| Knowledge Mobilization |
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Knowledge Mobilization may be defined as putting available Knowledge into active service to benefit Society . It may be knowledge that has been gathered through systematic study or through experience. Both the research knowledge and experiential wisdom are worth sharing to benefit others. It is an obligation and a right to share and to have access to beneficial knowledge. As a matter of course, knowledge is shared among people, among experts and between people and the experts in many forums. Yet much knowledge does not reach those who need it in order to make better decisions that would benefit themselves, their family, community or the society at large, at national and global levels. Knowledge Mobilization is a proactive process to ensure that knowledge, specially that created through publicly funded programs reaches the intended audience. Ways and means of knowledge mobilization are many. They may be informal, in formal classroom settings, organized conferences, through the media, online and electronic means. Wikipedia is one good example of knowledge mobilization. It is providing the means for sharing knowledge among equals for collective benefit. One organization that has adopted knowledge mobilization, as a priority, is the . There is also the Canadian Center for Knowledge Mobilizationhttp://www.cckm.ca. Other organizations are promoting the same process under different names, such as knowledge dissemination, knowledge translation, knowledge transfer and exchange. While it may be known by different labels, the process is an interactive dialogue and engagement between the producers and users of the knowledge. Sooner that such dialogue starts the better so that both those involved in doing the research and the potential users of the findings can benefit from each others knowledge and perspective. Sometimes it is necessary to have knowledge brokers who can act as a bridge between the users and producers of the knowledge. Such brokering is essential to ensure that right information is available to right people, at the right time in the right format. These ideas of quality research, accurate interpretation, open access and just-in-time service are the bases for good researcher-user interface, often provided by knowledge brokers who can do a synthesis of a large body of research and look for policy and practice implications that facilitate use of research results. Canada Health Sciences Research Foundation (CHSRF) has made extencive use of knowledge brokering and promoted evidence-informed decision making in the heath filed. It has developed extensive tools and resources that are finding use outside the health field. Similarly Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) have developed the idea of knowledge translation as a means to make better use of research in the health field. Potential users of research findings may not be obvious upfront at the start of the research process. The reserch endeavour may be theoretical or historic of interest to a few others. However, as the research process unfolds, implications and possible uses of research widen to broader and broader audiences. It is being attentive to such possibilities that is the essence of knowledge mobilization. To always be on the look out for use of the information to the greatest possible extent. It is such use that builds a legacy for future generations. Application of science to technological problems and innovations seems easier than the findings in social sciences areas that are investigating long term embedded societal problems that are intertwined at local, national and global levels. They deal with the people side of the quality of life and nation building that is so crucial to future progress of humanity. Human, technological and cultural developments are needed for economic prosperity, environmental sustainability, social harmony and cultural vitality. REFERENCES |
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