Conference on Agricultural Knowledge Systems in Post-Soviet Societies

1. Cultures of knowledge production and sharing in agriculture: How can local epistemic cultures determining the character of the agricultural knowledge systems be assessed and what do they look like? Who are the actors and structures of agriculturally oriented knowledge and innovation development as well as the local channels of innovation diffusion?

2. Local governance arrangements and knowledge production: How is the local production of knowledge, its share and use influenced and stimulated by overall factors, as state legislation, economic incentives or social arrangements? What determines the status of knowledge in a rural community, assuming that knowledge is constantly being shaped and at the same time shaping peoples behavior? How do governance arrangements – including the governance of natural resources of e.g. land and water – enable and constrain the development, mobilization and adaptation of knowledge?

3. Agricultural advisory service development: The present situation of agricultural advisory services development will be analized by examining the role of knowledge in current agricultural production. Do farmers/ farming systems e.g. lack certain types of knowledge, while actively (re-)producing and disseminating others? What prevents them from accessing and using knowledge? Who are the main knowledge providers to farmers during the transition process? What enables and constrains the use of agricultural advisory support services for improved agricultural production?

The organization team can be contacted at shtaltov@uni-bonn.de.