UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education

Bridging Knowledge Cultures: Comparative Results of Global Study

Bridging Knowledge Cultures: Comparative Results of Global Study

The Knowledge for Change Global Consortium on Training Community-Based Participatory Research (BKC), led by the UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, conducted a global research project between 2017 and 2024. This project saw 24 Knowledge for Change (K4C) Hubs from 16 countries contribute, including Cuba, Colombia, Canada, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Italy, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Mexico, Ireland, and the USA.

Higher education institutions have long used various means to produce knowledge, including research partnerships with community organizations. While these partnerships have expanded globally as effective approaches to co-create knowledge, they often faced challenges related to power inequalities and differences in structures, processes, roles, relationships, artefacts, discourses, partnership configurations, transformations over time, and partners' identities and status.

The central research question guiding the BKC project was: How can diverse knowledge cultures be bridged to address extant power inequalities in community-university research partnerships, ensuring these connections are sustainable and secure over time?

Key Findings:

  • Community vs. Academic Knowledge: Community knowledge, grounded in everyday life, is place-based, contextual, contemporary, and practical, while academic knowledge often seeks generalizations and universal truths. Community knowledge is curated through everyday rituals, symbols, languages, and practices, with validation based on cooperation, culturally resonant ethics, and responsiveness to life changes.
  • Dynamic Nature of Community Knowledge: Contrary to popular belief, community knowledge is dynamic, evolving in response to socio-ecological changes, and shaped by both pragmatic and normative values.
  • Legitimacy and Trust: The first step in bridging knowledge cultures involves accepting and acknowledging community knowledge as legitimate. Building trust-based relationships between community and academic partners is crucial for meaningful research partnerships.
  • Listening and Unlearning: Academics must learn to listen deeply and unlearn self-indulgent habits to foster mutual respect and understanding. This process requires patience, time, and the capacity to cope with the discomfort of unlearning.
  • Non-Traditional Documentation: Academics need to accept oral transmission and non-written forms of community knowledge as legitimate. Understanding stories and anecdotes as valuable data supports the bridging process.
  • Effective Mediation: Given cultural, linguistic, and status differences, effective mediation is essential. Interlocutors, boundary-spanners, and intermediaries play a critical role in facilitating these processes, ensuring accountability to both community and academic partners.
  • Institutional Support: Visible structures within academia are necessary to transition from academic-led knowledge creation to interdisciplinary co-construction with the community. These structures provide spaces for recognizing ongoing co-structured research projects, sharing tools and strategies, and tracking impact.
  • K4C Hubs as Bridging Sites: The K4C Hubs, facilitated by the UNESCO Chair, have become privileged sites for bridging community and academic knowledge cultures. They offer safe spaces for discussing differences, sharing emerging learnings, and dealing with challenges. These hubs represent transitional spaces toward the decolonization and democratization of knowledge.