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Project partners: Division for Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Attemsgasse 25/I, 8010 Graz, Austria.
Contact person: Univ.Prof. Dr. Helmut Eberhart ;
Function of the Project Partner: Sub-Koordinator

Funded by: Jubiläumsfonds der Österreichischen Nationalbank, Otto Wagner Platz 3, A-1090 Wien, Austria

Abstract: This project examines farmers’ local knowledge about soils in the Province Burgenland including farmers’ practice, social organization, world view, cosmovision and language related to soils over a period of 36 months. The lifelong practice and experience of farmers result in a body of local knowledge that might nourish models for a sustainable resource management and enrich an inter- and transdisciplinary discussion on sustainable agriculture. Our focus is on the interaction between local soil knowledge and local identity, local sustainable resource management and its embededness in local social networks. We do recognize that this local knowledge on soils is not historic but includes farmers’ knowledge also on recent ecosystemic interactions, farmers experiments and innovations related to soil management and use. The project aims to provide a better understanding of local knowledge systems and the interaction between humans and nature. Furthermore the research investigates the dependence of local knowledge to cultural and geophysical aspects.

Keywords: organic farming; Sustainable development, sustainable economics; Scientific research; interdisciplinary humanities;; local knowledge; ethnopedology; ; socioecological systems;