Constructing territorial development with local actors: dairy producers and their relationship with university knowledge

ABSTRACT

This article presents a case study on how dairy producers and a university are connected to generate territorial development in a municipality. The field of study along with in-depth semi-structured interviews showed that university knowledge reaches dairy farmers through weak ties and imitating production processes. This relationship makes it possible to show that the knowledge produced in academia reaches producers, even though there is no deliberate plan to bring these two local development actors together. This case study allows us to better understand local actors and the manner in which they can generate development in an area.

KEYWORDS:

• Capacity development
• education
• economics and Latin America

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia.

Notes on contributors

Helmer Fernando Llanez Anaya

Helmer Fernando Llanez Anaya is Economist, a specialist in local and regional development and master in interdisciplinary development studies. PhD student in rural and environmental studies. Professor at the Cooperative University of Colombia.