Adolph, Barbara (2005) Learning how to do things differently: challenges in sharing tacit knowledge for agricultural and rural development (with examples from India and Namibia). In: Proceedings of the symposium on Learning Alliances for scaling up innovative approaches in the water and sanitation sector held in Delft, the Netherlands, 7-9 June 2005. IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, The Hague, The Netherlands, pp. 1-10.

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Abstract

Learning alliances (LAs) are considered to be a more sustainable alternative for sharing knowledge than research projects, because they enable flexible partnerships between a larger range of organisational levels, combine local adaptations with sharing of experience in a wider community, and are less constrained by project time horizons. This paper argues that, even though LAs have a number of advantages over projects, effective knowledge sharing and creation of innovations can only happen if there is a strong element of action research involved, which enables alliance partners to share the tacit knowledge embedded in technologies and innovations. Innovations both build on existing knowledge, and generate new knowledge. This knowledge can be either explicit (i.e. it can be codified and transmitted in a generally understood form, such as text) or implicit/ tacit (i.e. embodied in individuals and their skills and experiences). The tacit knowledge component of innovations is harder to share and scale up than those components that can be codified - leading to an inconsistency in knowledge transfer. In agricultural development, most innovations are nowadays about "doing things differently", including new ways of interacting and organising, rather than "doing different things", such as growing new crop varieties. These innovations have a very high component of tacit knowledge. While some authors have argues that tacit knowledge can be transferred into explicit knowledge, this paper argues that some forms of tacit knowledge can only be shared through "knowledge in action", e.g. doing things together. Therefore action research projects provide a valid component of learning alliances. The paper illustrates this with two cases from agricultural research that involved multi-agency, multi-disciplinary teams.

Item Type:	Conference Proceedings
Title of Proceedings:	Proceedings of the symposium on Learning Alliances for scaling up innovative approaches in the water and sanitation sector held in Delft, the Netherlands, 7-9 June 2005
Additional Information:	[1] © IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. Copies and extracts of this publication may used in any non-profit-making context providing the source is acknowledged.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	learning alliances, tacit knowledge, India, Namibia, rural development, agriculture
Subjects:	S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute > Livelihoods & Institutions Department
Related URLs:	Publisher
Last Modified:	09 Jan 2014 15:40
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/9873

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