The Practical Politics of Knowing

State Environmental Knowledge and Local Political Economy

Bibliographic Data

ID4040952
AuthorsPaul Robbins (0000-0002-2818-4732, The Ohio State University, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume76
Issue2
Pages126-144
Publication date2000-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEconomic Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0095 • E-ISSN: 1944-8287
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1944-8287.2000.tb00137.x
OpenAlexW2005829641
LanguageEN
Citations received140
References cited44

Study of local environmental knowledge has led to a general critique of state epistemology, positing a controlling, official knowledge that crushes competing accounts of nature. Skeptical of that claim, in this paper I assess the differences between state and local knowledge empirically, using a case study of the Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary in Rajasthan, India, to explore the way knowledge varies across class, caste, gender, and affiliation within the state forest bureaucracy. The results show that state versus local knowing is not the most meaningful division in epistemology, and that it is the daily struggle over resources in local political economy that gives rise to contending accounts of nature and environmental change. The conclusions further point to knowledge alliances between state and local actors that render certain claims powerful and so determine natural resource management policy and direct landscape change

Bureaucracy · Caste · Economic system · Economics · Epistemology · Knowledge economy · Local government · Natural resource · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Resource (disambiguation) · Skepticism · Sociology · State (computer science) · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Computer Science · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Law · Public Administration · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

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