Topic description / abstract:

Global challenges such as climate change, food security, and public health require interaction between vastly different epistemic communities from Indigenous farmers to Western lab scientists. While stakeholder inclusion has become widely embraced in international development, its epistemology remains underdeveloped. Based on anthropological debates about cross-cultural relativity/universality of biological knowledge, this talk outlines an epistemology of inclusive development that is critically reflective about both opportunities and limitations of knowledge integration.

Biographical note:

David Ludwig works at the intersection of philosophy and social studies of science. His work focuses on global negotiations and implications of science and technology with a focus on the biological and environmental sciences. He received his PhD from Humboldt University in Berlin and currently an assistant professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.