On the other end of research: exploring community-level knowledge exchanges in small-scale fisheries in Zanzibar

Abstract

Sustainability science has increasingly adopted more action-oriented approaches in an attempt to mobilise and implement a broad knowledge base to sustain human wellbeing and promote sustainable development. There is an increasing recognition of the importance of knowledge exchange (KE) between scientists and end users of research for enhancing social, environmental and economic impacts of research. Here, we explore the process of KE through close observation of two cases of KE between external PhD researchers and local actors in small-scale fisheries at the community level in Zanzibar, Tanzania. First, we address context by examining perceptions of research held by actors at community level and patterns of interactions and flows of benefits between external researchers and local actors including fisheries managers, local research institute as well as fishers and traders. Second, we unpack experiences of actors engaged in the cases of KE. The study draws attention to KE processes in the Global South and actors outside decision-making processes in fisheries management. The study concludes that as KE is a complex and dynamic process and that (i) history and relationships between actors shape the outcomes of KE, (ii) KE includes more than knowledge-based processes and outcomes because multiple incentives of different actors shape KE and how it is experiences and (iii) knowledge-based outcomes of KE are complex and unpredictable as different actors create their own meaning from shared information. The results exemplify the inevitably complex and unpredictable nature of KE processes and their outcomes, and provide insight into how KE can contribute to science-society relationships.

Lessons from bright-spots for advancing knowledge exchange at the interface of marine science and policy

“…This relates to the notion of social capital as a "set of values and relationships created by individuals in the past that can be drawn on in the present and future to facilitate overcoming social dilemmas" (Ahn and Ostrom, 2002, p.3). Our study participants indicated that KE particularly benefited from pre-existing relationships, which corroborates the value of history (e.g., individual experiences, social capital and trust) around KE (Hakkarainen et al, 2020;Karcher et al, in review).…”

Considerations for early career conservation researchers seeking to engage across communities and cultures

“…At organisational levels, they can connect science to practice and improve high level knowledge exchange (Summers and Kriwoken 2015). At a community level they can increase the trust a community has in a researcher (Lacey et al 2018), communicate research processes and outcomes in formats much more relevant and attractive for the community, and provide access to practical knowledge around the local context (Campbell et al 2006;Hakkarainen et al 2020).…”

“…In the Global South, the term boundary spanner is often synonymous with extension officer/worker, gatekeeper or intermediary (Hakkarainen et al 2020;Mcleod et al 2019). While there are clear and nuanced differences in how these roles operate, they share a common function as facilitators of, and conduits for, knowledge exchange between insiders and outsiders.…”

“…The importance of this approach has been acknowledged in recent literature (Tengö et al 2017;Cisternas et al 2019), but a greater and more practical focus is warranted in the Global South, 1 particularly in Pacific Island Countries (PICs) where climate change and other anthropogenic stressors are being disproportionally felt (IPCC 2014(IPCC , 2018. This is not because conservation researchers and practitioners are not based in, or active in the Global South (Hakkarainen et al 2020;Mcleod et al 2019;Rayne et al 2020) but the nature of funding, resources and established academic institutions mean that researchers from the Global North are in the privileged position of being able to travel and work with communities, practitioners and researchers in other parts of the world.…”

Looking up and down: Strong collaboration is only the first step in tackling parachute science

“…The growing awareness of colonial legacies has generated a critical literature on how applied science in the so‐called “developing” world should be conducted (Escobar, 1995; Matsumoto & van de Vijver, 2011). Anthropologists, for example, directly scrutinize the inherent problems associated with fieldworkers hailing from abroad as in “helicopter” anthropology, (Broesch et al, 2020), and conservation scientists explore the powers of citizen and community science in research and monitoring (e.g., Danielsen et al, 2008; Dillon et al, 2016; Hakkarainen et al, 2020).…”