1. Building Intellectual Capital for Sustainable Development: Combining Local Wisdom and Advanced Knowledge.
- Author
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Bardy, Roland and Rubens, Arthur
- Subjects
INTELLECTUAL capital ,SUSTAINABLE development ,QUALITY of life ,PUBLIC officers ,MEDICAL personnel ,NONGOVERNMENTAL organizations - Abstract
When intellectual capital is built "from the scratch" in an effort to move a society's situation to a sustainable status, there is often a need for a catalyst that triggers the endeavor. The "trigger", in the case that is reported in this paper, was the installation of a new college in a rural community in Northern Ghana where heretofore, no comprehensive tertiary education had been available. The college established an outreach program which was destined to provide the community with increased opportunities for improving the overall social and economic well-being. Thus, creating an outer circle of engagement through accessing government officials, local businesses, community councils, health workers, traditional leaders (tribal chiefs), religious leaders and heads of NGOs on topics like labor relations, conflict resolution, sustainability management, social responsibility, cultural diversity, and social inclusiveness. At the onset, the members of the community contributed their traditional views on these topics and how this would combine with knowledge brought in through the new college. Since rural communities in Africa have a very intimate and intense relation to nature, good hands-on skills and an abundance of indigenous wisdom, it was felt that this combination would result in a rich body of knowledge and competencies. Ultimately, a valuable base would be developed from this knowledge for an inventory of intellectual capital that can be transferred to generations of descendants. At the heart of this endeavor was the Center for Cross Cultural Ethics and Sustainable Development, an institution created by the college, to move these efforts forward. From a theoretical perspective, this case embeds a variety of systems-thinking constructs. First, Co-creation which combines indigenous wisdom with new knowledge guardian brought in by the college's academicians and outside practitioners assigned to the Center for Cross Cultural Ethics and Sustainable Development. Second, coalescing equi-finality and multi-finality to arrive at a balance between community needs that can be satisfied short-term and needs for which long-term solutions are required. Third, conjoining self-organization and relationality. Finally, to generate intellectual capital from both the traditional and the newly acquired skills and knowledge in the community, a systems-thinking interpretation would be employed where an auto-poietic system (the intellectual capital) interacts with the environment (the community) and processes self-reference and other-reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017