Relevance of Epistemological Pluralism for Resource Management Policies

Abstract

The common believe of a single successful form of knowing the reality is misleading. A brief analysis of many human activities reveals a pluralistic perspective of several coexisting conceptual schemes that underlie the form in which women and men know and constitute the world in which we live. Here, I will discuss the necessity of taking seriously this pluralistic perspective when developing conceptual frameworks of human activities. As an example of great interest and importance, I will consider the case of resource management that has to contemplate the conservation and the response of ecosystems to human activities that may lead to irreversible damage. Ecosystems’ activity occurs over a wide range of space and time scales and, hence, policies and proposals of solutions to ecological problems should avoid narrow and monochromatic approaches. Specifically, the Pemon perspective of fire is a good example to show that for more robust and flexible resource management we need the knowledge and experience of different cultural and disciplinary groups.