Making and Moving Knowledge Interdisciplinary and Community-Based Research in a World on the Edge

It has been clear for some time that research does not automatically translate into knowledge, nor does knowledge necessarily translate into wisdom. Whether the immediate challenge is global warming, epidemic disease, poverty, environmental degradation, or social fragmentation, research efforts are wasted if we cannot devise efficient and understandable processes to create and transfer knowledge to policy makers, interested groups, and communities. How to maximize the impact of scholarly research and combine it with practical knowledge already available in lay communities are key issues in a world threatened with social-ecological disasters. Making and Moving Knowledge focuses directly on how knowledge is created and transferred or is blocked and atrophies. It places knowledge generated by universities and governments beside practical knowledge from coastal aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities and looks at how different kinds of knowledge flow in different directions. Concentrating on intellectually fertile spaces at the edges of disciplines and the rich socio-ecological interfaces where land meets sea, authors demonstrate their commitment to knowledge transfer in their work, showing how knowledge transfer can be considered theoretically, methodologically, and practically."

John Sutton Lutz is associate professor, history, University of Victoria.

Barbara Neis is professor, sociology, Memorial University.