Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Using the standard measures of political knowledge, this study examines the survey responses of 1563 high school juniors and seniors in co-educational public schools as well as co-educational and single gender religious schools.

Publication Type: Session Paper
Abstract: Environmental Resources Management (ERM) is the world’s largest environmental consultancy helping over 60% of Fortune 500 companies to tackle the world’s toughest environmental challenges. Since 2006, ERM’s global knowledge sharing program and practices have been informed by Dervin’s Sense-Making Methodology (SMM). SMM has guided ERM leaders to review initial assumptions about “knowledge” and “knowledge transfer” defined as focusing on “expert knowledge” or “best practices” to include two-way exchange of ideas, experience, insights, comments, and work examples. With SMM in mind, ERM has introduced online tools (e.g., blogs, wikis) on its knowledge sharing platform. This paper shares a case study of how SMM has informed the design of a “Safety Moment Blog” – a critical tool to promote a safety culture for all employees – and discusses in what way SMM has been applied and could be better applied to avoid “pretend” dialogue and build common understanding among 3500 employees.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: IR's relationship to policy is at stake again. The issue was absent from IR’s agenda during the second debate and the “technocratic” disappointment after the Vietnam War, but a small but growing body of literature has been addressing the topic since the 1990s. The paper argues that the discussion of the science-policy nexus of IR so far has focussed too narrowly on questions of knowledge transfer and on the impact of IR on policy. In opposition to both positions that postulate the existence of a widening gap between IR and policy, and post-modern positions that seek to eliminate any cultural difference between IR and policy, we propose a network model of IR's science-policy nexus. In the knowledge society, IR and other sciences should be seen as “epistemic cultures” constituted by a variety of practices that are linked to policymakers and other social actors. By drawing on recent insights of practice theory and the concepts of theorists of the Cultural Studies of Scientific Knowledge such as Bruno Latour we first identify the basic practices of IR and their relationship to policy. Second, we set up an analytic framework by which these practices can be studied. We claim that the relevance and impact of IR and any gap that might exist between IR and policy should be empirically investigated before prescriptive conclusions for IR can be drawn. The central task of the reflective IR practitioner therefore not as to avoid or to bridge a gap, but to carefully balance his practices.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper explores the link between knowledge processes and social factors motivating media choice in knowledge work. Using data from 91 semi-structured interviews, observations and 402 emails from 6 project teams in the consumer health, insurance, and engineering industries, grounded theory is developed regarding the link between knowledge processes (knowledge sharing, knowledge creation and team learning), knowledge interdependence and political factors (strategic ambiguity and power differentials) and media adoption. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Working together has always been a challenge, but recent trends in who we work with, about what, and across what regions, cultures, disciplines and time zones have conspired to increase the complexity of team work, and in particular the complexity of knowledge work and communication across knowledge divides. Over the past four years, I have been working with colleagues on examining the challenges, problems, and practice associated with distributed knowledge, with particular attention to the way distributed, multi-disciplinary teams communicate and collaborate in the co-construction of knowledge. In coming to understand distributed knowledge practices, we have been struck by the many kinds of divides and constraints that impinge on any collaborative, multi-party endeavor. This paper explores the nature of distributed knowledge work as well as the interplay between knowledge, practice and technology. By examining practices, it is possible to recognize and articulate the constraints that hinder collaborative processes across knowledge domains. Borrowing the concept of asset specificity from organization theory, and affordances from the psychology and technology literature, I suggest that in order to understand work and communication problems for multi-party teams, attention needs to be paid to the knowledge-based asset specificities that can constrain work, as well as to the affordances that may expand the ability to work together across knowledge divides.