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Knowledge, Power and Sustainability in Contemporary Rural Europe
Author(s) -
Csurgó Bernadett,
Kovách Imre,
Kučerová Eva
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
sociologia ruralis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.005
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1467-9523
pISSN - 0038-0199
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9523.2008.00461.x
Subject(s) - sustainability , rural management , context (archaeology) , knowledge management , knowledge economy , sustainable development , business , social sustainability , negotiation , public relations , political science , sociology , social science , computer science , rural development , ecology , biology , paleontology , law , agriculture
This article looks at the evidence employed in the CORASON (the cognitive approach to rural sustainable development: the dynamics of expert and lay knowledge) research project of changing rural power relations in the context of sustainability and knowledge use in Europe. It explores what kinds of knowledge contribute to sustainable development in rural development projects and how they are created or empowered, according to the interest and capacity of the different actors involved. The article examines how actors interpret and negotiate the requirement of sustainability. It discusses how the idea and practice of sustainable development can build on local knowledge as a resource for generating activity and for commoditising local goods and service, looking at the potentials of sustainability projects for future rural development, the types of knowledge used in projects and their social sources, dynamics and social availability. It reviews the proliferating project form of management that locks actors into power relations connected to their capacity for knowledge use and discusses the pressure of urban demands on rural sustainability in the context of local autonomy. These issues are elaborated through a study of the interconnection of knowledge and power and the role of the actors in the creating and using knowledge. On the level of public policy, the authors identify the knowledge–power complex as an important factor of decision‐making in rural policy and develop a critique of rural policy for its inadequate attention to the interconnection between knowledge, power and interest.