During the last decades various organizations and scholars have demanded that what has been termed indigenous, traditional and/or local knowledge ought to be acknowledged, especially in connection to environmental movements and within development projects. The attempts to widen the definition of knowledge therefore have a political nature and are central as a mean to empower or strengthen indigenous people. In this context knowledgeable actors are at the heart of the matter.   

This paper will draw on an ethnographic study performed with participants in the Kawsay adult education project in Bolivia, and their specific conceptualizations of their knowledge. The ethnographic study is based on oral histories and semi-structured interviews with the participants in order to capture their definition of knowledge and what the organization has contributed with. Kawsay is an organization that specifically attempts to legitimize and upgrade what they call indigenous knowledge, by creating a university structure to their education and maintenance of indigenous knowledge. In focus for the analysis are the possibly different definitions of knowledge and science that may diverge from the dominant “rationalistic” and mainly western view of them. The analysis will depart from previous theoretical challenges by multiculturalism and highlight whether the concept of indigenous knowledge is the knowledge held by indigenous people or defined by a different cosmology. Thereby the paper will investigate whether attempts to legitimize knowledge systems may work to challenge current “eduscapes,” or if it is part of the very same phenomena.