Communications 2010 (Part 1)

Since the development of the Synthesis report in 2009, IKM’s messages are now more clearly defined. And they aren’t half complex.

Not only are they very complex because they are concerned with what is a very complex field – information and knowledge for development – but also because they are not clear guidelines but, rather, they are a series of guiding principles.

This complexity – and I use this word in a standard, English dictionary way, with no deeper meaning! – poses serious challenges for IKM’s Communications Strategy but more about that in my next post in this series. In the meantime, here is a abridged version of IKM’s messages:

Multiple Knowledges
Although always implicit, there has been considerable development in IKM’s understanding of the nature and importance of the concept of ‘multiple knowledges’ or ‘epistemic diversity’.  At one level, this is almost a common sense response to the daily negotiations across disciplines and ways of life which take place within the development sector.  Valerie Brown has further helped IKM’s understanding of this with her demonstration of how types of knowledge are so often linked to roles.

Knowledge landscapes
IKM has been working on the conception of multiple knowledges in the context of the disconnection between policy, practice and academic research in the development sector.

Bridges
One aspect of using multiple knowledges in practice is the importance of the bridges – human, organisational and technical – which need to exist if gaps between knowledges are to be crossed.

Local content
Local content is important and it needs to be valued by both local communities and development organisations.

Implications of non-linearity
Notions of development practice which envisage direct cause and effect relationships between input and output in environments untainted by any other influences are entirely hallucinatory.  Unanticipated external events, the unpredictability of life (health, family, change), and the possibility – even desirability – that new factors and opportunities will emerge out of the experience of doing whatever is planned, coming into contact and relating with the other actors involved mean that the lifespan of any firm plan is always limited.

Critique of research ‘for development’
The structure of research ‘for development’ is seriously dysfunctional.

Tools for handling multiple knowledges
Good information desing – including both means of design and means of expression – has the potenial to greatly strengthen the transmission signal.