KMb for Building Sustainable Communities
There are multiple ways to engage through KMb:
- Public participation
- Knowledge Co-Production
- Community-engaged research
It is important to recognize the role of KMb in sustainable community building.
All notes below are drawn from the UNESCO document on Imagining the Future of Knowledge Mobilization: Imagining the future of Knowledge Mobilization.
UNESCO Chair on Community Sustainability (pp. 97-109):
The KMb paper The Futures of Knowledge Mobilization: breaking down barriers to productive exchanges across diverse audiences by the UNESCO Chair on Community Sustainability: From Local to Global at Brock University explores issues of relevance to many fields. It explores the familiar challenge of translating complex research concepts into a format that general audiences can easily grasp and provides 3 key recommendations:
- Increased human and financial KMb resource capacity at universities
- Improved training and networking opportunities among researchers, communication staff, and the media to promoted collaborations and reduce tensions
- Better support for media to provide timely and direct access to research expertise, efficient research dissemination and translation
Knowledge Mobilization for deep societal transformations suggests scientists should (pp. 113-126):
- Engage in more public outreach activities, noting that public understanding of how science fundamentally works is a necessary condition for addressing today’s complex problems
- Assume the role of authentic partner in knowledge production with incentives and career rewards aligned with this function
- Move everyday practices and individual behaviour to the center of future knowledge mobilization strategies
