Cross-cultural environmental research in New Zealand: Insights for ecological economics research practice

Indigenous cultures and knowledge systems have been virtually ignored by Ecological Economics theory and practice, in spite of the increasing willingness of indigenous peoples to engage in the holistic and integrative research that ecological economists aspire to. This paper draws on the involvement of ecological economists in cross-cultural research in New Zealand, to distill insights on how ecological economists can usefully and legitimately engage with indigenous peoples in environmental research. The main bodies of western ecological knowledge are reviewed and compared with indigenous knowledge, illuminating the main similarities, differences and challenges. This leads into a broader analysis of how these different ‘knowledge systems’ can be mobilised to provide cross-cultural environmental research of practical use to indigenous peoples. Accordingly, principles, characteristics, and structures of applied cross-cultural environmental research are discussed, not as a prescriptive template but as suggestions for future researchers. We conclude that Ecological Economics is well placed to embrace the perspectives and frameworks of indigenous and western knowledge systems. We strongly assert, however, that methodological pluralism needs to be practiced, not just preached. Ecological economists need to resist ‘knowledge imperialism’ and even ‘knowledge integration’ (except where appropriate), which has sometimes been the case in the recent Ecological Economics literature.