Abstract
In their book Local Knowledge Matters: Power, Context and Policymaking in Indonesia, Kharisma Nugroho, Fred Carden and Hans Antlov argue that incorporating local knowledge into decision-making enriches public policy processes. They draw on 10 place-based case studies from diverse contexts across Indonesia to demonstrate that not only does local knowledge matter for policymaking but also that it provides insights for policy in many different ways. Local knowledge comes in many forms, including ancient wisdom handed down through generations, local religious beliefs and practices and contemporary citizen knowledge based on everyday life experiences. These forms of knowledge can and should be recognized and legitimized to strengthen local policymaking, decision-making and democratic processes.
One of the clearest threads running through the book is a recognition of pluralism, both in knowledge and in policy processes. Not only does local knowledge take many different forms but policy processes are also complex, multifaceted and context-dependent. However, the focus on pluralism does not preclude a critical engagement of power dynamics: throughout the book, the authors identify the tensions between different knowledge forms (e.g., local indigenous knowledge vs. scientific or professional knowledge) and illustrate how there are inherent power dynamics at play in policy- and decision-making processes, which often disadvantage local knowledge. While the situated nature of local knowledge is made clear: ‘local knowledge is embedded in practice, action, morality and spirituality’ (p. 90), the authors manage to avoid exoticizing or romanticizing local knowledge, pointing out that ‘local knowledge is not, by definition, good or bad’ (p. 141). The authors do not shy away from contested issues like the normativity of local knowledge or the importance of personal ties and emotions in influencing knowledge-making and policy processes.
The book builds on, and is a product of, a process of supporting researchers and local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Indonesia to understand the role of local knowledge in policymaking better. The case studies span a range of contexts, including health, traditional finance and savings schemes, local water management and conservation, marine resource management, tourism, forest management, climate change and agriculture. The case descriptions are presented in an accessible and grounded way: the diversity of contexts from across Indonesia adds to the richness of the overall picture and supports the authors’ argument that local knowledge takes many forms. For example, in Aceh Besar, in the far northwest of Indonesia, mawah is a traditional profit-sharing system often applied on farms to share profit from cattle-keeping. Through local civic actions and advocacy, a more formalized mawah system has been created and is now being adopted in regional planning processes. In another example, in East Nusa Tenggara, after years of failed investment in large-scale water infrastructure, a local organization researched and mobilized local knowledge and wisdom to better understand people’s water management practices. Out of this work, 10 local wisdom-based principles for water management were distilled. These are now being incorporated into local water management policy processes to improve the design and uptake of water infrastructure developments. International readers should not be put off by the focus on Indonesia: the book is well positioned in the global context, the unique Indonesian context is carefully introduced, and the book’s relevance in other contexts is clear. The book makes an important contribution to a literature that is sometimes lacking in rigorous case-based insights from the Global South.
The strengths of the book, and of its core argument, lie in the deft weaving together of widely accepted philosophical and conceptual arguments for incorporating local knowledge into policy processes with grounded, empirical evidence from a wide range of case studies. The local stories are told with sufficient detail to be authentic, but not too much detail to put off a reader who may not be interested in the context itself. While the book does introduce and cite key bodies of academic literature on the topic, its focus remains practical and grounded, which will appeal to practitioners, policymakers and those interested in on-the-ground change processes. It thus provides a practical contribution to a field, which can err into conceptual and philosophical territory, disconnected from the real-world practice of local knowledge holders.
The structure of the book works well: the first few chapters introduce the core concepts of local knowledge, policy processes and democratic decision-making for local development. This locates the book in the literature, and it clearly lays out the authors’ position on local knowledge in a somewhat contested field. The middle, and possibly most interesting part of the book, introduces the 10 case studies, focusing on practical insights from cases which speak to the central question of local knowledge in policy processes. The book is drawn to a close with an analysis and synthesis. The authors draw out key insights from the cases about how local knowledge should be generated and managed, how it can practically be used in local policymaking and how a diversity of knowledge assets can enrich and strengthen public policy. I found the short format of the book (Policy Press Research Shorts) particularly appealing and suitable for the topic. The format made it realistic for me to be able to engage in both the theoretical and empirical contributions of the book, without trading one off for the other, which can happen with longer books.
I liked the book a lot: it was thorough without being long-winded, it was practical and grounded without being superficial or romantic (which can often happen in the local knowledge studies), and the synthesis was careful and insightful. As a new teaching academic looking for material to bring into the classroom, I found the book accessible (note: it is also available via Open Access) and interesting throughout. I will be using it in the classroom.
This book will appeal to a wide readership, from academics, to policy- and decisionmakers, to practitioners working in a range of local development fields. However, I think it will be of particular value to ‘pracademics’ and thoughtful practitioners: those working at the interface of research and practice, hungry for rigorous research grounded in rich local contexts and linked to the international discourse. I think the book is also well suited to those new to the field of local knowledge and policymaking processes in development studies, including students and interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners crossing the boundaries between sectors and disciplines. I was particularly struck by the potential usefulness of this book for global policy processes, such as the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which are shifting towards recognition of local and diverse forms of knowledge. Researchers and advisors working in this space have recognized the challenge of weaving together multiple forms of evidence to inform global policy processes (Tengö et al., 2017). The practical examples and recommendations of how various forms of knowledge can and should inform policy described in this book will be valuable even in the global policy arena.