I agree with the claim  of Tal. But I would like to emphasize that local knowledge is jointly constructed by the locals through social interaction and reflections and such knowledge usually fit with the daily needs of the local society, in most instances the knowledge is  actionable. Thus there is an uttermost need to properly integrate such knowledge in development process. To do so, the role of outsiders should be clearly demarcated and interactive type of community participation should be used.  Excessive and improper  outsiders interventions have much negative ends than positive once. And so do  improper participatory approach such as simple consultation and manipulation in worst cases. Proper participatory approach on the other hand allows both the outsiders (externals) and insiders (locals) to jointly understand the problems and construct actionable solutions.  It also allow locals to buy in knowledge of outsiders, thus the synergy between outsiders and insiders will be strengthened. It establishes  a win-win- win scenario. It also add to the human right to participate in development  programs. 

Local knowledge for planning purposes, it is important to consider that actions on cities positively or negatively impact on ways of life in the social and economic forms of interaction between citizens within and outside their territories. Planning dynamics must be managed with a strong component of social participation, in which the roles of its citizens are considered for decision-making, we have more and more examples of cities focused on an intervention concept based on the economist model that stops The rest of the dimensions of development. The challenge is to generate ever more integral, participatory and inclusive models where cities are designed for the citizen, planned for their social growth represented by economic development benefits.

Please see the following articles, hope it helps.

Bests- FS

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9add/df2aad8625c6dacb0acb0dd357b1c126f6f5.pdf

https://www.academia.edu/27901039/Incorporation_of_residents_local_knowledge_into_urban_planning_an_analysis_through_PPGIS_Orla_do_Gua%C3%ADba

Greetings.   

When I try to translate "think" into Bisayan (the dialect here in Davao, Philippines, where I live now) the best I can get is hunahuna which means "thought."  Apparently there is no verb form of "to think" in Bisaya.  They do think here, often quite well, but not recognizably like in much of Baltimore, i.e. not so big on propositional logic.  In fact I find it impossible so far, to discuss anything "analytical" with my wife, at least not on what we might consider  a "rational" basis. 

They have two similar words, "diferiencio" and "diferenciado."  the first means, not surprisingly, "different,"  but "diferenciado" means "defective"! 

"Abnormal" is a big insult here.  

I hope these simple observations might help in defining "local knowledge," - they seem to understand things often quite similarly as I do, but you would never know listening to the quesswork required to make sense of how they say it.  

Good thing I studied Wittgenstein - it's all a "form of life" - or a "language game," as he put it. 

Best of luck.  JB Sans pareil. 

Dear Tal, reading your definition made me recall Geertz's "local knowledge (https://www.amazon.com/Local-Knowledge-Interpretive-Anthropology-Classics/dp/0465041620), Best, JPN

Of course, there are lots of people who would claim to have local knowledge. However, it is not of high quality very often. In addition, the questioner will often ask the wrong question and, as a result, not elicit high quality responses.

For example, let's say you want to know something about the vacancy rate in some sector at some point of time in the future. What would be a reasonable question? How about "What will the vacancy rate be in one year?" Well, that isn't such a good question, because nobody really knows the answer, because the issue is uncertain. Instead, one might ask "what is the best case, the worst case, and the most likely case for changes in the vacancy rate over the next year?" Now you have the parameters of a triangular distribution without any statistical jargon. You can calculate the expected value.

Who would be an expert? Well, the quality of the expert might depend upon how many cycles the respondent has experienced. So you might ask "how long have you worked in this industry?" Now you have a dependent variable and an independent variable. You can now test your hypothesis about the quality of the expertise you have tapped into. Do experienced people do better than inexperienced people? Do they overshoot or undershoot.

You can now use this information in the future, i.e., one year hence. It would be useful, for example, to develop monte carlo analysis of the future path of vacancy rates.

Local knowledge can be seen from different perspectives and embedded in different discourses. The word 'local' puts it in the immediate space for which plans are drafted. As such a local Urban Planner, who lives since long time in the respective city has such local knowledge, at least more of it than an urban planner who has been hired from far away. However, and some of the contributions argue in this direction, local can also mean people's knowledge in comparison to scientific knowledge.

Other expressions that at times appear in the discourses are 'traditional knowledge' and 'indigenous knowledge'. Of course there are slight, but very meaningful differences between all of these expressions, but what they might have in common is the assumption that beyond the scientific way of conceptualizing things there are also other qualities, which can add perspectives to the scientific view that are essential.

I just came back two week ago from doing research about 'traditional cyclone shelters in Vanuatu'. These shelters, which have survived the strongest cyclones ever are the result of 'local' knowledge. Aren't they? E.G. an important way o9f putting wooden logs together is by tying them together with wild vines instead of using nails. This flexibility provides stability as logs fixed by nails would disconnect soon when the power of heavy winds would slowly but surely loosen the connection.

Indeed I came across a similar principle many years ago in South India, where fishermen built boats by stitching the wooden planks together with coir. Also here the flexibility enhanced the stability when the boat went through the surf of the ocean.

‘Local knowledge’ here might be the knowledge which is built from experience, from being practically attached to something instead of reflecting and researching things.

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Aveling, E. L. (2011). Mediating between international knowledge and local knowledge: the critical role of local field officers in an HIV prevention intervention. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 21(2), 95-110.

Mammo, T. (1999). The paradox of Africa's poverty: the role of indigenous knowledge, traditional practices and local institutions--the case of Ethiopia. The Red Sea Press.

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Thank you Eberhard Weber for your detailed and interesting response. With your permission, I am adding to your list my book: "Public Participation as a Tool for Integrating Local Knowledge into Spatial Planning" published recently by Springer, and fully available and visible  here in ResearchGate.

This discussion is the core scientific discussions between people who wish known the knowledge that is more valuable. In fact, people usually claim that local knowledge is not science because there is not scientific methods, it is held by local, and cannot be replicable anywhere. Anyway conflict between the two world (science and indigenous) does not lead to development, the synergy is more important to them. In forestry domain, investigate and fieldwork can’t success without the local people knowledge….

An intersting topic. The subject of local knowledge require extensive research expecially among indengenous communities.

It is erreneous to claim it is of no value because it is considered of value by those that hold it. Simply because such knowledge may not mean anything to those outside the ‘space’ does not mean it is of no value.