Presentation by Prof Mark Reed

1. How to become an effective
knowledge manager
Mark Reed

2. 1 What is knowledge?

3. Data
• Raw numbers &
facts
Information
• Useful data (that
has been analysed/
interpreted)
Knowledge
• Information that is
known by an
individual/group
Wisdom
• “Constructive” use
of knowledge
(Matthews, 1997)
• “Use of knowledge
...to achieve a
common good”
(Sternberg, 2001)

4. Different ways of viewing and
constructing knowledge...
Universal truth generated
by reducing the world to
its constituent parts to
test hypotheses
Knowledge as a social
construction leading
to multiple realities

5. Different types of knowledge...
Knowledge Type
Implicit
(not yet articulated)
Local
Informal
Novice
Tacit
(cannot be articulated)
Traditional
Generalised/Universal
Formal
Expert
Explicit
(articulated)
Scientific
Raymond CM, Fazey I, Reed MS, Stringer LC, Robinson GM, Evely AC
(2010) Integrating local and scientific knowledge for environmental management:
From products to processes. Journal of Environmental Management 91: 1766-1777
Extent to which knowledge is locally
generated/relevant versus universal
Extent to which knowledge generated
via formal, codified processes
Extent to which those generating
knowledge are regarded as experts
Extent to which knowledge is
articulated and accessible to others
Extent to which knowledge is
embedded in and reflects traditional
cultural values/norms, or in the
scientific method

6. Different ways of
managing
knowledge...
Knowledge
Transfer
Producers Users
Producers Users
One-way flow of
existing knowledge
Knowledge
Exchange
Producers Users
Two-way flow of
existing knowledge
Knowledge generation
Producers
Producers generate or
co-generate
knowledge together
Know-ledge
Storage
Knowledge application
Users
Users apply knowledge
gained through transfer
or exchange and provide
feedback to or become
producers of knowledge
Reed MS, Fazey I, Stringer LC, Raymond CM, Akhtar-Schuster M, Begni G, Bigas H, Brehm S,
Briggs J, Bryce R, Buckmaster S, Chanda R, Davies J, Diez E, Essahli W, Evely A, Geeson N,
Hartmann I, Holden J, Hubacek K, Ioris I, Kruger B, Laureano P, Phillipson J, Prell C, Quinn CH,
Reeves AD, Seely M, Thomas R, van der Werff Ten Bosch MJ, Vergunst P, Wagner L (2011)
Knowledge management for land degradation monitoring and assessment: an analysis of
contemporary thinking. Land Degradation & Development

7. 2 Who manages
knowledge?

8. Lecturers?
– Enabling students to gain new knowledge and put it
in context

9. Researchers?
– Generating new knowledge, debating/sharing
with their peers and communicating their findings

10. All of us

11. 3 How do you manage
knowledge?

12. 3 How do you manage
knowledge?

13. Accessing
existing
knowledge
Making it
your own
Storing
knowledge
e.g. internet, apps,
podcasts, books, journals,
lectures/classes, discussion
with peers
Sharing
your
insights
Generating
new
knowledge
Internalising and
adapting knowledge e.g.
via tweets, blogs/articles,
discussing, mind maps &
Prezis, trying it out
e.g. written records
of how you made it
your own (e.g.
tweets, blogs, prezi
etc.), (social?)
bookmarks, audio
notes, databases of
your reading
e.g. asking questions (and
often discovering existing
knowledge), and where
there are no answers,
designing research to
answer them
A learning
process
(a bit like Kolb?)

14. Our own knowledge
A class’s knowledge
A community’s knowledge?
The knowledge of communities of
practice/interest at national and
international scales?
The knowledge necessary to
implement and monitor
international policy processes?
All of the above?

15. 5 How? A role for
social learning?

16. A change in understanding
among individuals
Via social
interactions/processes
Beyond the
individual/group scale
to reach wider social
units or communities
of practice within
society
SL
What is social
learning (SL)?
Reed MS, Evely AC, Cundill G, Fazey I, Glass J, Laing A, Newig J, Parrish B, Prell C,
Raymond C, Stringer LC (2010) What is social learning? Ecology & Society 15 (4): r1.
[online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss4/resp1/

17. The promise of social learning...
– Transformative ideas, attitudes and behaviours
that diffuse rapidly through peer-to-peer networks
to affect social change across spatial scales
Hype...
or reality?

18. With the growing use of social media
platforms, it is possible for new knowledge to
“go viral” in seconds...

19. > 1 hour before Obama’s
news conference, Keith
Urbahn (Chief of Staff to
Donald Rumsfeld, just
over 1000 followers)
tweeted the news
Re-posted 80 times in
first minute, over 300
times within two
minutes

20. Then picked up by NYTimes reporter, Brian Stelter (>50K followers)

21. • By the time Obama addressed the nation at 23.30 EST,
the news was being mentioned on Twitter 30,000
times per minute
• A number of others guessed the news earlier and were
ignored – impact is about credibility of source as much
as it about connectedness
http://blog.socialflow.com/post/5246404319/breaking-bin-laden-visualizing-the-power-of-a-single

22. But not everyone has access to
knowledge in this way...

23. ...often those who need
the knowledge most

24. 6 Social learning at
international scales

25. We need:
1. Diverse, socially-connected media
2. To institutionalise social learning

26. 1. Diverse, socially-connected media
– Adapted to different learning preferences
– Fully accessible, no matter how remote or
disadvantaged the audience
– Keeping in mind that people learn best
from other people, and that all learning is
socially mediated

27. 2. Institutionalising social learning
– The incorporation of local
knowledge and opinion in
environmental decision-making is
increasingly being institutionalised
e.g. Aarhus Convention, WFD

28. – But often operates in consultation or communication
modes, so we need to institutionalise:
• Respect for different sources of knowledge, from local to
scientific, to facilitate two-way exchange and (where
relevant) integration of knowledges
• Social forms of communication that facilitate engagement
with and adaptation of new knowledge to local contexts e.g.
Web 2.0, effective engagement with local
groups/associations

29. 7 Two short case studies

30. • The Sustainable Uplands project
– Reed MS, Bonn A, Slee W, Beharry-Borg N, Birch J, Brown I, Burt TP, Chapman D, Chapman PJ, Clay G, Cornell SJ, Fraser EDG,
Holden J, Hodgson JA, Hubacek K, Irvine B, Jin N, Kirkby MJ, Kunin WE, Moore O, Moseley D, Prell C, Quinn C, Redpath S, Reid C,
Stagl S, Stringer LC, Termansen M, Thorp S, Towers W, Worrall F (2009) The future of the uplands. Land Use Policy 26S: S204–
S216
Funded by
• The United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD)
– Reed MS, Buenemann, M, Atlhopheng J, Akhtar-Schuster M, Bachmann F, Bastin G, Bigas H, Chanda R, Dougill AJ, Essahli W,
Evely AC, Fleskens L, Geeson N, Glass JH, Hessel R, Holden J, Ioris A, Kruger B, Liniger HP, Mphinyane W, Nainggolan D, Perkins J,
Raymond CM, Ritsema CJ, Schwilch G, Sebego R, Seely M, Stringer LC, Thomas R, Twomlow S, Verzandvoort S (2011) Cross-scale
monitoring and assessment of land degradation and sustainable land management: a methodological framework for knowledge
management. Land Degradation & Development 22: 261-271
Funded by

32. Knowledge exchange with stakeholders:
• Co-generation of knowledge with small but
representative groups of highly connected, influential
stakeholders, selected via Social Network Analysis

33. • You Tube and DVDs – as requested by stakeholders
concerned about the abstract nature of the GIS
outputs we’d suggested
• Articles in professional journals/magazines
• Newsletters
• Project websites

34. • Policy briefs
• Presentations to policy makers, policy advisors and
practitioner groups
• DEFRA placement
• Consultancy contracts

35. Public engagement:
• Twitter (now over 1400 followers)
www.twitter.com/reluuplands
• Interactive website www.ouruplands.co.uk
• Schools resources (March 2012)

36. Arts:
• Song and music video by award-winning
photography collective
• Jazz composition by Huw Warren
• Conceptual art by Dalziel & Scullion (hunting bag)
• Traditional story told by a storyteller and made into a
children’s book

38. The first international environmental convention to
explicitly consider local as well as scientific
knowledge, and involve CSOs in the process of
developing and implementing policy

39. Now interested in developing a knowledge
management system to facilitate monitoring and
assessment of land degradation from local (field)
scales, to regional, national and international scales

40. For example in southern Africa:
– Land degradation indicators developed to combine local
and scientific knowledge of early changes in rangeland
function/condition in Botswana & Namibia
– Enable land managers to reliably monitor change
themselves without external assistance

41. – FIRM groups in Namibia integrating monitoring results to
regional level where farmers can provide each other with
support & advice and access help from extension services
– Results gathered by FIRM groups inform national land
degradation monitoring & assessment

42. – Potential for this model to be replicated elsewhere to
provide an international picture of land degradation
severity & extent, based on locally derived measurements
that incorporate local knowledge?
– Being discussed at UNCCD 10th Conference of the Parties
this week
– Already being used to evaluate all the UN’s Global
Environment Facility funded Sustainable Land
Management projects

44. 8 Conclusion

45. • We are all knowledge managers, and can
probably get better at managing knowledge
• By becoming more effective knowledge
managers, we can affect change far beyond
our immediate sphere of influence

46. Contact
Mark Reed
Senior Lecturer, Centre for Planning & Environmental Management, School of
Geosciences, University of Aberdeen
m.reed@abdn.ac.uk
www.twitter.com/lecmsr
www.see.leeds.ac.uk/sustainableuplands
Thanks to:
Anna Evely, Ioan Fazey & Lindsay Stringer
from Sustainable Uplands and DESIRE for
helping develop these ideas