Notes on Traditional Knowledge, Modern Knowledge and Rural Development

  • Jeremy Swift
Volume 10 Number 2
Published: May 1, 1979
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1759-5436.1979.mp10002007.x
The body of knowledge, science and techniques used by rural people is well developed and can make an important contribution to development, but there is a conflict between it and modern knowledge. Modern knowledge is an instrument of power belonging to the technician. By emphasising the government agent's knowledge, development projects devalue traditional rural peoples' knowledge, and deny them creativity. We need new institutional ways of releasing the creative abilities of rural people in order to achieve a synthesis of traditional and modern knowledge.
From Issue: Vol. 10 No. 2 (1979) | Rural Development: Whose Knowledge Counts?