Understanding knowledge brokerage and its transformative potential: a Bourdieusian perspective

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Chew ◽  
Natalie Armstrong ◽  
Graham P. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Healthcare Research ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Knowledge Brokering ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Knowledge Brokerage ◽  
Knowledge Brokers ◽  
Institutional Boundaries

Background: Knowledge brokering is promoted as a means of enabling exchange between fields and closer collaboration across institutional boundaries. Yet examples of its success in fostering collaboration and reconfiguring boundaries remain few.Aims and objectives: We consider the introduction of a dedicated knowledge-brokering role in a partnership across healthcare research and practice, with a view to examining the interaction between knowledge brokers’ location and attributes and the characteristics of the fields across which they work.Methods: We use qualitative data from a four-year ethnographic study, including observations, interviews, focus groups, reflective diaries and other documentary sources. Our analysis draws on Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual framework.Findings: In efforts to transform the boundaries between related but disjointed fields, a feature posited as advantageous – knowledge brokers’ liminality – may in practice work to their disadvantage. An unequal partnership between two fields, where the capitals (the resources, relationships, markers of prestige and forms of knowledge) valued in one are privileged over the other, left knowledge brokers without a prior affiliation to either field adrift between the two.Discussion and conclusions: Lacking legitimacy to act across fields and bridge the gap between them, knowledge brokers are likely to seek to develop their skills on one side of the boundary, focusing on more limited and conservative activities, rather than advance the value of a distinctive array of capitals in mediating between fields. We identify implications for the construction and deployment of knowledge-brokering interventions towards collaborative objectives.<br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Knowledge brokers are vaunted as a means of translating knowledge and removing barriers between fields;</li><br /><li>Their position ‘in between’ fields is important, but their influence in those fields may be limited;</li><br /><li>Lacking the resources and relationships to work across fields, they may align with only one;</li><br /><li>Both the structure of fields and the prior knowledge and habitus of brokers will influence knowledge brokerage’s success.</li></ul>

scholarly journals A comparative ethnographic study of collective knowledge brokering across the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic knowledge boundaries in applied health research

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Waring ◽  
Jenelle Clarke ◽  
Rob Vickers
Keyword(s):  
Health Research ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Epistemic Communities ◽  
Maturity Model ◽  
Knowledge Brokering ◽  
Collective Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Brokers ◽  
Applied Health Research

Background: Knowledge brokers facilitate the creation, sharing and use of knowledge among different research, policy and practice communities. This paper examines the way collective knowledge brokering can address the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic boundaries that separate research and practice communities.<br />Methods: A comparative ethnographic study of three applied health research projects, each researching the implementation of clinical interventions into healthcare practice. Data was collected through in-depth non-participant observations, semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis with each project team and associated practice stakeholder communities.<br />Findings: The study describes how ‘core’ project teams and ‘peripheral’ stakeholder groups can be differentiated as relatively bounded epistemic communities. It also identifies both ‘designated’ and ‘non-designated’ knowledge brokers as working within and between these communities. Through comparing the life cycles of these projects, the study identifies the individual and collective brokering activities involved in sharing knowledge among these communities.Discussion: The study reaffirms the idea that it is challenging for a single broker to undertake all brokering tasks, and that knowledge sharing is achieved through sequential and parallel forms of collective knowledge brokering. Furthermore, different brokering strategies are needed to address the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic boundaries that separate epistemic communities. The paper proposes a maturity model of collective knowledge brokering.

Investigating the challenges and opportunities of a bilingual equity knowledge brokering network: A critical and reflective perspective from university partners

2021 ◽  
pp. 147821032110414
Author(s):  
Nathalie Bélanger ◽  
Eliane Dulude
Keyword(s):  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Knowledge Brokering ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Knowledge Brokers ◽  
Equity And Inclusion

Public education systems are often large, diverse, fragmented, and historically very hard to change. While previous reforms targeted primarily school staff, large-scale policies now include a broader audience including non-system organizations (e.g., knowledge brokering organizations) that may influence directly or indirectly policy implementation. Arguing that knowledge brokering organizations can contribute to policy implementation by bridging equity policy and research and practice at the local level, we put forward that their networks and relationships with districts, schools, and community organizations can bring about substantial changes to the organization and practices of schools on equity issues, even though they may face obstacles in implementing change due to particular contexts. We aim to better understand the role of knowledge brokering networks and of the university partners who act as knowledge brokers to bridge Ontario Ministry of Education policy goals with equity research and practice. As knowledge brokers working in a bilingual province-wide equity knowledge brokering network, we use our experiences as a particular case of a non-system role in system-wide reforms. We build on these experiences to question and self-reflect on our role as knowledge brokers who accompanied practitioners and community coalition leaders towards equity and inclusion over a 2-year period. By analyzing knowledge brokering functions, we show the challenges and opportunities we faced as knowledge brokers in guiding local equity and inclusion initiatives: 1) the roles we carried out during interactions and practices that could take on different meanings as knowledge producers and mobilizers; 2) we point out how and why these knowledge brokering functions and our roles within a bilingual province-wide network needed to adapt to local realities by providing for a more flexible planning process that allowed for sufficient time to identify local needs and to produce, if necessary, the knowledge that incorporated cultural context considerations or particularities.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man Is King: Knowledge Brokerage in the Age of Learning Algorithms

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Waardenburg ◽  
Marleen Huysman ◽  
Anastasia V. Sergeeva
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Learning Algorithm ◽  
Learning Algorithms ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Police Management ◽  
Knowledge Brokerage ◽  
Knowledge Brokers ◽  
The One ◽  
Over Time

This paper presents research on how knowledge brokers attempt to translate opaque algorithmic predictions. The research is based on a 31-month ethnographic study of the implementation of a learning algorithm by the Dutch police to predict the occurrence of crime incidents and offers one of the first empirical accounts of algorithmic brokers. We studied a group of intelligence officers, who were tasked with brokering between a machine learning community and a user community by translating the outcomes of the learning algorithm to police management. We found that, as knowledge brokers, they performed different translation practices over time and enacted increasingly influential brokerage roles, namely, those of messenger, interpreter, and curator. Triggered by an impassable knowledge boundary yielded by the black-boxed machine learning, the brokers eventually acted like “kings in the land of the blind” and substituted the algorithmic predictions with their own judgments. By emphasizing the dynamic and influential nature of algorithmic brokerage work, we contribute to the literature on knowledge brokerage and translation in the age of learning algorithms.

A network case of knowledge brokering

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joelle Rodway ◽  
Stephen MacGregor ◽  
Alan Daly ◽  
Yi-Hwa Liou ◽  
Susan Yonezawa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Network Activity ◽  
Centrality Measures ◽  
Knowledge Brokering ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Knowledge Brokers ◽  
Over Time

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is two-fold: (1) to offer a conceptual understanding of knowledge brokering from a sociometric point-of-view; and (2) to provide an empirical example of this conceptualization in an education context.Design/methodology/approachWe use social network theory and analysis tools to explore knowledge exchange patterns among a group of teachers, instructional coaches and administrators who are collectively seeking to build increased capacity for effective mathematics instruction. We propose the concept of network activity to measure direct and indirect knowledge brokerage through the use of degree and betweenness centrality measures. Further, we propose network utility—measured by tie multiplexity—as a second key component of effective knowledge brokering.FindingsOur findings suggest significant increases in both direct and indirect knowledge brokering activity across the network over time. Teachers, in particular, emerge as key knowledge brokers within this networked learning community. Importantly, there is also an increase in the number of resources exchanged through network relationships over time; the most active knowledge brokers in this social ecosystem are those individuals who are exchanging multiple forms of knowledge.Originality/valueThis study focuses on knowledge brokering as it presents itself in the relational patterns among educators within a social ecosystem. While it could be that formal organizational roles may encapsulate knowledge brokering across physical structures with an education system (e.g. between schools and central offices), these individuals are not necessarily the people who are most effectively brokering knowledge across actors within the broader social network.

Gender Transformations in Higher Education

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 205-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Amy Bell ◽  
Lucy Hawkins ◽  
Lorraine Kelleher ◽  
Cath Lambert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Academic Activism ◽  
Popular Appeal ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Uk Higher Education

This paper offers a critical perspective on issues around gender and sexual transformation within the context of UK Higher Education. Drawing on qualitative data carried out by undergraduate and postgraduate students, the analysis explores some of the diverse and often challenging ways in which young/er women and men are thinking and talking about gender, sexuality and feminism, as well as their strategies for turning ideas into political action. The research focuses on the activities and opinions of students belonging to an anti-sexist organisation within one UK university, who are engaged in campaigns to raise awareness about the damaging effects of gender and sexual inequalities, as well as promoting the popular appeal of contemporary feminisms. Locating the voices and research findings of the students themselves at the centre of the discussion, the paper is produced collaboratively between students and teachers who are involved in both the activist and research elements of this project. The paper also argues for (and provides evidence of) the transformative potential of alternative and critical forms of student engagement and student/ staff collaboration in relation to gender informed academic activism.

The impact of alcohol misuse on fathering in Northern Uganda: An ethnographic study of fathers

2020 ◽  
pp. 136346152094331
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Mehus ◽  
Elizabeth Wieling ◽  
Okot Thomas Oloya ◽  
Achan Laura ◽  
Verena Ertl
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Alcohol Misuse ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Northern Uganda ◽  
Drinking Alcohol ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Entire Family ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Depth Interviews

The Acholi people of northern Uganda experienced decades of conflict. Alcohol misuse is high among northern Ugandan men. This is common in displaced or post-war communities. Because parents are often the most significant and proximal influence in a child’s development, it is important to understand the relationships between parental behavioral health and parenting. The purpose of this ethnographic study was to understand the impact of alcohol misuse on fathering, from fathers’ perspectives. We collected qualitative data from several sources, including in-depth interviews with 19 fathers. Informants identified three ways in which a father can “overdrink”: drinking to drunkenness, spending too much money on alcohol, or spending too much time drinking alcohol. Fathers described the specific ways in which overdrinking impacted each of the three primary roles of a father, which were identified as providing, educating, and creating a stable home. Of the negative effects of overdrinking, a compromised ability to provide for basic needs was described as the most salient. The findings suggest that support for families in this region should include support for father’s substance misuse, as a father’s overdrinking is widely understood to be problematic for the entire family.

scholarly journals Draw(Me) and Tell: Use of Children’s Drawings as Elicitation Tools to Explore Embodiment in the Very Young

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 160940691881623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillian M. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Childhood Obesity ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Relational Ethics ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Generation Process ◽  
Data Generation ◽  
Research With Children ◽  
Body Shapes

Qualitative research with children as participants is challenging on many levels—ethical, methodological, and relational. When researching the experience of children with particular bodily vulnerabilities, these issues are further amplified. This article describes a data generating tool designed to address these challenges. It was used within the context of an ethnographic study exploring relational societal processes associated with childhood obesity in Malta. This creative child-centric method uses “me” drawings as elicitation foci during informal conversations in the field where the agentic status of the child was prioritized and their role as active collaborators emphasized. Optimizing ethical symmetry was a key concern, as was emphasis on relational ethics and assent. Using the “Draw(Me) and Tell” activity positioned the child in a realistic position of power by giving them control over the data generation process, and helped address ethical issues related to agency, privacy, and sensitivity. It allowed ethical generation of qualitative data based on the children’s reflexive commentary on their own body shapes, with the aim of exploring their embodied habitus, identity, and selfhood.

Deinstitutionalisation for Long-Term Mental Illness: An Ethnographic Study

2000 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 484-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Newton ◽  
A. Rosen ◽  
C. Tennant ◽  
C. Hobbs ◽  
H.M. Lapsley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Clinical Results ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Post Discharge ◽  
Seriously Mentally Ill ◽  
Comprehensive Health ◽  
Social Anthropologist ◽  
Participant Observer

Objective: Deinstitutionalisation of seriously mentally ill people in the developed world, including Australia, has occurred since the middle of this century. Evaluation of the effects of this change on the lives of individuals is of paramount importance to ensure that policies are acceptable and effective. Increasingly, multifaceted studies are considered essential for comprehensive health research. The qualitative aspect of this study complements the clinical and economic components. Method: An ethnographic approach enabled contextual, qualitative data to be gathered from within the social world of 47 hospital residents as they moved to the community. A social anthropologist acting explicitly as a participant observer undertook fieldwork over two and a half years both pre- and post-discharge. Qualitative data were collected, stored and analysed separately from quantitative and economic data. Results: Ethnographic findings generally supported and, in many cases, mirrored clinical results. Of the total cohort of 47 patients transferred to the community, the 40 who continue to live outside of hospital all reported a preference for community living. The importance of freedom and simple liberties cannot be underestimated as factors that enabled this resilient group of people to work creatively through difficult periods. Conclusion: Properly planned and resourced deinstitutionalisation not only maintains people with a prolonged mental illness outside of hospital, it also enhances their quality of life. Subjective descriptive material focusing on personal experiences adds meaning to quantitative research data allowing health professionals to more fully understand the implications of health policy on the lives of individuals.

scholarly journals The ‘dark side’ of knowledge brokering

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Kislov ◽  
Paul Wilson ◽  
Ruth Boaden
Keyword(s):  
Research Evidence ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Knowledge Brokering ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Types Of Knowledge ◽  
Sources Of Knowledge ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Collective Process ◽  
Knowledge Brokers ◽  
The Impact

Deploying knowledge brokers to bridge the ‘gap’ between researchers and practitioners continues to be seen as an unquestionable enabler of evidence-based practice and is often endorsed uncritically. We explore the ‘dark side’ of knowledge brokering, reflecting on its inherent challenges which we categorize as: (1) tensions between different aspects of brokering; (2) tensions between different types and sources of knowledge; and (3) tensions resulting from the ‘in-between’ position of brokers. As a result of these tensions, individual brokers may struggle to maintain their fragile and ambiguous intermediary position, and some of the knowledge may be lost in the ‘in-between world’, whereby research evidence is transferred to research users without being mobilized in their day-to-day practice. To be effective, brokering requires an amalgamation of several types of knowledge and a multidimensional skill set that needs to be sustained over time. If we want to maximize the impact of research on policy and practice, we should move from deploying individual ‘brokers’ to embracing the collective process of ‘brokering’ supported at the organizational and policy levels.

scholarly journals ‘The whole of Shirebrook got put on an ASBO’: The co-production of territorial stigma in a former colliery town

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2110481
Author(s):  
James Pattison
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Mining Town ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
Distribution Centre ◽  
Industrial Mining ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Post Industrial

This paper draws on data collected from a multimethod ethnographic study to contribute to debates on the production of territorial stigmatisation through the analysis of Shirebrook, UK: a small post-industrial mining town in Derbyshire, which now houses the distribution centre and warehouse of Sports Direct, recently the subject of high-profile scrutiny in the UK over working conditions. Combining semi-structured interviews, participant observation and the analysis of documentary sources, I argue that the territorial stigmatisation of Shirebrook does not emanate from a single source. Rather, multiple institutions and agents converge in the co-production of stigma. The analysis draws attention to local antagonisms and hierarchies in the production of stigma, demonstrating how relatively powerful actors ‘below’ do not simply resist or deflect stigma onto less powerful others, but influence the way that territorial stigma operates, problematising Wacquant's top-down conceptualisation.

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