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Relationships between knowledge(s): implications for ‘knowledge integration’

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Abstract

This article contributes to a critical dialogue about what is currently called ‘knowledge integration’ in environmental research and related educational programming. Indigenous understandings in particular are seen as offering (re)new(ed) ways of thinking that have and will lead to innovative practices for addressing complex environmental issues. A conceptual review of the perceived relationships between ‘Indigenous Knowledge’ and ‘science’ includes just one not others, degrees of separation and a hierarchy. Each of these concepts has implications for how we think about knowledge integration. I frame this critical commentary within my experiences as a non-indigenous student researcher in an Indigenous Studies PhD program. The review offers a guide for communities, students, educators and others who are interested in negotiating the literature on knowledge integration. After distinguishing between informative and decisive integration, I establish the need for an alternate approach to thinking about the processes of informative integration. The article concludes with several notions, including knowledge constellations and simultaneity-based thinking, which invite a reconceptualization of the relationship between knowledge(s). Such an alternative approach has the potential to bring greater clarity about processes that will be more consistently effective for generating new insights and solutions based on multiple, including indigenous, knowledges.

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Notes

  1. Nyá:wen kò:wa is Kanyen’ké:ha (Mohawk language), chi miigwech is Anishinaabemowin (Ojibway language) and danke schön is Deutsch from diutisc, the language of the (German) people. These are ways of giving thanks in the languages of those Nations who have responsibilities in the territory where I live and also in the language of my ancestors.

  2. Both Eisler and bell hooks (2010) refer to a ‘dominator’ model in which “human hierarchies are ultimately backed up by force or the threat of force” (Eisler 1988, p. xix). Please see these references as well as Mohawk (2000), “Transforming the Dominator Society” in Milbraith (1989, pp. 39–57) and Freire ((1970) 2009) for more detail which is beyond the scope of this article. Freire in particular understands domination or oppression as “death-affirming” (68) and articulates a process of dialogue and co-created learning with the effect of loving and creating life (171). In spite of his focus on the human world, I appreciate Freire’s insights about the effects of domination on both dominators and dominated.

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to my teachers, colleagues and students for their contributions to the development of this thinking. I want to particularly thank Elders Henry Lickers (Shotinontowane’á:ka, Turtle Clan), Jim Onaubinisay Dumont (Anishinaabe, Waubezhayshee Dodem), Doug Kitiga Migizi Williams, (Anishinaabe, Pike Dodem) and Diane Kahontakwas Longboat (Kanyen’kehá:ka, Turtle Clan); professors Chris Furgal, Dan Roronhiakewen Longboat (Kanyen’kehá:ka, Turtle Clan) and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg, Gidigaa Bzhiw Dodem); the members of our bi-weekly research group; and my husband for your thinking and encouragement. Thank you to the editor of this issue, Nancy Rich, who, along with the anonymous reviewers, offered critical comments. Finally, I wish to acknowledge the financial support I have received through the Vanier Canada and Ontario Graduate Scholarship programs as well as Trent University.

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  1. Indigenous Studies PhD Program, First Peoples’ House of Learning, Trent University, 1600 West Bank Drive, Peterborough, ON, Canada, K9J 7B8

    Brigitte Evering

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Evering, B. Relationships between knowledge(s): implications for ‘knowledge integration’. J Environ Stud Sci 2, 357–368 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-012-0093-9

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