Education sciences research has showed that learning is a complex interaction between individuals and their surrounding world. The simplification of learning complexity has been commonly assumed in local and traditional ecological knowledge (LEK/TEK) research. Based on a modern learning theory, this article describes learning complexity behind the LEK/TEK held by fishers and farmers in Sweden. It leads to the introduction of the concept of biocultural learning that contributes to this field by giving details to this complexity. From a biographic approach, this research combines case studies, in-depth biographical narrative interviews, participant observations and the analysis of personal blogs and family pictures as data collection methods. This combination reveals the interconnection between professional knowledge about nature, identity construction and emotional bonds to nature. This article highlights the value of giving professional status to LEK/TEK and discusses the need to promote and strengthen biocultural learning in different society sectors.

Biocultural learning - beyond ecological knowledge transfer

The declaration of the Mediterranean Diet as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in order to preserve a cultural and gastronomical legacy included the protection of lifestyles, knowledge, sociability, and environmental relationships. However, the patrimonialization, popularization, and globalization of a certain conception of this diet have turned it into a de-territorialized global phenomenon. As a consequence of this process, it has been necessary to notably increase the production of its ingredients to satisfy its growing demand, which, in turn, has generated “secondary effects” in some Mediterranean environments of Southeastern Spain. If, on the one hand, their wealth has increased and population has been established, on the other hand, the continuity of certain cultural landscapes linked to local knowledge and particular lifestyles has been broken, replacing them with agro-industrial landscapes exclusively at the service of production. This, at the same time, has caused social and environmental inequalities

Unexpected Effects on Some Spanish Cultural Landscapes of the Mediterranean Diet.

Natural environments such as arable lands, lakes, the sea, forests and savannahs are not only places for living and supporting the livelihoods of people, they constitute contexts of significance for sustainability. On the one hand, the study of the knowledge that people generate about their local natural environments has mainly been characterised by romantic views and false assumptions of learning, and more specifically knowledge generation (acquisition), as a merely social or collective process within social-ecological systems literature. It has led to unequal power relationships between different types of knowledge (scientific and experiential) as they were totally separated in human cognition development and structure, and professional knowledge and practices. On the other hand, there is limited interest in the study of professional learning among local communities having natural environments as their living and workplaces within adult educational research. Based on the empirical study of Swedish fishers and farmers, this article contributes to further development of approaches and methods for the understanding of biocultural learning or professional learning in and about nature. It answers the research questions of how the study of biocultural learning benefits from using a biographical approach and a variety of data collection methods, and how individual and social circumstances impact biocultural learning. Findings contrast the previous research literature on local ecological knowledge, and lead to reflections about the role of adult education research for the development of theories and methods for sustainability research and practices.

A biographic approach to the study of biocultural learning

Biocultural approaches are gaining attention for coping with current sustainability challenges. These approaches recognize that biological and cultural diversity are inextricably linked. Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) plays an important role in biocultural approaches as these often build on local cultural perspectives. This review explores how ILK is conceptualized and applied in the scientific literature published in Spanish on biocultural approaches to sustainability and examines the status and trends of ILK described in this literature. For this, we reviewed 72 publications and conducted a category-based qualitative content analysis. We found multiple conceptualizations of ILK, although most of them shared some commonalities, such as the close link to specific biocultural contexts. The results suggests that there are three themes that seem to be both relevant and controversial within the reviewed literature: the different strategies to bridging diverse knowledge systems, the conflictive views on the role of ILK in sustainability, and the threats to ILK. We also show that future research would benefit from greater attention to power relations and context-specific dynamics in bridging diverse knowledge systems, as there is still room to improve approaches and tools to promote the co-production of knowledge while supporting and enhancing the self-determination of IPLC. We conclude that the way biocultural approaches to sustainability engage with ILK can support shape a variety of alternative futures, which may differ from currently dominant perspectives on sustainability, and further demonstrate that the design and implementation of conservation policies that protect both people and nature can be enhanced. 

Indigenous and local knowledge in biocultural approaches to sustainability: a review of the literature in Spanish

Memory linked to seeds, and specifically the knowledge associated with local varieties of tomato, has been preserved thanks to oral transmission across the generations. Since the 1950s, the aging of the rural population, the modernisation of agriculture and the exodus to urban areas have led to the gradual loss of farming culture and the genetic erosion of landraces. The objective of the article is to discover those actors who continue to grow and preserve local tomato varieties in Majorca, and the knowledge associated with them. Through qualitative techniques such as participatory observation and semi-structured interviews, we explored surviving local knowledge of these varieties and concluded that a substantial part of this knowledge is on the verge of disappearance, due to ageing farmers and a lack of generational replacement. However, parttime farmers and some professional farmers using quality labels are contributing to the recovery and preservation of the biocultural memory of local varieties of tomato on the island.

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Aina Maria Socies Fiol

Papers

¿Quién mantiene la memoria biocultural y la agrobiodiversidad en la isla de Mallorca? Algunos aprendizajes desde las variedades locales de tomate