Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/1255
Full metadata record
DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorPeprah, K.-
dc.date.accessioned2017-10-24T15:10:10Z-
dc.date.available2017-10-24T15:10:10Z-
dc.date.issued2014-
dc.identifier.issn2330-3999-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/1255-
dc.descriptionResearch Articleen_US
dc.description.abstractThe paper interrogates the adequacy of natural scientific knowledge in the assessment of land degradation. On the one hand, it is argued that land is a biophysical resource; hence its degradation could be studied by only the natural scientists. On the other hand, the social scientists posited that land and its degradation could not be studied outside the cultural, historical and social context of the primary land users. Furthermore, the social scientists contend that knowledge production by natural science has been affected by political power, epistemological stances as well as insiders’ or outsiders’ culture and gender. Hence, natural scientific knowledge cannot be value free. Therefore, the continuous assessment of land degradation by only the natural scientists borders on social injustice in which there is the use of singular instead of plural perspective. The natural and social scientists discourse is elaborated on by the epistemologies of post-positivists and constructionists respectively. The paper concludes that although it is necessary to use natural scientific knowledge to assess land degradation, challenges posed by power relations, local knowledge as well as culture and gender make natural scientific knowledge insufficient for the purpose. Hence, the assessment of land degradation by natural scientific knowledge could be made good by incorporating social scientific knowledge.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherSci-Edit Publicationsen_US
dc.relation.ispartofseriesVol. 2;Issue 1-
dc.subjectLand degradationen_US
dc.subjectNaturalen_US
dc.subjectSocialen_US
dc.subjectScientificen_US
dc.subjectKnowledgeen_US
dc.subjectMeasurementsen_US
dc.subjectObservationen_US
dc.subjectCultureen_US
dc.subjectGenderen_US
dc.titleKNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION CONTEST BETWEEN NATURAL AND SOCIAL SCIENTISTS WITH REGARDS TO LAND DEGRADATION ASSESSMENTen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
Appears in Collections:Faculty of Integrated Development Studies



Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.