Director Knowledge Mobilisation & Capacity Building From Knowledge Transfer to Knowledge Exchange - changing models of research use and impact Professor Huw Davies
Jan 06, 2016
DirectorKnowledge Mobilisation & Capacity
Building
From Knowledge Transfer to Knowledge Exchange - changing models of research use and impact
Professor Huw Davies
“Yes, it’s quite a noise – but are we having any impact?”
The challenge for all of us in the knowledge business…
What do we mean by
research, evidence and knowledge?
Understanding the
complexities of knowledge
creation and use.
Implications for facilitating better use.
CEO
First generation modelling - Linear Models (1960s-mid 90s)
LANGUAGE KEY ASSUMPTIONS
• Research use
• Dissemination
• Diffusion
• Knowledge
transfer
• Knowledge uptake
• Implementation
• Knowledge is a product of
research
• Knowledge is generalisable
across
contexts
• Key process is handoff from
researchers to users
• “Uptake” is a function of
effective
packaging and appropriate
channels
From Knowing to DoingTraditional linear model – assumes rather
uncomplicated relationships between research/knowledge and knowledge/action
Knowledge Creation
Knowledge
validation
Knowledge Disseminatio
n
Knowledge
adoption
Researchers
Users
‘KT’
--- THE PROBLEM WITH THIS MODEL ---Too - simple, rational, linear, uni-directional, individualised, unproblematised, asocial, and
acontextual (otherwise, OK…)
Research priorities
How do we KNOW stuff? biomolecular sciences
clinical epidemiology
some health services research…
some organisations research…
…much health services research
…much organisations research
patient & user experience
case studies, ethnographies
C O
N T
E X
T
Varieties of research
Harder, quantitative, facts-based, explanatory…
Softer, qualitative, exploratory, more meaning-oriented…
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 serviceand programme implementation…
• Know-who (to involve): e.g. service team composition; building alliances for action…
Enlightenment knowledge: problematising, re-framing…Methodological pluralism: contentiousnessEngagement with values: politics & negotiation
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’.
Challenge of “knowledge”
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
brokerage
• Boundary
spanners
• Research impact
• Knowledge from multiple sources –
research, theory and practice;
• Key process is interpersonal,
involving
social relationships;
• Networks of producers and
consumers
• Collaboration through the
production-
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
generation
• Learn from outside
• Knowledge created elsewhere
by experts
• Clear methodological
standards & hierarchies
MODE II
• Focus is problem-solving
• Learn by doing in situ
• Knowledge is co-created and
context dependent
• Flexible methods &
contingent application
“Use” is Complex, Social & Situated
• 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.
…moving us away from ideas of research as “answers”;
… problematising “knowledge transfer”;
Emphasising “situated knowledge interaction”, recognising:
Third generation: Systems Models
LANGUAGE KEY ASSUMPTIONS
•Knowledge translation
•Knowledge interaction
•Knowledge integration
•Knowledge mobilization
•Knowledge intermediation
•Knowledge cycle is tightly woven within local priorities, culture and context;
•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