Knowledge hubs and knowledge clusters: Designing a knowledge architecture for development.

With globalisation and knowledge-based production, firms may cooperate on a global scale, outsource parts of their administrative or productive units and negate location altogether. The extremely low transaction costs of data, information and knowledge seem to invalidate the theory of agglomeration and the spatial clustering of firms, going back to the classical work by Alfred Weber (1868-1958) and Alfred Marshall (1842-1924), who emphasized the microeconomic benefits of industrial collocation. This paper will argue against this view and show why the growth of knowledge societies will rather increase than decrease the relevance of location by creating knowledge clusters and knowledge hubs. A knowledge cluster is a local innovation system organized around universities, research institutions and firms which successfully drive innovations and create new industries. Knowledge hubs are localities with high internal and external networking and knowledge sharing capabilities. Both form a new knowledge architecture within an epistemic landscape of knowledge creation and dissemination, structured by knowledge gaps and areas of low knowledge intensity. The paper will focus on the internal dynamics of knowledge clusters and knowledge hubs and show why clustering takes place despite globalisation and the rapid growth of ICT. The basic argument that firms and their delivery chains attempt to reduce transport (transaction) costs by choosing the same location is still valid for most industrial economies, but knowledge hubs have different dynamics relating to externalities produced from knowledge sharing and research and development outputs. The paper draws on empirical data derived from ongoing research in the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University and in the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, supported by the German Aeronautics and Space Agency (DLR).

The Problem-Solving Mode: Social Scientists Back Home and the Limits of Critique

Abundant debates on the problematic positioning of intellectuals in the Global South are typically confined to migrant scholars and to the insider/outsider binary vis-à-vis their object/subject of study. Yet intellectuals back home—both those returning and those who never left—must also forge through the fraught politics of location and epistemic privilege as the other side of the same coin. Nowhere is the politics of location perhaps more striking than in the social sciences and among social scientists based in the Global South who have mostly been trained in Western universities or in Westernized local universities. As academics who mobilize knowledge in the context of state-led and international donor-assisted development projects, their work demonstrates that in the Global South the primary goal of social scientists should be to not only offer a critique but to solve a problem toward making institutions and systems fulfill their functions. In this problem-solving mode, the distinctions between “outsider” as critical-distant (i.e., opening everything up for discussion and debate following a scholarly tradition but may be oblivious of contexts and particularities) and “insider” (i.e., possessing knowledge of the local manifestations of universalized and globalized processes but may not be critical-distant) are to be erased. The “outsider” joins forces with the “insider” as the social scientist moves from being critical-distant to being socially embedded and then back again. This problem-solving mode urges social scientists back home to be critical of but yet part of the system as one tries to solve a problem

The Problem-Solving Mode: Social Scientists Back Home and the Limits of Critique

Abundant debates on the problematic positioning of intellectuals in the Global South are typically confined to migrant scholars and to the insider/outsider binary vis-à-vis their object/subject of study. Yet intellectuals back home—both those returning and those who never left—must also forge through the fraught politics of location and epistemic privilege as the other side of the same coin. Nowhere is the politics of location perhaps more striking than in the social sciences and among social scientists based in the Global South who have mostly been trained in Western universities or in Westernized local universities. As academics who mobilize knowledge in the context of state-led and international donor-assisted development projects, their work demonstrates that in the Global South the primary goal of social scientists should be to not only offer a critique but to solve a problem toward making institutions and systems fulfill their functions. In this problem-solving mode, the distinctions between “outsider” as critical-distant (i.e., opening everything up for discussion and debate following a scholarly tradition but may be oblivious of contexts and particularities) and “insider” (i.e., possessing knowledge of the local manifestations of universalized and globalized processes but may not be critical-distant) are to be erased. The “outsider” joins forces with the “insider” as the social scientist moves from being critical-distant to being socially embedded and then back again. This problem-solving mode urges social scientists back home to be critical of but yet part of the system as one tries to solve a problem

Expressing Bayesian Fusion as a Product of Distributions: Application to Randomized Hough Transform

Data fusion is a common issue of mobile robotics, computer assisted medical diagnosis or behavioral control of simulated character for instance. However data sources are often noisy, opinion for experts are not known with absolute precision, and motor commands do not act in the same exact manner on the environment. In these cases, classic logic fails to manage efficiently the fusion process. Confronting different knowledge in an uncertain environment can therefore be adequately formalized in the bayesian framework. Besides, bayesian fusion can be expensive in terms of memory usage and processing time. This paper precisely aims at expressing any bayesian fusion process as a product of probability distributions in order to reduce its complexity. We first study both direct and inverse fusion schemes. We show that contrary to direct models, inverse local models need a specific prior in order to allow the fusion to be computed as a product. We therefore propose to add a consistency variable to each local model and we show that these additional variables allow the use of a product of the local distributions in order to compute the global probability distribution over the fused variable. Finally, we take the example of the Randomized Hough Transform. We rewrite it in the bayesian framework, considering that it is a fusion process to extract lines from couples of dots in a picture. As expected, we can find back the expression of the Randomized Hough Transform from the literature with the appropriate assumptions

Knowledge hubs and knowledge clusters: Designing a knowledge architecture for development.

With globalisation and knowledge-based production, firms may cooperate on a global scale, outsource parts of their administrative or productive units and negate location altogether. The extremely low transaction costs of data, information and knowledge seem to invalidate the theory of agglomeration and the spatial clustering of firms, going back to the classical work by Alfred Weber (1868-1958) and Alfred Marshall (1842-1924), who emphasized the microeconomic benefits of industrial collocation. This paper will argue against this view and show why the growth of knowledge societies will rather increase than decrease the relevance of location by creating knowledge clusters and knowledge hubs. A knowledge cluster is a local innovation system organized around universities, research institutions and firms which successfully drive innovations and create new industries. Knowledge hubs are localities with high internal and external networking and knowledge sharing capabilities. Both form a new knowledge architecture within an epistemic landscape of knowledge creation and dissemination, structured by knowledge gaps and areas of low knowledge intensity. The paper will focus on the internal dynamics of knowledge clusters and knowledge hubs and show why clustering takes place despite globalisation and the rapid growth of ICT. The basic argument that firms and their delivery chains attempt to reduce transport (transaction) costs by choosing the same location is still valid for most industrial economies, but knowledge hubs have different dynamics relating to externalities produced from knowledge sharing and research and development outputs. The paper draws on empirical data derived from ongoing research in the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University and in the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, supported by the German Aeronautics and Space Agency (DLR).knowledge; knowledge and development; industrial agglomeration; knowledge hub; cluster; space

The World in Your Pocket: Digital Media as Invitations for Transdisciplinary Inquiry in Mathematics Classrooms

Building a curriculum from online digital media may provide opportunities for students to draw on their funds of knowledge, deconstruct dominant narratives, and engage with complex multimodal artifacts. We focus on an example of how we have used a digital infographic, The World as 100 People, to unpack global and local issues in mathematics classrooms. Using digital media as invitations for critical mathematical inquiry, we call for mathematics educators to push back on (1) the way mathematics should be formally taught in schools, and (2) a common practice of social media restrictions in schools

Historical land-use information from culturally modified trees

In a global perspective, the human impact on forest ecosystems varies greatly in type, frequency and magnitude. Knowledge of the history of forest use is crucial for understanding the development of forests, which in turn helps to understand how societies react to forest development. Culturally modified trees (CMTs), recorded in the western U.S., northern Scandinavia and south-eastern Australia, are features that can be dated precisely, and they bear witness to unique events of human activity. CMTs are traces from historical uses of forest resources that reflect the activities of local communities and extend far back in time, and therefore offer information not usually available from other sources. In this thesis I argue that CMTs have high potential for assessing human activity and possibly human impacts on forest ecosystems, particularly those concerning local indigenous uses. Periods of increased activity in a certain area are reflected in peaks in the distribution of CMT dates. These also show the time period and speed of abandonment of a traditional forest use in a landscape. The possibility to learn about the people, their behaviour and activities in the forest are good, but their impact on ecosystems will always be difficult to assess when only CMT data are available. Therefore, it is important to learn as much as possible about traditional customs expressed in CMTs, in combination with oral and ethnological sources, and the role of CMTs in the traditional use of the forest. In this way it is possible to estimate what the density and distribution of CMTs in the landscape actually tells us about historical impact on the ecosystem. CMTs contradict the idea of “pristine” forests but symbolize the traditional view that people are part of nature rather than separate from it

Playing at the crossroads

Objectives; The Design Research Group (DRG) at The University of Northampton has been engaged in a number of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP). Three of these KTP's have involved designing toys, games and playthings. The first exhibition's aim was to act as a research tool to contextualize, analyse and draw conclusions from the KTP experience and collaborations with local enterprises. Then use the knowledge to further research the creative value of play and toy design to all in the community. The curating process for ALL PLAY informed the second exhibition. The data collected will be analysed and any findings will add to the overall outcomes of ALL PLAY. The objective of this research is to establish greater insight into the impact in the form of benefits of design initiatives in the production and use of toys and the role of play in society. Prior Work; This research is informed by a series of Knowledge Transfers partnerships undertaken by the DRG for Sue Ryder, John Crane Ltd and BCE (Distribution) Ltd. The group has gone on to research the design management implications of these projects for designers and social enterprises. Approach; Two exhibitions and a symposium were planned for 2013 (June-July and October-November) to showcase, review and extend the collaboration with the KTP partners. The first was held at the Collective Collaboration Gallery in the Northampton Town Centre. It enabled the DRG to examine and disseminate the experience and demonstrate the benefits of the KTP projects. It enabled further research about the value and impact of the local toy industry in the Northamptonshire, past and present and to forge links with local community and business organizations. The symposium and second exhibition held at the University provides an opportunity to explore current global trends in design for play in the publishing, health, leisure, gaming and interior design industries in more depth. The process of curating the exhibition involved networking and bringing a wide range of experience, theory and case studies together. Creating a ludic play space in the galleries provides for another level for theoretical exploration, research and design. Results; Primary research in the form of interviews undertaken into the local toy and play, complements work being undertaken by the Museum of Childhood, indicating that a specific study needs to be undertaken into the regional history of the toy industry. There is scope for DRG to support and investigate further into the international role of toy design and distribution organizations that are based in the East Midlands. The exhibitions highlighted the impact of the DRG’s KTP research on different communities and industry sectors. The event emphasized the diverse and shared perceptions of the creative benefits of play. Knowledge was transferred back to the University feeding into teaching and learning and particularly in further collaborative research work. Implications; Oral History on the British Toy-Making Industry has yet to be published and its focus is recording the past manufacturing experience and not the dynamic role of creativity and design management in this sector today. The curatorial process has brought together past and present, the local and the global, the practitioner and the academic. The initial research indicates the increasing international importance of creativity and design in the play sector with a focus of enterprises based in the UK. There is an expectation that second set of events will explore and extend the debate further. Value; ALL PLAY is the umbrella title for the events and the paper showcases the benefits of the curating process, allowing the DRG to share their Knowledge Transfer research and account for the impact of it and at the same time continue to build collaborations and information about the value of play locally, to the creative industries, social well being across all groups and enterprise internationally

Cross sectional study to assess the awareness of pharmacovigilance among post graduate residents of tertiary care medical college hospital of central India

Background: Pharmacovigilance knowledge and awareness in post graduate student doctors is key factor for proper implementation of PvPI. This study was planned to evaluate the knowledge &awareness of pharmacovigilance in post graduate students in tertiary care centre in Indore.Methods: It was a single point cross sectional questionnaire-based study conducted in a tertiary care Institute MGM Medical College & M.Y. Hospital in the state of Madhya Pradesh at Indore. It was conducted among post graduate student doctors from various clinical departments. Total of 150 questionnaires were distributed, 115 of them were returned back and were analysed.Results: Overall knowledge level was satisfactory. 91.30% knew about ADR while 95% were aware about PVPI. 13% knew about local AMC at Indore while only 4.34% knew global centre for Pharmacovigilance is at Sweden Uppsala. 86.95% thought Med watch as global database for ADR against only 13% knew its Vigibase. 96.50% thought ADR reporting is necessary. 97.40% thought it should be included in UG curriculum. 95.65% had not reported any ADR till date while 86.95% had not seen an ADR form.Conclusions: Post graduate doctors are the prime candidates to impart the importance of pharmacovigilance. The study strongly suggested that there was a great need to create awareness among the post graduate doctors to improve the reporting of ADRs

Re-Encountering Climate Change: Indigenous Peoples and the Quest for Epistemic Diversity in Global Climate Change Governance

Climate change assessment reports and intergovernmental agreements are increasingly recognizing the importance of other “knowledge systems” (traditional, local, or indigenous) for climate change adaptation and mitigation. The empirical point of departure of this dissertation is the recognition of other culturally specific ways of knowing, or what I call epistemic diversity, in the field of global climate change governance. I conceive this as a process of diversification of the knowledge basis of global climate policy. This dissertation accounts for this large process by addressing the questions of why and how epistemic diversity gains visibility and recognition in a field of governance, as well as how these translate into changes in the configuration of science-policy relations. By advancing an analytical approach to epistemic diversity, the research extends and challenges prevalent theories of epistemic authority in global or transnational spheres of politics. Based on a multi-site process tracing, the dissertation traces this large process by following three trajectories of change. The global trajectory, on the one hand, looks into the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change against the backdrop of the historical recognition of epistemic diversity in the wider field of environmental governance. The Arctic and Amazon trajectories, on the other hand, follow these developments in the mobilization of indigenous peoples and the deployment of climate science and policy in specific socio-cultural regions. Specifically, the analysis zooms in on local sites of governance, namely, community-based adaptation in the Swedish side of Sápmi and forest-based mitigation in the indigenous territories of the Ecuadorian Amazon. The study finds that the recognition of indigenous knowledge (holders) is reconfiguring epistemic authority – albeit partially – by introducing criteria of epistemic diversity to guide social and political judgements about what counts as valuable knowledge to address the climate crisis.1 Introduction: Knowledge, governance and diversity 1.1 Epistemic diversity as a research problem 1.2 The diversity gap: reviewing the literature 1.2.1 Science matters 1.2.2 Science, expertise and contestation 1.2.3 Dismantling the “great divide” 1.3 Toward the study of epistemic diversity in global governance 1.4 Ordering epistemic diversity: boundary work and categorization struggles 1.5 Reconfiguring knowledge-policy relations through heterarchies 1.6 Trajectories of change and polycentric sites of governance 1.7 A word on terminology 2 Research design, methods and data 2.1 Research design 2.2 Multi-site process tracing 2.3 Case selection 2.4 Data collection and analysis 2.4.1 Analyzing documents 2.4.2 Analyzing interviews 2.4.3 Analyzing observations 3 The coming of age of epistemic diversity 3.1 The “ethno” and the science 3.2 Oscillations between visibility and invisibility 3.2.1 Postwar precursors: on “backward people” and the facts of nature 3.2.2 The Stockholm conference or the conspicuous absence of indigenous knowledge 3.3 Global recognition and the advent of the knowledge holders 3.3.1 Paving the way for Rio: sustainable development encounters traditional knowledge 3.3.2 The Earth Summit and the global recognition of epistemic diversity 3.4 Ordering epistemic diversity 4 Diversifying global climate science and policy 4.1 Climate exceptionalism 4.2 The IPCC: diversifying global climate science 4.2.1 An overview of diverse knowledges in IPCC assessment reports 4.2.2 Climate adaptation as purposeful adjustment 4.2.3 Re-thinking adaptation: from adaptive capacity to traditional knowledge 4.2.4 The rediscovery of community in adaptation research 4.2.5 Co-production or the “best available knowledge” 4.2.6 The knowers and the known 4.3 The UNFCCC: diversifying global climate policy 4.3.1 The UNFCCC as a forum for indigenous peoples (and local communities) 4.3.2 Adaptation and diverse ways of knowing 4.3.3 Mitigation and diverse ways of knowing 4.3.4 The Paris Agreement: back to Rio and beyond 4.4 Re-ordering epistemic diversity 5 Arctic knowledge 5.1 Diversifying Arctic science through Sami knowledge 5.1.1 The Sami voice: Saami Council and Sami Parliaments 5.1.2 Becoming Arctic peoples and knowledge holders 5.1.3 The Arctic Council and the invention of Arctic knowledge 5.1.4 Sami knowledge: adaptation, co-production and resistance 5.2 Arctic knowledge in the Swedish side of Sápmi 5.2.1 Sweden in the Arctic: re-encountering the Sami 5.2.2 The Swedish side of Sápmi 5.2.3 The adaptive knowledge of Sami reindeer herders 5.2.4 Co-producing adaptive knowledge 5.3 Reconfiguring Arctic knowledge 6 Amazon knowledge 6.1 The diversification of Amazon knowledge 6.1.1 Amazonia: biocultural diversity and epistemic diversity 6.1.2 COICA and Amazon knowledge 6.1.3 Amazon Indigenous REDD+ 6.2 The genesis and development of “indigenous carbon” 6.2.1 A generative question 6.2.2 Indigenous carbon as a hard fact 6.2.3 Scientific indigenous knowledge 6.3 Downscaling indigenous carbon: REDD+ and RIA in Ecuador 6.3.1 Ecuador in Amazonia: petroleum, native forests and indigenous territories 6.3.2 REDD+ in Ecuador 6.3.3 RIA in Ecuador 6.3.4 Money for nothing 6.3.5 Life Plans 6.3.6 The defense of life 6.4 Reconfiguring Amazon knowledge 7 A global platform for indigenous and local knowledge 7.1 Imagining a global platform for indigenous knowledge 7.1.1 Indigenous peoples’ organizational templates 7.1.2 Bolivia, Mother Earth and the “diplomacy of the peoples” 7.1.3 A platform: translating through ambiguity 7.1.4 Setting the pace of the negotiations 7.2 Operationalizing the Platform 7.2.1 The Platform after Paris: an array of alternatives in disarray 7.2.2 Design by bricolage: the Facilitative Working Group 7.2.3 Lost in translation: the local communities affair 7.3 The LCIPP as a knowledge-policy interface 7.3.1 The onion 7.3.2 Knowledge holders 7.3.3 Capacity for engagement 7.3.4 Climate policies and actions 7.4 Global institutional change towards epistemic diversity 8 Conclusion 8.1 Ordering and re-ordering epistemic diversity 8.2 Undone or incipient hierarchies: reconfiguring knowledge-policy relations 8.3 Entangled trajectories 8.4 Theoretical and methodological contributions 8.5 Avenues for future research 9 Reference