Future Knowledge Mobilization for Deep Societal Transformations

Cover Thought Leadership Paper

Screenshot: K. Gäbler

Guidelines for Knowledge Mobilization

The thought leadership paper "Future Knowledge Mobilization for Deep Societal Transformations", authored by Benno Werlen, Joanne Kauffman, and Karsten Gaebler is available for download now. The paper was published as part of a series on Knowledge Mobilization, issued by the Canadian Commission for UNESCO and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), who sponsored the project. The series of seven thought leadership papers delivered by UNESCO Chairs from Canada and worldwide addresses topics such as open education, geographically embedded knowledge, or intercultural and international research with Indigenous and rural peoples.

Guidelines for Knowledge Mobilization in a time of profound societal change are addressed in the paper delivered by the UNESCO-Chair on Global Understanding for Sustainability. Based upon a series of interviews with experts in the field of transdisciplinary sustainability science and science policy, the authors first describe overarching trends that shape the environment of current Knowledge Mobilization, such as the digital revolution, de-/globalization, or shifting relationships between science and society. In the second part of the paper, they suggest different strategies to make Knowledge Mobilization more effective, e.g., collaboration with local communities based upon a more participatory culture and epistemic diversity, building institutional frameworks that reward boundary-crossing research, or the promotion of "real life" learning approaches in educational contexts.

The full brochure is available here (English version)pdf, 12 mb and here (French version)pdf, 12 mb.