The DOI matches its Crossref record; 15 of the 15 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Why ‘knowledge transfer’ is misconceived for applied social research
Abstract
‘Knowledge transfer’ has become established as shorthand for a wide variety of activities linking the production of academic knowledge to the potential use of such knowledge in non-academic environments. While welcoming the attention now being paid to non-academic applications of social research, we contend that terms such as knowledge transfer (and its subordinate sibling, knowledge translation) misrepresent the tasks that they seek to support. By articulating the complex and contested nature of applied social research, and then highlighting the social and contextual complexities of its use, we can see that other terms may serve us better. Following from this analysis, we suggest that ‘knowledge interaction’ might more appropriately describe the messy engagement of multiple players with diverse sources of knowledge, and that ‘knowledge intermediation’ might begin to articulate some of the managed processes by which knowledge interaction can be promoted. While it might be hard to shift the terminology of knowledge transfer in the short term, awareness of its shortcomings can enhance understanding about how social research can have wider impacts.
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Cites
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Cited by
GREENHALGH, T., JACKSON, C., SHAW, S., & JANAMIAN, T. (2016) · The Milbank Quarterly · doi:10.1111/1468-0009.12197 · Cited by 1,288
Policy failure and the policy-implementation gap: can policy support programs help?
Hudson, B., Hunter, D., & Peckham, S. (2019) · Policy Design and Practice · doi:10.1080/25741292.2018.1540378 · Cited by 721
Is it time to drop the ‘knowledge translation’ metaphor? A critical literature review
Greenhalgh, T., & Wieringa, S. (2011) · Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · doi:10.1258/jrsm.2011.110285 · Cited by 543
Reconsidering evidence-based policy: Key issues and challenges
Head, B. W. (2010) · Policy and Society · doi:10.1016/j.polsoc.2010.03.001 · Cited by 527
Systems thinking, knowledge and action: towards better models and methods
Best, A., & Holmes, B. (2010) · Evidence & Policy · doi:10.1332/174426410x502284 · Cited by 444
Metadata
- Authors
- Davies, H., Nutley, S., & Walter, I.
- Venue
- Journal of Health Services Research & Policy
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2008-07
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 188-190
- ISSN
- 1355-8196 (ISSN-L)
- 1758-1060
- OpenAlex
- W2001560811
- Cited by
- 271
- References
- 15
- FWCI
- 61.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
