Knowledge Exchange Network Research Articles

Co-production of sustainability indicators in a vulnerable South American agricultural frontier

Deforestation linked to agricultural activities is a major sustainability concern. Planning towards sustainable agricultural landscapes in the (sub-)tropics requires indicators that capture the many aspects of social-ecological cost and benefit of agriculture. Agricultural production strategies are developed using the best available data and knowledge such as high-yield locations, distance to storage facilities, or certification bonuses. However, there is often a divide between sustainable production data generated by the scientific community and current data that are of interest to actors, such as those in the agribusiness sector. Here, we describe how the harmonization of crop production, conservation, and social data used by scientists and agribusiness is possible using a participatory exercise based on knowledge co-production (i.e., generation of knowledge in a collaborative way) of socio-economic and environmental indicators (such as agricultural production, logistics, or the location of indigenous communities). This was made available through an online decision support platform that facilitated the generation of sustainable entrepreneurial strategies. We tested this exercise for the social-environmentally vulnerable Argentine Chaco dry forest, subject to some of the highest rates of deforestation globally, mainly due to soybean production. The cooperation between participants of this exercise built a knowledge exchange network that was key for informing decision-makers and highlighted information gaps including agricultural productivity, accessibility of regions, and the vulnerability of rural communities. Our exercise may be applicable to other agricultural commodity frontiers and showcases the value of including actors’ priorities in the design of indicators to ensure their policy impact and to achieve food systems’ sustainability.

Pottery décor as networks on the Middle Niger, Mali

ABSTRACT This paper reports on an attempt to analyse decorative techniques on archaeological pottery from the Middle Niger region of West Africa as knowledge exchange networks. The twelfth-century AD state of this network is modelled and analysed and then compared to its ninth-century counterpart. The analysis shows how knowledge about pottery decoration was propagated within networks of different sizes and intensities, from local, well-connected networks to more loosely tied long-distance connections. The article shows how the perspective of network analysis differs from, and can fruitfully complement, previous treatments of ceramic décor distribution in the region. It adds a novel perspective to what the distribution of archaeological ceramics in this region reflects and contributes to the generation of hypotheses that can be further tested by fieldwork.

Does Formal Interorganizational Relationship Shape Interpersonal Knowledge Exchange in Multiteam Construction Projects? A Multi-Level Network Analysis

This study investigates the differences in structural patterns of intra-and inter-team knowledge exchange networks in multiteam construction projects and explores the cross-levelinteraction between knowledge exchange networks and interorganizational formal networks, as represented by networks of contractual and task interdependence relationships. An empirical study is developed by using multiple exponential random graph models. The findings show that a discrepancy between intra- and inter-team knowledge exchange structural patterns arises with respect to reciprocity. Interorganizational task interdependencies are found to align with cross-team knowledge exchange. Significant homophily in work experience is found in cross-team knowledge exchange. Interorganizational task interdependence promotes cross-team knowledge exchange among project members with heterogeneous expertise. This study expands the research on project-based multiteam system knowledge exchange networks from a multi-level network analysis perspective.

Knowledge Exchange Networks: Does Gender Matter?

Gender diversity in knowledge exchange networks can be a source of innovation in organizations as it provides new insights that improve the creative process. Diversity literature provides enough evidence of the importance of utilizing mixed-gender teams to gain innovative outcomes. However, in knowledge management literature, gender diversity has been scarcely addressed. Knowledge management literature happens to be dominant, and there is a need to study the impact of gender diversity in knowledge creation processes and networks. This theoretical paper links the diversity literature to knowledge management literature and provides new understandings by considering gender as an important factor in the knowledge creation process. This paper contributes to the literature by emphasizing on exploring knowledge exchange relationships through a feminist perspective. Feminist perspective is also missing in knowledge management literature; thus, by making gender an important consideration in the socialization phase of the knowledge creation process, this paper provides a diverse perspective in knowledge management literature. Furthermore, this paper presents a conceptual model of gender-diverse knowledge exchange networks that shows the inclusion of women in knowledge exchange networks enhances the effectiveness of teams. Women are being neglected when it comes to inclusion in knowledge creating networks because of in-group bias against men and the stereotypical perception of women’s lack of technical and innovative knowledge. This paper sheds light on the importance of women's inclusion in knowledge exchange networks by emphasizing the vitality of diversity in creating knowledge and innovation in collaborative networks and teams in organizations.

Sexual Knowledge and Expertise in Europe's East: Transnational Exchanges

East Central Europe played a crucial role in shaping the development of sexual science from the 1870s onwards. The life-histories of influential and well-known figures such as Sigmund Freud (born in Freiberg/Příbor), Magnus Hirschfeld (born in Kolberg/Kolobrzeg) and Karl Maria Kertbeny (born in Vienna, based in Budapest) reveal the imperial interconnectedness of East Central Europe with what would become Western Europe. By 1932, when the World League for Sexual Reform held its congress in Brno (following previous meetings in Berlin, London, Vienna, and Copenhagen), the society had established branches across the region, including Poland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. In that same year, Poland decriminalised homosexual acts. Yet, East Central Europe is often neglected in the history of sexology and little is known about how sexual science in these regions shaped, and was shaped by, global networks of knowledge production. Indeed, despite recent attempts to demonstrate the ways in which sexual science was a truly global enterprise, East Central Europe remains to be fully incorporated into our mapping of the global networks of sexological dialogue and exchange.1 This is especially true of scholarship on the period after the Second World War. Historians have tended to misconstrue the transnational nature of sexual science in East Central Europe both before and after 1945. First, the contribution of East Central Europeans to European cultures of scientific exchanges has been obscured by the tendency of much historical writing to focus on a small number of key pioneers (Krafft-Ebing, Magnus Hirschfeld, Sigmund Freud and Havelock Ellis). Second, it is assumed that East Central European sexual science was largely cut off from international networks of knowledge exchange after the Second World War following the onset of the Cold War.2 Third, there are preconceived notions that communist authoritarian governments, having curtailed political freedoms and economic entrepreneurialism, must have also taken a repressive stance against sexual expression.3 Fourth, the dominance of 1989 as the fundamental caesura has encouraged a periodisation that fails to draw enough attention to the shifts in transnational patterns of knowledge exchange around sexual politics during the period 1945 to 1989 and fails to identify key continuities that link the sexual politics of the contemporary world with those of the communist period. None of these assumptions can withstand scrutiny, as the articles in this forum reveal. Building on a recent boost in scholarly interest in the sexual histories of the region,4 we present a collection of papers that each detail the transnational connections of local sexual experts in creating sexual knowledge both before and during state socialism.5

The importance of cross-scale social relationships for dealing with social-ecological change in agricultural supply chains

Agricultural systems are important for the livelihoods and food security of millions of people. These systems are increasingly interconnected across scales and face challenges in responding to multiple, and coalescing types of environmental, social, and economic change. Most studies on how actors respond to change have focused on farmers and farming communities. In this study, we investigate the connectivity of farming systems to markets, to understand how social relationships across the supply chain influence how actors respond to multiple types of changes. We used a participatory network mapping method to interview actors across a fruit supply chain in the Western Cape, South Africa, that is connected to both global and national markets. We identified droughts, climatic variations, changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and other social shifts as the most important changes affecting the production and trade of fruit in this region. We also identified three types of responses to these changes: i) responses concerning the dynamics of trade relationships (e.g., changing or maintaining trade relationships); ii) responses based on changes at the individual level (e.g., changes in farm management); and iii) responses based on social relationships (categorized into four types, namely collaboration, knowledge transfer, financial assistance, and marketing coordination). Within these four types, we found that different types of social networks, that include actors operating at different scales and within and outside of supply chains, mediate responses to change. We also found that networks of collaboration, knowledge exchange and financial assistance show a positive correlation, where actors with an export orientation engage in multiple social relationships that enable responding to changes. However, we found limited participation of local market actors in most of these networks. Further investigating these social networks, and the actors participating in them, is essential to better understand and anticipate how and why agricultural systems respond to multiple types of changes, ultimately influencing their trajectory in an increasingly changing world.

SOME SOLUTIONS TO PROMOTE VIETNAM’S PARTICIPATION INTO GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS

Based on the synthesis of existing studies on the role of global value chains (GVCs) in developing countries socio-economic development and analysis of Vietnam's current situation in global GVCs. With a systematic approach, the article proposes essential solutions to sustainably promote Vietnam's participation in global GVCs. Research shows that participation in global GVCs plays an important role in the socio-economic development of developing countries like Vietnam. Despite many successes, Vietnam is still at the bottom of global GVCs. To promote participation in global GVCs, Vietnam needs to take a systematic approach, focusing on inclusivity and sustainability, with an emphasis on the improvement of the capacity of enterprises to comply with quality standards, investment promotion, industrial clusters and export alliances development, knowledge exchange and learning networks development, greening of value chains and social justice in the development of GVCs.

Where Do Social Support and Epistemic Centrality Come From? The Case of Innovators in the French Biotech Industry

The link between entrepreneur’s network centrality and innovation performance has been broadly studied in knowledge-intensive industries such as biotechnology. However, little research has been focused on the social mechanisms that allow innovators to reach such a central position. We contribute to the existing literature by exploring the factors that may lead or prevent entrepreneurs from reaching a central position in their professional networks of knowledge exchange and social support in French biotech milieu. We use a unique quantitative and qualitative database of 138 and 126 biotech entrepreneurs observed, respectively, in 2008 and 2013. When accounting for entrepreneurs’ position in the social (friendship) and knowledge (advice) domain, we draw on three dimensions through which entrepreneurs build their position: their professional experience, their inter-organizational (or political) engagement, and the financial and geographical situation of their company. Results from a regression analysis showed that the specific individual and organizational aspects of the trajectory of the entrepreneurs explain their position in the observed networks. Factors such as the previous experience in the health industry, the training expertise, the international experience, the political engagement, and the geographical and financial situation of the company help entrepreneurs to build up their centrality. The two observations allow us to describe indirectly the evolution of norms that are considered legitimated to carry out innovation in the biotech field.

Leveraging the OECD Framework to Create Policies That Enable Eco-Innovation: A Case study of Neom

Amid escalating urbanization worldwide, cities confront the imperative to reconcile economic growth and environmental sustainability. This study employs a comparative analysis to evaluate the applicability of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) seminal eco-innovation policy framework within Saudi Arabia’s emergent Neom City. The OECD framework delineates a robust policy ecosystem encompassing economic incentives, regulatory standards, market facilitation mechanisms, and knowledge exchange networks to catalyze eco-innovation. Initial benchmarking reveals lacunae within Neom’s extant sustainability planning, including limited financial incentives for green technology adoption and nascent sustainability education programs. Targeted integration of OECD prescriptions could potentiate Neom’s eco-innovation across multifaceted domains spanning renewable energy integration, energy efficiency, green infrastructure, and sustainable mobility. Urban policymakers can operationalize elements of the OECD’s model to align Neom’s development objectives with ecological sustainability, propelling its ambitions to manifest as an pioneering sustainable city. This research proffers strategic insights that can enable urban governance actors worldwide to leverage policy architectures to synergize economic growth and sustainability.

Asian Networks of Knowledge Exchange

Asian Networks of Knowledge Exchange

The art of friendliness: Organiser perspectives on curating dementia friendly cultural events.

Over recent decades, the arts have become a popular response to dementia. Amidst wider concerns with accessibility, widening participation and audience diversity, coupled with greater attention to creativity across dementia studies, many arts organisations are now offering dementia friendly initiatives. While dementia friendliness has been well-established for almost a decade, the meaning of friendliness remains vague. This paper reports results from a study of how stakeholders navigate this nebulousness when developing their own dementia friendly cultural events. To assess this, we interviewed stakeholders working for arts organisations in the northwest of England. We found that participants built up local informal networks of knowledge exchange, sharing experiences between stakeholders. The dementia friendliness that characterises this network centres on the crafting of vibes that enable people with dementia to 'unhide' themselves. Through this accommodating approach, dementia friendliness converges with stakeholder interests, becoming something of an art form in its own right, typified by active embodied experience, flexible and creative self-expression, and being in-the-moment.

Photo elicitation to explore health and social exclusion with rooming house residents in Ottawa, Canada.

Little is known about how rooming house residents perceive how housing influences their health, despite higher morbidity and premature death compared to other Canadians. The social exclusion framework of the Social Knowledge Exchange Network (SEKN) conceptualized by Popay et al. (2008) was used to investigate how rooming houses are linked to health among ten rooming house residents from six rooming houses in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Study activities included taking photos to show how living in a rooming house affects health, a community walk-about with the principal investigator, a focus group, and individual interviews. Thematic analysis revealed two broad themes: Housing is Health Care, and Just Managing Today. Findings suggest that structural inequalities and siloed care contribute to the health of rooming house residents, including the balance between poverty and desire to maintain housing, and how residents cope with this stress. If health care providers want to help alleviate the disparities in rooming house residents' health, they need to broaden the lens through which health is conceptualized.

Green Entrepreneurship: Should Legislators Invest in the Formation of Sustainable Hubs?

This study explores which local factors affect the creation of sustainable or green startups in a geographical area. The analysis aims to help regional legislators get a more nuanced view of regional economic and sustainable policymaking and to promote a transition toward a greener economy. Building on knowledge spillover theory, results from 4301 companies across Europe show that the driving factors for the emergence of green startups go beyond funding opportunities. Knowledge exchange and industry networks are equally if not more important in attracting green entrepreneurs. Results also reveal that green startups are more likely than non-green startups to change their location. Of those who change their location, green founders prefer large cities and have a negative inclination to establish their companies in small cities. Companies in the sustainable information technology (IT) industry are less likely to change their location, whereas green manufacturing companies are more likely to change. In summation, results indicate that the location choices and resulting evolution of clusters for green startups are based on a number of variables, including local knowledge stock and spillovers, company density, availability of educated talent, and industry affiliations.

Sharing Economy for Tackling Crypto-Laundering: The Europol Associated ‘Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptocurrencies’

This article examines the compatibility of the Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptocurrencies with a sharing economy model. The analysis is based on the claims presented in Europol documents and public statements of Europol executives that this initiative serves as a platform for knowledge exchange and building professional networks between public and private actors to tackle crypto-laundering. The article investigates the validity of these statements with the most prominent sharing economy concepts: low barrier accessibility, transaction cost and trust-building. The article employs each sharing economy concept on two beneficiaries of the platform—law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and non-governmental organizations—while scaling the platform’s sharing economy level. Based on Europol documents, an expert interview and participant observation of the 5th Global Cryptocurrency Conference, the article’s core argument is that these cryptocurrency conferences can be categorized as a ‘partial’ sharing economy platform. They reduce the transaction cost for public and private actors to share knowledge about the latest trends and threats about crypto-laundering and reduce transaction costs for networking. However, co-founders should consider integrating robust trust-building mechanisms that allow low barrier entry to the conference, which will facilitate more inclusive and optimized public–private partnerships (P3).

Explaining the Formation Mechanism of Intrateam Knowledge Exchange Network in Offsite Construction Projects: A Social Cognitive Perspective

AbstractIssues related to effective knowledge sharing and diffusion are pressing and have emerged in the field of offsite construction. Significant research on project-based organization knowledge ...

Transitions for older people with learning disabilities and behaviours that challenge others, and their family carers: a merged protocol for two rapid scoping reviews of evidence

BackgroundThere are over 1 million adults with a learning disability in the UK, of whom approximately 20% displaying behaviours that challenge others. Two thirds of people with learning disabilities live in the family home. As they and their family carers age, both are likely to face particular difficulties and stresses, but there is little understanding of their experiences and needs. To address this evidence gap, our main objective is to undertake two rapid scoping reviews that will collectively focus on the health and social care needs, experiences, service interventions and resources of older people with learning disabilities and behaviours that challenge others, and their family carers. Both reviews will focus on issues relating to forward planning and transitions to different care contexts. The study is part of a research project funded by the National Institute for Health Research No.129491.MethodsWe propose to address the need for evidence via two rapid scoping reviews. We will include published and unpublished (grey) literature, encompassing empirical research, policy and practice guidance and lay resources to support decision-making. We will search multiple electronic databases, hand search references lists, and use expert guidance to identify potential evidence. The following databases were used for research and grey literature: CINAHL; Healthcare Management Information Consortium (HMIC); NHS Evidence; Scopus; Turning Evidence Into Practice (TRIP); Web of Science (WoS); Google (first 5 pages); and Google Scholar (first 5 pages). For RR2, additional intended databases are the Carer Research Knowledge Exchange Network (CAREN) and Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE). Two reviewers will independently screen all citations and full-text articles for inclusion. One reviewer will extract data, with an independent review undertaken by the research team. Critical appraisal will depend on the nature of included evidence. Narrative synthesis will be collaboratively developed, with descriptive information presented in tables summarising study characteristics and thematic analysis of findings presented in the main text. Dissemination will be through journal publication, conference presentations and written short-form, easy-read versions of articles and audio-video clips for lay audiences.DiscussionWe will consider the strengths and limitations of our reviews, considering their impact on findings. We will summarise the main findings and provide an interpretation linked to the review questions and objectives. We will consider the implications of our findings for policy and practice, as well as future research addressing the support of older people with learning difficulties and behaviours that challenge others, and their family carers, in the context of transition to different care contexts in the UK.The protocol has been registered as Vseteckova, J., Jordan, J., Tilley, E., Larkin, M., Ryan, S., and Wallace, L. (2021, December 4). Transitions for older people with learning disabilities and behaviours that challenge others, and their family carers: a merged protocol for two rapid scoping reviews of evidence. Retrieved from osf.io/jzrn9.

Using Social Network Analysis to Identify Opinion Leaders in Agricultural Knowledge Exchange and Decision-Making Network of Farm Women

The use of social network theories dates back to 1930s with the pioneering works of psycho-sociologist Moreno. With the advent of advanced technologies, there has been an explosion of its applications to various disciplines. The study applies social network theory to analyze agricultural knowledge exchange and decision-making network of farm women. The analysis identifies farm women who occupy central and strategic positions and acts as opinion leaders in the network. The study was carried out in the Himalayan regions of Uttarakhand, India. Descriptive research design and multi-stage sampling were adopted. A total of 298 respondents were selected purposively from the two villages of Uttarakhand. Data were collected through survey sociometric method. UCINET and SPSS were used for data analysis and interpretations. The findings showed that high in degree and Out degree centrality was recorded by 24 (12, 12) and 48 (26, 22) farm women in the two study villages. Total 24 opinion leaders were identified within the agricultural knowledge exchange and decision-making network. Their extent of opinion leadership was influenced by age, marital status, farming experience, socio-economic status, innovativeness, achievement motivation, decision making ability, risk preference, economic motivation, information seeking behaviour, cosmopoliteness and social participation.

Teaching Factory Knowledge Exchange Network for industrial training and upskilling

Teaching Factory Knowledge Exchange Network for industrial training and upskilling

Scholarship and Sports Diplomacy: the Cases of Japan and the United Kingdom

Abstract This article explores scholarship regarding diplomatic processes and actors engaged in recent international sport events hosted by the United Kingdom and Japan. The article points to the range of actors involved, focusing on organizing committees, and assesses the effectiveness of sports diplomacy at a range of levels that go beyond a focus on the state. It uses international sport events documentation, global media archives, and public and private comments related to the United Kingdom and Japan. The article addresses three key issues: 1) Olympic-dominant discourse: the dominance and shift in process between hosting an Olympic Games and onto other events; 2) Western-dominant discourse: the differences between Japan and the UK in demonstrating distinct “East” and “West” sports diplomacy approaches; 3) State-dominant discourse: the role of knowledge exchange and elite networks that transcend the state and involve a range of different actors, such as the organizing committee.

Towards Producer-Consumer Cooperation: Collective Learning in Alternative Food Networks as a Food Sovereignty Practice

The paper analyses collective learning strategies aimed at the transformation of food systems in the framework of food sovereignty, in the context of such key issues as environmental sustainability, socially just relations in diversified economy, and citizen participation in food systems governance. In particular, the author proposes to focus on the systematisation created by Colin R. Anderson, Chris Maughan and Michel P. Pimbert on the basis of their qualitative and action research undertaken for the purpose of developing the European Agroecology Knowledge Exchange Network (EAKEN). The network is part of the broader process of knowledge circulation led by the La Via Campesina movement, which has introduced the concept of food sovereignty into wider public debates. The main objective of EAKEN is to strengthen bottom-up learning strategies and informal education processes in the field of agroecology, which is defined through reference to sustainable farming practices and their recognised transformative potential. The author considers the pillars of transformative agroecology learning identified by the above-mentioned researchers in combination with various approaches in social movement learning and critical pedagogy. The analysis recognises that the evolving concept of food sovereignty covers both rural and urban fields of activity, emphasising the connections between producers, workers, consumers and social activists. Consequently, this paper contributes to the discussion on the educational practices present in alternative food networks (AFNs). As studies indicate, although new AFNs in Poland are often inspired by initiatives created in Western Europe and USA, they adopt forms that depend on the local context. The analysis of learning strategies associated with such networks, taking into account different forms of power relations, as well as emerging opportunities and constraints, allows areas for future research to be identified.