IK Monitor Calls (8-2)

Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor, July 2000

Contents IK Monitor (8-2) | IKDM Homepage | Suggestions to: ikdm@nuffic.nl | © copyright Nuffic-CIRAN and contributors 2000.

Calls

- Call for papers

- Call for research assistance

- Calls for participation

- Call for proposals

FOR PAPERS

Geoderma special publication on ethnopedology
Geoderma, the International Journal of Soil Science is preparing a special publication on ethnopedology entitled 'Local soil knowledge: Insights, applications and challenges'. Guest editors are:

A..M.G.A. WinklerPrins, Michigan State University (coordinating guest editor)
J. Sandor, Iowa State University (guest editor)
N. Barrera-Bassols, Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico (guest editor)
and K. McSweeney, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Geoderma, editorial board).

We invite contributions from authors working creatively and innovatively on the topic, especially those concentrating on efforts to:

contribute original research in the field of local soil knowledge/ethnopedology;
link local knowledge of the soil with socio-economic, political, and/or historical contexts;
focus on the ideas and concepts underlying soil knowledge;
seek ways of integrating local and scientific soil knowledge;
broaden local soil knowledge to include related areas such as geomorphic processes and the soil landscape; and also perspectives from archaeology, anthropology, geography, ecology, and other fields;
explore local soil knowledge in relation to sustainable land-use;
connect local soil knowledge with soil fertility maintenance and soil and water conservation;
investigate local perceptions of soil erosion and/or degradation;
connect local knowledge of soil micro-variability with crop diversity.

Deadline for submission is Wednesday 18 October 2000. Regular Geoderma guidelines must be followed and articles will be subject to the regular Geoderma peer review process.

Please send manuscripts to: Antoinette WinklerPrins, Department of Geography, Michigan State University, 315 Natural Science, East Lansing, MI 48824-1115 USA.
E-mail: antoinet@msu.edu

Please note:
Please inform Dr WinklerPrins by 15 August 2000 if you are planning to submit a manuscript and include the topic or tentative title.

FOR RESEARCH ASSISTANCE

Introducing IK and community development into the curriculum
At present I am working on a (PhD) research proposal on the introduction of indigenous knowledge and community development aspects into the formal curriculum of (secondary) schools. I would like to come in contact with researchers or institutions who have experience in this field or who would like to become involved or to volunteer advice.

The main objectives of my research are:

to find out more about indigenous ways of learning and teaching;
to design and assess a method (or methods) which could be used by communities themselves (students, parents, teachers)
to integrate community and cultural responsive knowledge into the curriculum of the school in their own community.

My own professional experience in this field has been amongst the Amerindians in the hinterland of Guyana as an educator and community development worker (since 1991). A possible research area could be the North Rupununi Savannah (close to the Iwokrama International Rainforest Programme site) and/or other indigenous villages in the Guianas.

You can contact me by e-mail: rvdongen@networksgy.com or write to René van Dongen, 128C Carmichael Street, South Cummingsburg, Georgetown, Guyana, South America.

FOR PARTICIPATION

Health information for development
There are many health information resource centres throughout the world. How many? What do these centres do? What are their policies and aspirations? Where do they get their information and what do they do with it? What technology do they use-the options include voice, pencil, pen, typewriter to computer, CD-ROM, scanner, printer and modem-and what training have they received in this technology? Are they engaged in translating and republishing information? To what extent do they originate their own information? All of these questions have been impossible to answer on any large scale to date, mainly because the typical health information resource centre operates pretty much alone and in isolation of other centres.

The Health information for development project was launched in January 2000, and aims to compile a Global directory of health information resource centers by August 2000, working with a wide range of partners throughout the world. Funding for this project has been provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Children's Vaccine Program at PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health). This is a philantropic, public domain project. Apart from a desciption of each centre, the Directory will include a clear indication of the real needs of all the centres.

Health information resource centres are called to participate in this project by filling in a questionnaire (available at the address below). The Health information for development project is seen as the first phase of the much larger Information waystations and staging posts project, which aims to establish a global network of 1000 health information resource centres that will provide locally appropriate content on health issues. Funding is currently being sought for this five-year project. In the second phase, thus, selected resource centres will be upgraded into 'information waystations'. An information waystation is a local point of access to health information received electronically. In the third phase, some information waystations will be selected for upgrading into 'staging posts'. Staging posts will act as 'relay stations', translating and adapting information materials in order to make them locally appropriate, making use of formal and non-formal/indigenous local information in a two-way flow.

For more information, contact: Chris Zielinski, Director, Health Information for Development Project, P.O. Box 40, Petersfield, Hants GU32 2YH, UK.
Fax: +44-1730- 265 398.
E-mail: dvt@compuserve.com
http://www.iwsp.org

International competition for scouting grassroots innovations
SRISTI and Honey Bee Network announce the Second International Competition for scouting Grassroots Innovations in survival technologies, institutions and education 2001.

The award winning entries will be published in the Honey Bee Newsletter, included in the Knowledge Network on Sustainable technologies and Institutions, Multimedia multi-language database on Grassroots Innovations keeping intellectual property rights of innovators intact, and the awardees will be invited to the Honey Bee network meeting in India in February, 2001.

Anyone who has come across innovations attempted by farmers, artisans, fishermen and women, slum dwellers, workshop mechanics, primary or secondary school teachers, local communities in managing natural resources, biodiversity, developing new farm implements, herbal pesticides, curing diseases, building houses, reviving culture, enrolling children or improving primary educational performance, or any other field of human knowledge, survival and livelihood may participate.

How to participate:
Please send your entry on plain paper providing genesis of innovation, background of innovation, name(s) of innovator/s, origin of idea to SRISTI or to the coordinator at the address below. If possible, please add photographs, drawings, videos and any other information that may help in replicating the innovation by communities or individuals globally.

Where to send the entries?
SRISTI, P.O. Box 15050, Ambavadi, Ahmedabad 38015, India.
Or: Professor Anil K Gupta, Coordinator, SRISTI and Honey Bee network, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad 380015, India.
E-mail: Anilg@sristi.org or: honeybee@iimahd.ernet.in

FOR PROPOSALS

Grants for field research in indigenous knowledge
The Center for Field Research (CFR) invites proposals for field research in indigenous knowledge. CFR is the programme development arm of Earthwatch Institute, a private, nonprofit organization established in 1973 to promote significant scholarship and to improve communication between scholars and the public through participant funding.

All field grant awards are derived from funds contributed by volunteer participants on the research team who are members of Earthwatch. These volunteers are qualified non-specialists, recruited and screened according to your needs. To date, Earthwatch Institute has supported over 1000 research expeditions in 118 countries with more than 50,000 volunteers contributing USD 37 million to scholarship. Examples of projects funded to date have used volunteers to:

chronicle the use and knowledge of medicinal plants in Argentina, Brazil, Kenya and India;
map villages for sampling purposes in Peru;
follow and record the activities of villagers in northern Cameroon for use in the estimation of energy expenditure patterns;
interview farmers in the Caribbean to collect income and expenditure data in order to assess the impact of cash cropping on home consumption patterns for a farming systems research project;
collect potato cultivars in the Andean highlands and interview farmers about their tuber storage and cultivation practices;
document indigenous methods of amaranth cultivation and use in eastern Nepal;
chronicle natural resource use at the household level in Kerala, India;
collect information on traditional pest management techniques known by small scale farmers in India.

Grants average USD 20,000 per year, and projects average three years of support. A typical project would employ 4 to 8 volunteers each on 3 to 5 sequential teams. Teams normally spend two weeks in the field. Shorter and longer terms are encouraged where appropriate as are larger or smaller teams. Preliminary proposals should be submitted at least one year in advance of anticipated field dates. Full proposals are invited upon review of preliminary materials and are peer reviewed. Proposals are accepted and reviewed year round.

For more information, or to discuss your research goals and their appropriateness for Earthwatch funding, please contact Dr Creighton Peet, Program Director for Social Sciences, Center for Field Research, P.O. Box 75, Maynard, MA 01754, USA.
Fax: +1-978-461 2332.
E-mail: cpeet@earthwatch.org
http://www.earthwatch.org/cfr/cfr.html