
Non-Interventionist
Doctrines
- Non-interventionism is the theory that one does not have any moral justification in intervening in others' affairs.
- On a rights based analysis, or from Kantian considerations of duty, this may be considered an absolutist prohibition on the grounds that it either violates others' rights to freedom or respect due them as individual moral entities.
Legal Positivism
and Non-Interventionism
- In the international sphere, legal positivists are commonly non-interventionists. Legal positivists, following Christian Wolff (1679-1754), argue that nation states possess absolute rights to political sovereignty and territorial integrity, which implies that national borders be inviolable.
5. Assignment
Identify
an agricultural community (preferably your own or where you might carry out
your research or where you might apply interventions) and determine in that
community:
1.
Knowledge Systems
2.
Agro-ecological approaches
3.
Epistemology
4.
Ontology
5.
Interventions, and how they
were approached
One
page (not more than two pages) on each might be enough.
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