Beyond Farmer First - Rural People's Knowledge, Agricultural Research and Extension Practice: Towards a Theoretical Framework.

Examines the Farmer First paradigm in the light of recent research into questions concerning the social construction of knowledge and power relations. It draws on a large and diverse body of literature from ecology, geography, anthropoplogy, sociology and other disciplines. The literature examined falls into three broad areas: (1) the nature of rural people's knowledge; (2) the interactions of actors; and (3) the institutional context. The paper contains sections on the following: contrasting representations of rural people's knowledge; power and knowledge - the theoretical setting; the social construction of knowledge; local knowledge construction; the transmission of knowledge; people's knowledge and agricultural science; methdological challenges; and finally, exploring encounter - actors and institutions.