Problematizing ‘Knowledge‐for‐Development’

This article argues that measures designed to improve the availability and accessibility of information as a key strategy to facilitate development have become ends in themselves, de‐linked from their potential to have an impact on Southern knowledge systems that may lead to improved development outcomes. The production and dissemination of ever‐greater volumes of information in response to concerns about the uneven availability of information, particularly for individuals and intermediaries based in the global South, are unable to address the persistent problem of the fragmentation of knowledge systems that result from knowledge for development (K4D) initiatives in which information and knowledge are treated as isolated entities. The article presents the findings of a study into the K4D practices of a network of women/gender information intermediaries. It reveals that attempts to strengthen Southern knowledge systems are forestalled by efforts that merely improve the supply of information rather than engaging with knowledge processes in their entirety, thus limiting their potential to promote improved development outcomes. Proxy measures of success are used that fail to challenge the typically neoliberal underpinnings of the dominant knowledge infrastructure. The author concludes that, if knowledge‐based development interventions are to be made more effective, K4D stakeholders need to find ways to engage not just with the supply but with the demand for information, as part of broader efforts to strengthen entire knowledge systems in ways that take account of concerns around hegemony.     

Combined pollen and macrofossil data as a source for reconstructing mosaic patterns of the early medieval urban habitats – a case study from Gdańsk,N. Poland

Plant macrofossils, pollen, fungal spores and other non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs), were analyzed in three archaeological exposures established in a small area in the oldest part of the historic city of Gdańsk. One of the aims was to investigate how precisely the combined pollen and macrofossil data may reflect the diversity of local habitats within an urban archaeological site and to compare the range of information obtained using each of the methods separately. The other aim of the study was to reconstruct the environmental conditions in the earliest occupied area of the historic centre of Gdańsk. The repeatable composition and, in many points, consistency among pollen and macrofossil data in all three profiles strongly suggest that the apparently biased structure of these fossil remains in fact reflects a mosaic pattern of the vegetation in the area of the site. The combined pollen and macrofossil data enabled separation of local elements from those transported to the site by different means. The results show that already at the beginning of the 12th c., the area was almost totally deforested, but up to the mid-13th c. the settlement organization was still relatively loose, resembling a rather rural structure with well-developed ruderal plant communities and patches of semi-natural vegetation. At the coring area, strongly eutrophic riparian vegetation was bordering patches of dry grassland on a sandy holm. The large proportion of pollen of various entomophilous plants mostly from meadows and pastures is explained as a result of the presence of dung, as confirmed by the abundances of coprophilous fungal spores. The study indicates that parallel pollen and macrofossil analysis is essential for correct interpretation of fossil assemblages. Application of both methods enables broadening of the range of remains representing various organisms and obtaining more precise tools for environmental reconstruction and better understanding of the taphonomic processes at the archaeological site.     

Integration Processes in European Research and Development: A Comparative Spatial Interaction Approach Using Project Based Research and Development Networks,Co‐Patent Networks and Co‐Publication Networks

This study focuses on integration processes in European Research and Development (R&D) by analyzing the spatiotemporal dimension of three different R&D collaboration networks across Europe. The studied networks cover different types of knowledge creation, namely project‐based R&D networks within the European Union (EU) Framework Programmes (FPs), co‐patent networks, and co‐publication networks. Integration in European R&D—one of the main pillars of the EU Science Technology and Innovation policy—refers to the harmonization of fragmented national research systems across Europe and to the free movement of knowledge and researchers. The objective is to describe and compare spatiotemporal patterns at a regional level and to estimate the evolution of separation effects over the time period 1999–2006 that influence the probability of cross‐region collaborations in the distinct networks under consideration. The study adopts a spatial interaction modeling perspective, econometrically specifying a panel generalized linear model relationship, taking into account spatial autocorrelation among flows using eigenfunction spatial filtering methods. The results show that geographical factors are a lower hurdle for R&D collaborations in the FP networks than in co‐patent networks and co‐publication networks. Furthermore, it is shown that the geographical integration is higher in the FP network.     

Book reviews

CHINA

BOB HODGE and KAM LOUIE. The Politics of Chinese Language and Culture: the Art of Reading Dragons. London: Routledge, 1998. A$150.00, hardcover; A$52.95, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

LEWIS R. LANCASTER and RICHARD K. PAYNE (eds). Religion and Society in Contemporary Korea. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1997. 282 pp. Preface, index. $US20.00, paper.

DOH C. SHIN. Mass Politics and Culture in Democratizing Korea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. A$90.00, hardcover; A$34.95, paper.

GEIR HELGESEN. Democracy and Authority in Korea: the Cultural Dimension in Korean Politics. Richmond: Curzon Press, 1998. £40.00, hardcover.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

J. E. LLEWELLYN. The Legacy of Women's Uplift in India. Contemporary Women Leaders in the Arya Samaj. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998. 224 pp. Rs325, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

R. E. ELSON. The End of the Peasantry in Southeast Asia: a Social and Economic History of Peasant Livelihood, 1800‐1990s. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan Press, 1997. xxvii, 335 pp. Tables, abbreviations, glossary, index. A$49.95, paper.

GENERAL ASIA

JAMES W. MORLEY (ed). Driven by Growth: political Change in the Asia-Pacific Region. Revised Edition. Armonk, New York; London, England: M. E. Sharpe, 1999. 393 pp. Preface, tables, figures, bibliography, index. US$24.95, paper.