Which knowledge? Whose reality? An overview of knowledge used in the development sector

This article provides an overview of issues relating to the use of knowledge by development organisations. It starts by exploring the various definitions of knowledge that exist in a world of many cultures and intellectual traditions, and the role of language. It considers their relationship with each other and with the many and varied ‘informational developments’ – information-related changes in work, culture, organisations, and technology across the world. It argues that these issues pose a number of fundamental strategic challenges to the development sector.

One Prologue

This is a draft of one possible prologue for the planned book, Challenging Ignorance. I phrase it that way because the book comes out of a programme of work in which many people collaborated and any of them could have written about it and made their own explanation of what led to their involvement. This version is written by Mike Powell, lead author and also director of the IKM Emergent programme.