Abstract
We intend to problematize the agroecological “dialogue of knowledge” and survey the conditions of anthropology for such problems. The fundamental argument is that, despite the proposal of non-hierarchical construction of agroecological knowledge (between “scientific” and “non-scientific” knowledge), its epistemological basis does not comprises the complex interactions produced among the agents in question, ambivalently contributing to a hierarchical and asymmetric relationship of power. We suggest that: the idea that agroecology promotes harmonious relations between scientists and farmers simplifies interactions tensioned by the dynamic approximation/estrangement; the conception of culture and cultural diversity implicit in the dialogue of knowledge is based on the dissociation between “thought” and “action”; a “political dynamics of alterity” would better define the agroecological relational scheme; the anthropological conception of translation would contribute to the promotion of a “double extensionality,” not based on the capacity to teach, but rather on the capacity to learn.
Keywords:
agroecology; translation; dialogue of knowledge; double extensionality; interdisciplinarity