News > 9th BAR Seminar Series presents two topics on social science

9th BAR Seminar Series presents two topics on social science

30 July 2008

As a continuing effort of the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) to accelerate timely delivery of information, exchange of knowledge among researchers, scientists, academicians, and policymakers, a seminar on social science was conducted on 30 July 2008 at the 4th Floor of RDMIC Building, Visayas Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City.

The topics were on: 1) "Agriculture: In Search of Viable Knowledge Systems" and 2) "Meta-research to Synthesize Knowledge from Existing Studies in Agriculture".

Western agricultural science vs. indigenous science
Dr. Daylinda B. Cabanilla, professor at the College of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), was as the resource speaker on the topic "Agriculture: In Search of Viable Indigenous Knowledge (IK) Systems."

Her presentation focused on the issues of western agricultural science vs. indigenous science, specifically on three issues: 1) privileged position of western agricultural science in the world, 2) significance of IK, and 3) interfacing of these two knowledge systems.

The western agricultural science, Cabanilla explained, is on the "top of the world" now. In our society, science is privileged because powerful people accept science as the most valid way of knowing. Quoting McIntyre (2005:9), she stated the following: "Is the finding or claim grounded in science, or merely clothed in the 'guise' of science? Is the claim being made backed by research? Who conducted it? Who paid for it? How was it done -what sort of methods and sampling techniques were used? How were the results interpreted? These are the sorts of questions that must be asked to distinguish good science from what has come to be called 'junk' or 'pseudo' science."

She also explained that IK, to date, is softly being killed. She differentiated scientific knowledge from IK. Scientific knowledge is based on subsets of the whole (reductionist) while IK is based on the whole system (holistic). IK is lengthily acquired but scientific knowledge can be rapidly obtained. Additionally, the former is generated by resource users through personal observation, trial and error, and synthesis of facts whereas the latter is generated by specialized researchers through experimentation, and systematic and deliberate accumulation of facts.

Furthermore, the third issue presented by Dr. Cabanilla addresses the question - Can (or should) Western Science and IK hold on together? This branched out to different sub-issues and other culture-related matters. Such include applicability of IK and cultural differences. According to Dr. Cabanilla, indigenous peoples (IPs) sometimes do not apply their own IK anymore because of external constraints and influences, such as market economy, "modern" ideas and technologies.

"The best way to sustainable agriculture would be cross-cultural visits, farmer-to-farmer learning. Let people decide what, how, why they want to apply among IK; that's 'self-determination,'" she said. "We (researchers) are facilitators only but not decision-makers."

In closing, Cabanilla encouraged the participants to think critically and suggested "missions" guided by vision and implemented with commitment, instead of "projects." She also challenged them by enunciating that basic knowledge and skills are necessary but good intentions are never enough (Christmas B. de Guzman)

Re-using existing data through meta-research
"Re-using existing data" -thus one of the major key points stressed by Dr. Corazon B. Lamug, professor at the College of Arts and Sciences, UPLB, in her topic, "Meta-research to Synthesize Knowledge from Existing Studies in Agriculture."

Meta-research was designed to synthesize knowledge arising from existing studies. As compared with secondary analysis, Dr. Lamug explained that meta-research is concerned with appraising and summarizing existing knowledge, not exploring new research questions. This mainly involves the study of research reports and seldom utilizing raw data.

Dr. Lamug defined the application of meta-research in the conduct of her studies on: Meta-ethnography of four domains of community relationships in Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) studies and Inferring paradigms from research designs of studies on CBNRM.

Four paradigms were discussed in conducting a social research design, namely: positivism/neopositivism; interpretivism, critical theory, and participatory action research. The later can be applied in BAR's banner program, the Community-based Participatory Action Research (CPAR). CPAR is designed to implement and integrated production management system in the community level.

"For participatory action research, studies are action-oriented involving community members and researchers," Dr. Lamug said.

In conclusion, Dr. Lamug enumerated some of the challenges in conducting meta-research, which is considered to be a useful tool for researchers with broad perspectives and cross disciplinal experience. Reports must meet standards as defined by Marshall and Rossman (1989) including its credibility, transferability of findings, dependability, and utilization/application/action orientation (Ma. Eloisa E. Hernandez)