Smith, Thomas Aneurin

At the crux of development?: local knowledge, participation, empowerment and environmental education in Tanzania.

Glasgow

2012

Glasgow, Univ., Ph.D., 2012

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Abstract: Development appears to have gone through a paradigm shift, from top-down, state-led projects to bottom-up, participatory schemes which seek to take account of local knowledges. Tanzania is a country which, like many others in the 'Global South', faces a myriad of interlinked environmental and development problems, particularly as much of the population's livelihood needs are deeply entwined with local environmental resources. Current environmental policies and conservation practise in Tanzania appear to reflect this new shift in development, and increasingly the Tanzanian state and a number of NGOs have aimed to increase the participation of local people in environmentally sustainable practices. Education about the environment, for both adults and young people, has become key to this approach in Tanzania since the 1990s. This thesis aims to explore the many practical and theoretical questions which remain about the suitability of participatory projects that utilise local knowledges, considering questions which are fundamentally at the heart of how development is and how it should be done, questions which are ultimately at the crux of development itself. Specifically, I aim to answer questions about how participants and communities can become 'empowered' through participatory initiatives, and to this end I investigate the important yet presently neglected role of young people. I further explore the nature of 'local knowledge', questioning its current use in development projects whilst seeking to re-conceptualise and re-orientate how 'local knowledge' is understood and employed. I utilise a qualitative and participatory methodology through three communities in Tanzania, each of which offers a contrasting picture of environmental issues throughout the country. I begin by exploring the current understandings of participation and local knowledges in development, and follow with an explanation of the methodological approach. The empirical chapters are then organised around three main themes: local knowledges, environmental education in Tanzania, and the role of participation in Tanzanian communities. The first of these chapters appraises the concept of 'local knowledge' critically by first comparing local and official discourses of the 'environment', assessing how far an attention to local knowledges has percolated into official environmental discourses in Tanzania. In light of local understandings of the environment encountered in these three communities, I consider how the current conceptual framework of local knowledge may be limiting our understanding of how these knowledges are constructed and communicated. The second empirical chapter examines environmental education projects in Tanzania, and from this I critically reflect on the role of NGOs and the state in local development. Through an analysis of environmental education, I consider how both local knowledge and participation agendas can be spatialised, in particular by understanding how formal and informal spaces of learning are constructed discursively in communities, and the implications this has for the outcomes of education projects. I go on to examine the notions of participation and community, exploring how participation and inclusion operate at different scales, including those beyond the local. I consider how the current conceptualisation of participation and community, derived from 'Western' ideals, can conflict with local understandings of responsibility, volunteerism, participation and community development. Through this, I question the 'community' as the necessary site of empowerment, and in particular here I draw attention to the role of young people and how their identities are reproduced at the community scale and beyond. Finally, I conclude by discussing the conceptual and practical application of local knowledge and participation in development in light of this critical appraisal. I consider the role of formal education more broadly in empowering young people, and I question the role of NGOs in the future of locally and nationally orientated development. I end with an examination of the ethics of the current development paradigm in light of the understandings of development uncovered by this study, many of which fundamentally challenge the way that participatory forms of development should be done.

Abstract
Acknowledgements
Table of contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Maps
List of Pictures

Chapter 1:Introduction
1.1 The introduction
1.2 Thesis outline

Chapter 2:Participation, local knowledge, and environmental education
2.1 The history of participatory development
2.2 Critiques of participation
2.2.1 The costs of participation
2.2.2 The meaning of participation
2.2.3 Power, empowerment, and community
2.2.4 Western values
2.2.5 Role of the State and NGOs
2.2.6 The outcomes of participatory projects
2.2.7 Participation and space
2.3 Local knowledge in development
2.3.1 A history of local knowledge in and before development
2.3.2 A critical approach to local knowledge
2.3.3 The methodological challenge
2.3.4 The contribution of Geography
2.3.5 The future of local knowledges
2.4 Education and development
2.4.1 Critical approaches to local knowledge and participation in education
2.4.2 Environmental education in Tanzania
2.5 The key questions

Chapter 3: Methodology
3.1 Context
3.1.1 Tanzania
3.1.2 The NGOs
3.1.3 Kawe
3.1.4 Bagamoyo
3.1.5 Rukwa
3.2 Methods
3.2.1 Interviews
3.2.2 Interviews with state officials, NGO staff and academics
3.2.3 Interviews with teachers
3.2.4 Focus groups with young people
3.2.5 Interviews with local people
3.2.6 Observations
3.2.7 Document analysis
3.3 Ethical considerations
3.4 Summary

Chapter 4: What is the environment ?
A critical exploration in the spaces of local knowledge
4.1 Defining the environment
4.2 Local environmental knowledges
4.2.1 Extra-local
4.2.2 Specificity in place
4.2.3 The temporality of the local
4.2.4 Western and local environmental knowledges
4.2.5 The knowledges of young people
4.2.6 Local power relations and spaces of knowledge expression
4.2.7 The limitations of local knowledge
4.3 Local traditional knowledges and beliefs
4.4 Summary

Chapter 5: Whose education ?
NGOs, environmental education, and a spatial approach to learning
5.1 Formal environmental education: the way in for conservation
5.2 Assembling the spaces of informal and formal learning
5.3 Who wants to go to school ?
5.4 The contribution to local environmental knowledges
5.5 Summary

Chapter 6: Participation, community, empowerment: What do these mean in Tanzania ?
6.1 Participation in environmental education
6.2 The role of the State and NGOs in participation
6.3 Individual and collective responsibility
6.4 Knowledge, behavior and agency
6.5 Who are the local community ?
6.5.1 A Tanzanian understanding of community
6.5.2 The student is not the fisherman
6.5.3 A lack of ′community′ does not equal a lack of action
6.6 Summary

Chapter 7: Conclusions at the crux of development:
What does environmental education in Tanzania reveal ?
7.1 How can local knowledge be re-conceptualised, and how can it be a part of judgement making in development ?
7.2 Can young people be empowered through education ?
7.3 What role should NGOs and the state play in development ?
7.4 How can a focus on environmental education further critical debates about participation and community in development ?
Appendicies
References

↑ http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3700/