Utilization of Research for Development Cooperation, Linking Knowledge Production to Development Policy and Practice

This collection of lectures examines the utilisation of research results from different angles. They draw on Carol Weiss' concept of 'knowledge creep' and highlight that research is not present as a ready packaged set of options for policy makers; rather, research is there as part of the constant information stream (Waardenburg). They wish to move away from the linear model of knowledge production, and instead draw up a model that charts interaction between promises, anticipation & feedback, realisation, and overlapping 'knowledge reservoirs'. The combined effect of this interaction results in the co-production of knowledge. One of the main challenges emerging from this model is to facilitate various actors' access to knowledge reservoirs (Rip).

Other models following on from this include the participatory and the interactive models of innovation processes. Both these models highlight the need for a shift from research centres to local users in order to bring about user-led innovation processes, which value trust relationships, mutual learning, and knowledge integration (Bunders). A case study from a community of slum-dwellers in India is presented. The case study shows that it is both possible and useful to use the community itself as the site of knowledge production, which entails locating the design and execution of research processes within the community. The result in this case was a process where research and political advocacy by the community and its outside partners fed into each other (Patel).

The epilogue emphasises that the shift away from a linear model reflects the new mode of production of knowledge in our society. Research now has to be utilised through networks and dialogue. This point is brought home through reference to a study of research utilisation among a group of policy-makers. This study found that the one decisive factor influencing research utilisation was that the initiative had come from the policy-makers themselves and not from external researchers (Waardenburg).