Perspectives on Knowledge Communication : Concepts and Settings

This collection elaborates an innovative analytical framework for knowledge communication, bringing together insights from a range of professional settings to highlight how a cross-disciplinary approach can promote a new view of knowledge that emphasizes constructivist and cognitivist perspectives.

The volume seeks to draw connections between different disciplines’ traditionally disparate studies of knowledge communication, defined here as the communication of domain knowledge between experts of the same discipline, experts of different disciplines, or non-experts with an interest in developing expert knowledge. Featuring work from scholars across linguistics, corporate communication, and sociology on diverse professional environments, chapters focus on one of three central aspects in the communication of expert knowledge: the textual carrier of the interaction, the roles and relationships between parties in these interactions, and the contexts in which the texts and communication occur. Taken together, the collection elucidates the value of an approach that supposes that expertise is co-created in interaction under the conditions of human cognitive systems and that knowledge asymmetries can offer both challenges and opportunities to better understand and generate new forms of communication and specialized knowledge.

This book will be of interest to scholars interested in language and communication, professional communication, organizational communication, and sociology of knowledge.

Jan Engberg is Professor of Knowledge Communication at the School of Communication and Culture, Section of German Business Communication, Aarhus University, Denmark. His main research interests are the study of texts and genres in the academic field, cognitive aspects of domain-specific discourse, and the relations between specialized knowledge and text formulation as well as basic aspects of communication in domain-specific settings. His research is focused upon communication, translation, and meaning in the field of law.

Antoinette Fage-Butler is Associate Professor at the Department of English, School of Communication and Culture, where she gained her PhD in Knowledge Communication. Her research interests lie primarily in discursive and cultural aspects of knowledge communication, with particular focus on the communication of risk and trust between authorities and the public. She is currently Principal Investigator of the (Mis)trust of Scientific Expertise research project at Aarhus University, Denmark.

Peter Kastberg is a full professor of organizational communication and the founding director of the Communicating Organizations research group at the Faculty of the Humanities, Aalborg University, Denmark. He is the founder and main organizer of the Dark Side conference series. He holds a BA and an MA degree in International Business Communication as well as a PhD in Applied Linguistics/Technical Communication. Among his current research interests are philosophy of communication, communication theory, as well as critical organizational communication.