4 - Modelling knowledge dynamics

Abstract

Agents change their worlds using knowledge gained through processing environmental information. In this chapter, we address some basic problems stemming from this ‘ecological’ approach to modelling complex socio-spatial knowledge. The chapter opens this discussion with a brief consideration of the relationships between knowledge and information, including problems with reductionism in models of these relationships. We also touch on key themes in ecological psychology, before considering the application of ecological approaches to human development to an understanding of socio-spatial innovations. Specifically, we draw on a model of ecological complexity based upon notions of micro-, meso- and exo-levels of interactions among human and non-human systems, noting also how the components of these systems recombine into different social and technological forms at different levels of interaction. We introduce standard methods for understanding these interactions and network dynamics. We show how recombinations of network agents underpin ‘communities of practice’ that drive socio-spatial innovations. We also note how intensifications of activity within the network can bring about inequalities of access to, and distribution of, innovative knowledge. Finally, we consider the possible topologies (the ‘shapes’) of knowledge brought about by dynamics akin to physical forces.