INN-LINK-S Research Center on Innovation and Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems - University of Florence

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.