Transcript What’s in a name? - University of St Andrews

Professor Huw Davies
Director
Knowledge Mobilisation & Capacity Building
From Knowledge Transfer to Knowledge Exchange changing models of research use and impact
The challenge for all of us in the knowledge business…
“Yes, it’s quite a noise – but are we having any impact?”
What do we mean
by research,
evidence and
knowledge?
Understanding
the complexities
of knowledge
creation and use.
Implications for
facilitating
better use.
First generation modelling Linear Models (1960s-mid 90s)
LANGUAGE
KEY ASSUMPTIONS
• Research use
• Knowledge is a product of research
• Dissemination
• Knowledge is generalisable across
• Diffusion
• Knowledge transfer
• Knowledge uptake
• Implementation
contexts
• Key process is handoff from
researchers to users
• “Uptake” is a function of effective
packaging and appropriate channels
From Knowing to Doing
Traditional linear model – assumes rather
uncomplicated relationships between
research/knowledge and knowledge/action
Researchers
Knowledge
Creation
Users
Knowledge
validation
‘KT’
Knowledge
Dissemination
Knowledge
adoption
Research priorities
--- THE PROBLEM WITH THIS MODEL --Too - simple, rational, linear, uni-directional, individualised,
unproblematised, asocial, and acontextual (otherwise, OK…)
How do we KNOW stuff?
Harder, quantitative, factsbased, explanatory…
biomolecular sciences
clinical epidemiology
Varieties of research
some organisations research…
…much health services research
…much organisations research
Softer, qualitative,
exploratory, more
meaning-oriented…
patient & user experience
case studies, ethnographies
C O N T E X T
some health services research…
Knowledge required for effective policy
is much broader than simply “what works”
• Know-about (problems): e.g. the nature,
formation, natural history and interrelations
of health and social problems in context…
• Know-why: explaining the relationship
between values and policy/practice…
• Know-how (to put into practice): e.g.
pragmatic knowledge about service
and programme implementation…
• Know-who (to involve): e.g. service team
composition; building alliances for action…
Enlightenment knowledge: problematising, re-framing…
Methodological pluralism: contentiousness
Engagement with values: politics & negotiation
Challenge of “knowledge”
Research ➮ Evidence ➮ Knowledge
- very uncertain process; engages with values,
existing (tacit) knowledge, and experience…
- socially, politically and contextually situated…
- not necessarily convergent/shared…
- may require some difficult ‘unlearning’.
And, not just what knowledge/evidence,
but crucially, whose knowledge/evidence?
- ‘evidence’ may be used selectively/tactically
- knowledge/power intimately co-constructed
Second generation:
Relationship Models (late 90s-)
LANGUAGE
KEY ASSUMPTIONS
• Knowledge exchange
• Knowledge from multiple sources –
research, theory and practice;
• Knowledge brokerage
• Key process is interpersonal, involving
social relationships;
• Boundary spanners
• Networks of producers and consumers
• Collaboration through the production-
• Research impact
synthesis-integration cycle;
• Knowledge is context-linked - must be
adapted prior to adoption;
• Degree of use is a function of effective
relationships and inter-linking processes.
Another take: Mode I or Mode II?
MODE I
• Focus is knowledge
MODE II
• Focus is problem-solving
generation
• Learn from outside
• Learn by doing in situ
• Knowledge created
• Knowledge is co-created
elsewhere by experts
• Clear methodological
standards & hierarchies
and context dependent
• Flexible methods &
contingent application
“Use” is Complex, Social & Situated
…moving us away from ideas
of research as “answers”;
… problematising “knowledge transfer”;
Emphasising “situated knowledge interaction”, recognising:
• The importance of context, networks & systems;
• Social and collective learning, and unlearning;
• Interaction with other types of knowledge (tacit;
experiential; political awareness);
• ‘Use’ as an adaptive process - not an event;
• Non-individualised embedded uses of research;
• Inherent non-linearity of systems.
Third generation:
Systems Models
LANGUAGE
KEY ASSUMPTIONS
•Knowledge
translation
•Knowledge cycle is tightly woven within
local priorities, culture and context;
•Knowledge
interaction
•Knowledge
integration
•Knowledge
mobilization
•Knowledge
intermediation
•Explicit and tacit knowledge need to be
integrated to inform decision making;
•Relationships mediate throughout the
cycle, and must be understood from a
systems perspective - in the context of
the organization and its strategic
processes (complex adaptive systems);
•Knowledge application is a function of the
effective integration of organisations and
wider systems (managed knowledge flows).
From ‘bridging’ to dialogue,
from knowledge transfer
to knowledge exchange,
knowledge interaction, &
knowledge mobilisation