Understanding Socio-Technological Systems Change through an Indigenous Community-Based Participatory Framework

Marie Schaefer, Laura Schmitt Olabisi, Kristin Arola, Christie M. Poitra, Elise Matz, Marika Seigel, Chelsea Schelly, Adewale Adesanya and Doug Bessette
Additional contact information
Marie Schaefer: Department of Community Sustainability, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
Laura Schmitt Olabisi: Department of Community Sustainability, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
Kristin Arola: Department of Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
Christie M. Poitra: Native American Institute, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
Elise Matz: Visiting Scholar, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA
Marika Seigel: Department of Humanities, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA
Chelsea Schelly: Department of Social Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA
Adewale Adesanya: Department of Social Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA
Doug Bessette: Department of Community Sustainability, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-13

Abstract: Moving toward a sustainable global society requires substantial change in both social and technological systems. This sustainability is dependent not only on addressing the environmental impacts of current social and technological systems, but also on addressing the social, economic and political harms that continue to be perpetuated through systematic forms of oppression and the exclusion of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities. To adequately identify and address these harms, we argue that scientists, practitioners, and communities need a transdisciplinary framework that integrates multiple types of knowledge, in particular, Indigenous and experiential knowledge. Indigenous knowledge systems embrace relationality and reciprocity rather than extraction and oppression, and experiential knowledge grounds transition priorities in lived experiences rather than expert assessments. Here, we demonstrate how an Indigenous, experiential, and community-based participatory framework for understanding and advancing socio-technological system transitions can facilitate the co-design and co-development of community-owned energy systems.

Keywords: Indigenous knowledge; community-based participatory approaches; socio-technological systems transitions; transdisciplinarity; environmental justice; medicine wheel; knowledge sharing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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