| The goal of this research and training project is the improved understanding and expanded |
| cultivation and use of a fascinating complex of root and tuber crops (ARTs) domesticated
in the Andean region. These ARTs complement potatoes as the major source of calories and nutrition for some of the poorest subsistence farmers in the highlands. It is remarkable that this root and tuber-based agricultural system has persisted for such a long time and through major upheavals, from the economic, cultural and biological catastrophe of the Columbian Exchange through the Peruvian Agrarian Reform of 1969 and agricultural policies which prioritise export crops. The promise of these crops has been maintained through centuries of cultural upheaval by Andean farmers, through a continuously evolving set of agronomic practices, deep knowledge of the diversity and uses of ARTs, and a deeply-rooted attachment to their cultural significance. |
| Our approach toward realising the promise of these forgotten foods is based on the premise |
| that indigenous and modern agricultural knowledge should be equally valued and integrated
with social and economic outlooks. The essence of our project is a partnership between farmers and biological and social scientists including collaborators at several Peruvian institutions and a U.S. university. Our partnership aims at understanding and optimising practices for maintaining, exchanging and storing root and tuber crop germplasm, control pests and diseases and explore opportunities for marketing fresh and value-added products. We will discuss our experiences to date in implementing this project. |
| There is burgeoning interest in promoting synergy between local peoplesí knowledge (LK) |
| and western scientific knowledge to improve livelihoods. Implicit is that science
has something to offer resource-poor natural resource users in developing countries. Explicit is that its relevance can be improved by considering and learning from LK. |
| Farmers view the world holistically, LK is thus systemic knowledge. In order to appreciate |
| it an interdisciplinary approach is required. Interdisciplinarity is a fashionable
research approach in many fields, with disciplinary boundaries becoming relative. LK is being studied from many vantage points - soil science, crop breeding, agroforestry, geography, in addition to anthropology itself. Nonetheless there are difficulties with interdisciplinary research, particularly across the natural science - social science boundary. The natural sciences have a clear paradigm and well established methods for data acquisition and analysis, while some social sciences take a more open-ended and methodologically informal approach to data collection. |
| There are further contentious issues with the collection and representation of LK. |
| Approaches span the spectrum from RRA/PRA to longer term ethnographic field research,
and may include employing anthropologically trained local scientists. Analysis of LK is also complex, particularly when making it available and accessible to natural scientists. Database analysis, using tools such as qualitative data analysis (QDA) is one approach. However, drawbacks of databases are that local people lose control of 'their' knowledge, whilst once in a database it becomes reified and may be coopted to the dominant scientific paradigm. We explore these issues in the context of the incorporation of LK into natural resources research on Bangladesh floodplain production systems. |
| Author Manos Spyridakis University of Sussex, UK Title Being unemployed in Perama of Piraeus. Abstract |
| The paper will deal with Perama a suburb of the city of Piraeus. The region owes its |
| existence to the small scale shipbuilding and repairing industries (850 enterprises
currently) established during the 60's as a result of the intensive industrial development and restructuring of the Greek economy. |
| In due course, the shipbuilding industry at Perama became one of the most important |
| economic units of Europe employing 6,000 to 8,000 workers approximately. The structure
and nature of the work in the shipyards is strongly affected by the international shipping economy, the demand for the augmentation of ship tonnage and the demand for ship-repairs and buildings. Thus, the employment of workers depends on the fluctuations of the international demand as regards shipping economy. Under this light, the percentage of permanent workers in the local enterprises is very low and the type of wandering worker across shipyards in order to find a job is the dominant norm in the area. |
| The importance of the shipyards as far as the domestic units of Perama (20.000 inhabitants |
| currently) are involved is proved by the fact that at least one family member has
been or is economically dependent on shipbuilding and repairing activities. The local community was developed following the establishment of local enterprises, which, during 80s especially, used to yield 150 to 200 billion drachmas per year. |
| However, by the early '90s the productive activities in the industrial zone of Perama began |
| to decline. This is due to a number of reasons, the main ones of which are: |
| 1. | Intensive international competition. New powerful industrial units related to shipbuilding |
| and repairing emerged during '80s and '90s such as those located in Poland, Hong-Kong,
China and Singapore, due to the low cost of production these countries offer. |
| 2. | The extensive lack of technical support and the failure to create preserve and expand its |
| economic activities in the universal market have led to a poor competitive capacity
and thus, to an inability to effectively respond to the large demand for shipbuilding and repairing activities. |
| 3. | Despite the fact that Perama industry contributes to 60% of the total shipping income of |
| Greece, it is not sufficiently and effectively supported by the state. The economic decline resulted in a massive redundancy, which left the 85% of male |
| wandering workers unemployed. Moreover, it affected internal relationships among
workers as well as their way of daily living, i.e., their cultural microcosm. |
| The cultural dimension of unemployment in the area acquires special importance since the |
| region is historically defined by shipbuilding and repairing activities by late nineties.
The development of Perama, which culminated during '60s, has been linked, almost absolutely, with sea activities. Consequently, the local community developed a high level of cultural ties |
| and meanings concerning a number of dimensions such as intra-workers relationships
in the workplace and out of it, neighbourhood structure and communication, family, moral and work values. |
| The paper then will attempt to explore from an anthropological point of view: a) To what extent this shipbuilding community can be considered to constitute a distinctive |
| cultural unit predicated upon a structure formed across time and space? Keeping in
mind that at least a family member from the region is or has been employed in the shipyards, the question involves the way and the extent to which the problem of unemployment has 'contributed' to the construction of a cultural distancing characterized by symbolic and geographical boundaries. How then, can we define the routes via which exclusion from employment creates (or not) cultural boundaries? How these boundaries emerge as new organisational maps of cultural conduct when coming from historically defined structures? |
| b) The last issue puts forward the elaboration of the concept of identity and the content it |
| gains according to the context it is used. It is my view that the term has become
too wide and loose and that the 'objectified' persons are not exclusively preoccupied with their identities as the anthropological/sociological literature make us think. In the case of Perama the concept of identity is too holistic to be applied as it neglects internal hierarchies and cleavages among working class people. Thus, the term as analytical category should be redefined. |
| c) In addition, it is interesting to investigate how anthropological research can be conducted |
| in urban spaces. The social actors do not form closed communities, as they are embedded
in hierarchical processes and nests of power relationships. In this case anthropology has a unique opportunity to avoid the exoticisation of the 'objects' of study and to reconceptualise the notion of the 'field'. Thus, Perama, provides the chance for a multi-sited ethnography and puts forward the methodological question of how to become aware about the biases and the preformed realities of the our taken for granted present. |