Local Knowledge

Kristeen L. Pemberton

Local knowledge is generally defined as a community's shared understanding of its sociocultural, political, linguistic, economic, and intellectual relations across space and time, and the implications for the everyday regulating and rearranging of society. It is also described variously as knowledge that is place-based, situated, or regional. Local knowledge is what people use to construct meaning, so the ways of knowing generated and maintained within a given community or organization make up the members' social reality. Researchers attempting to understand social and cultural phenomena focus their attention on the actions that take place on a local level within the sphere of specific traditions, languages, and competencies. Arguments existing within the field of cultural anthropology influence how educators regard the role and usefulness of local knowledge. This entry provides an insight into the current debate and then compares and contrasts three forms of local knowledge with the aim of clarifying its ...

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