Reading: Why do questions about knowledge matter?

How we think about knowledge affects how we study things and how we act. 

And the world around us is changing.  We need to understand how to change with it…

“…increasing digitization of social and economic life, the widespread use of information and communication technologies, a more literate workforce, the increasing dependence of advanced economies on services, the expansion of a professional and technical class, and several other factors, … have made economic activities and transactions depend on specialized, or ‘theoretical’ knowledge” (Tsoukas & Mylonopoulos, 2004 cited on p.64).

5.4.1 Link between methodology and epistemology

There is some debate about whether there is a paradigm shift in progress away from positivism and towards constructivism – and social-constructivism in particular.  This affects whether knowledge is considered as, for example, a structure or a social construction or meaning-making process; a stock or a flow; as an objective study or one requiring researcher reflexivity; a search for truth or insight.  It also requires different methods e.g. surveys and experiments vs ethnography and language interactions. (Schwandt, 1994, 2000)

5.4.2 Converting tacit to explicit – empirical use of knowledge exchange protocols

Hershal et al’s (2001) “situation-oriented, physician/patient (SOAP) protocol” is designed to support clinicians to make their tacit knowledge explicit for the benefit of patients and decision-making, through a combination of sense-making and knowledge creation.

Personally, I don’t have any doubt that the way we consider knowledge affects what we need to do.  However, not all of us seem to be aware of how we think about knowledge – and why would we?  However, the clash of paradigms that can be experienced (and I think the most obvious here can be between those who value RCTs and those who value the patient voice) can be not only impossible to overcome, but actually detrimental to maing progress of any kind.  Almost as though the world stops which the paradigm is defended (not debated).

I would class myself as a social constructivist at heart – but I value the positivist approach.  I see no reason to throw the experimental baby out with the real-world-messy bath water, but I do want to live in a world where I am taken into account for who I am and what my experience is, my belifs and values, not simply be limited (by others) to how I fit into the normal distribution in relation to this service or that medication.

Any tool that helps to cross this divide has got to be worth considering.  But as ever with knowledge mobilisation, this will only be of real value once it is deployed, embedded and in use at scale.

And that, perhaps, is the challenge of my generation …

This summary and reflections was based on part of Chapter 5: Nature of knowledge and knowing from

Reading KM0001: SDO knowledge mobilisation literature review (6) Crilly T, Jashapara A, Ferlie E (2010) “Research Utilisation & knowledge mobilisation: A scoping review of the literature” Report for the National Institute for Health Research Service Delivery and Organisation programme HMSO