Making and Moving Knowledge

It has long been acknowledged that research does not directly translate into knowledge nor does knowledge necessarily, or even often, translate into wisdom. Whether the immediate challenge is global warming, epidemic disease, poverty, environmental degradation, or social fragmentation, our research efforts are all wasted if we cannot devise processes to create and transfer knowledge to policy makers, interested groups and ordinary people in a manner that is efficient and understandable. How we maximize the impact of the research that scholars do and how to combine that with knowledge already extant in 'lay' or 'local' communities, are key issues in a world with scarce research resources and numerous social and scientific conflicts. "Making and Moving Knowledge" focuses directly on how knowledge is created, transferred and used and perhaps most important, how it is blocked and atrophies. It treats knowledge generated by universities and governments alongside 'traditional' and practical knowledge generated in coastal aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities and looks at how the different kinds flow in different directions. The chapters are theoretical, methodological, and applied as the authors model their commitment to knowledge transfer in their work with community, academics and policy makers.