- Heritage
Local and indigenous knowledge refer to the body of knowledge, skills, practices and representations that have been preserved and maintained by local communities through complex interactions with the natural environment. These "technological" cognitive systems are part of knowledge systems more complex for which knowledge, practices and representations are integrated and mutually dependent, and include language, the relationship with the place, beliefs and world views. This knowledge can be defined in different areas by specific terms such as Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), ethnobiology, ethnobotany, ASPPA, ethnology, vernacular architecture, material knowledge, knowledge naturalists anthropology, anthropology museum.
Traditional techniques at the local, cultural, social organization and rituals of the populations highlight the close relationship that has existed over the centuries between human communities, technology and the natural environment.
The Center for Research INN-LINK-S defines its own research on local knowledge systems through the architectural and construction, ecosystems and cultural systems hardware.
The Center for Research Inter-Departmental INN-LINK-S undertakes to integrate these skills and capabilities horizontally in the departments of the University of Florence in order to develop more effectively research activities within national programs and projects and international.
The Center for Research INN-LINK-S promotes a holistic approach of local and indigenous knowledge in the fields of natural ecosystems and human, architecture and cultures as physical as themselves and strategic element in the process of local sustainable progress, able to improve the lives of people, giving them the means to a greater understanding and interpretation of the processes of interaction between man and his environment.
The INN-LINK-S Research Center aims to develop research, experimentation and higher training in the identified domains. The programme of activities is an open plan, which will be supplemented and amended by the Scientific Council during its implementation.
The activities will develop over three axes:
Axis of research
Axis International cooperation relations
Axis of formation of the Postgraduate and Doctorate:
Axis of research
The main and core activity of INN-LINK-S will be design and manage research projects funded by international, European and Italian
Research and development programmes: in the following fields:
• Documentation and conservation of
o Rural Vernacular Architecture,
o Vernacular and Earthen Architectural Heritage,
o Mechanical Knowledge in Local and Traditional Architectural heritage,
o ecosystems and cultural systems,
o ethnobotany and ethnobiology,
• Local Culture museums,
• Material culture and ecological design,
• Local development and knowledge management,
• Integrated management in an nature and desert context,
• Advanced geomatic methods applied to architectural heritage,
• Advanced informatic methods for modeling and sharing local and indigenous knowledge systems,
• Relationship between integrated conservation and sustainable development.