Paper short abstract:

Using a modified actor-network analysis, this paper illustrates the dynamic complexities at the interfaces of 'local' and 'scientific' knowledges at multiple institutional scales for adaptation decision-making in Tanzania.

Paper long abstract:

Calls to integrate 'local' and 'scientific' knowledges for climate adaptation decision-making have proliferated in the last decade. However, such calls are often rooted in problematic assumptions about the 'divide' between kinds of knowledge, the scales at which they are applicable (e.g., temporal, geographic), who is authorized to 'hold' and represent them, and the inherent possibility and benefit of combining them. This paper will employ a 'rooted' actor-network analysis (cf. Rocheleau and Roth 2007) to examine the multiple knowledges that have been invoked for the purposes of adaptation at multiple institutional scales in Tanzania. Such an approach insists on symmetrical interrogation of all knowledges, as well as the webs of relations and power that enable their (co-)production and mobilization. Through this lens, the paper will critically apply the knowledge system criteria (i.e., credibility, salience, and legitimacy - see Cash et al. 2003) to illustrate the dynamic complexities at the interfaces of knowledges in climate adaptation decision-making at multiple institutional scales, with implications for understanding processes of co-production more broadly. Such a vantage complicates typical understandings and categorizations of knowledge within adaptation discourses to: 1) illustrate the hybrid nature of knowledge, 2) make visible the work required to 'separate' local and scientific knowledges, 3) expose how knowledge becomes considered 'valid' within adaptation decision-making, and 4) explore what this implies for co-production processes. The analysis draws on interviews, planned group discussions, and ethnographic observation conducted in 2 villages in northern Tanzania, as well as government agencies and NGOs in Dar es Salaam.