Networks of Knowledge: Collaborative Innovation in International Learning

THE “NETWORK” IS a pervasive organizational image in the new millennium. As described by Manuel Castells, networks contribute to the new social morphology of our societies. This book focuses on one particular kind – the knowledge network – whose primary mandate is to create and disseminate knowledge. The book’s interest lies in the complex, subtle and synergistic relationships between institutions such as universities, which generate knowledge in well-understood and well-established ways, and networks that produce knowledge through broader social processes. The central concern is how knowledge-based networks should be constructed and supported. Within a broader analysis of the origins, contributions and sustainability of knowledge networks, the particular focus is on the impact of knowledge on civil society, both local and global, and on development and development assistance.

The starting point of the book lay in a preliminary empirical probe into the contributions that Canadian universities were making to development networks. It revealed that their contributions to local development efforts were indeed meaningful and practical, through network relationships that cross disciplines and communities. These networks had contributed to the creation of fascinating, innovative development projects. Sparked by deliberate strategies that linked the best of theory with deeply rooted local experiences and marked by intellectual creativity and energy, these networks were producing new kinds of knowledge and projects that would not otherwise be produced. Thus, the book uses in its analysis university-based networks as
exemplars of producers and disseminators of knowledge in a connected world.

The five chosen networks are: the Canadian Ageing Research Network (CARNET); the Canada International Scientific Exchange Programme in Otolaryngology (CISEPO); the Coastal Resources Research Network (CoRR); the Global Urban Research Initiative (GURI); and the Learning for Environmental Action Programme (LEAP). Acknowledging that the chosen networks were not representative, the criteria for choosing were the need to have been in existence for more than a year, to have recourse to external sources of funding, to be international in scope (with the exception of CARNET) and, finally, to have records of their objectives, memberships and processes. The evidence presented in the book comes from interviews with directors and members of the five networks studied.

There is no definite consensus on what a network is. For the purpose of this volume, it is defined as a spatially diffuse structure, often an aggregation of individuals and organizations, linked by a shared interest in and concern for a puzzling problem. The emphasis is on the repetitive interactions among members as well as their converging interests and an absence of hierarchy resulting from their horizontal structure.

It is argued that, essentially, the knowledge-based networks make three contributions to the processes of knowledge production. They generate new knowledge (a function of the interdisciplinary quality of networks chosen); they generate operational knowledge (this is related to the mixture of academic and non-academic work that the networks perform); and, finally, they disseminate knowledge globally (this is related to the constant interaction between distant colleagues and global disciplines on the one hand and local activities on the other).

The book includes a brief profile of each of the aforementioned five knowledge networks, including their origins and objectives. They are compared in terms of their governance, patterns of coordination and decision-making, criteria for membership, the research they have conducted, the knowledge they have shared and their sustainability in the shadow of states and markets. The authors then go on to address the more difficult conceptual and practical problems of measuring and assessing the effectiveness of knowledge networks,