Exploring the Art and Craft of Knowledge Mobilisation
Sarah Chaytor
What is knowledge mobilisation? Put simply, it is about sharing knowledge between different people.
The research-policy ecosystem is about connecting academic evidence and expertise to policy professionals to explore and address policy problems.
Here, I offer some personal reflections and observations on seven aspects of knowledge mobilisation to inform public policymaking in practice, drawn from 12 years of experience and countless conversations with many highly talented colleagues.
What is knowledge mobilisation?
Knowledge mobilisation is perhaps best considered not as a fixed technique but as a ‘craft’ incorporating many different skills and competencies. There is a growing academic literature on knowledge mobilisation that suggests these include, among other things, communicating or translating knowledge, mentoring and skills development, and networking and building relationships.
The ‘art’ of knowledge mobilisation is knowing which of these and many other skills to deploy, when, and where.
When considering how knowledge mobilisation works ‘on the ground,’ it becomes apparent how difficult it can be to arrive at one definition or set of skills. Much knowledge mobilisation is a case of ‘learning through doing,’ with practice and the tools of the trade continuing to evolve as the research-policy ecosystem evolves likewise.
Navigating ambiguity
Knowledge mobilisation is messy. By definition, knowledge mobilisers work at the boundaries of different areas of professional practice, often deliberately seeking to blur these. This means that boundaries are not always clear, and the requirements of a given interaction or project may not be immediately obvious. Rather, knowledge mobilisation is often the art of eliciting needs through dialogue and engagement. This requires being comfortable with a certain level of ambiguity and with working things out along the way.
Moving goalposts
Knowledge mobilisation is not static, and neither is academic research or policymaking. Part of the role of knowledge mobilisers is to ensure flexibility in approach and to adapt to changing policy (or other) demands. This requires knowledge mobilisers to be agile, even though they may work in systems, structures, and institutions that are not. It also requires a very pragmatic approach—focusing on the art of the possible and accepting considerable degrees of imperfection.
Managing push and pull
Knowledge mobilisers spend much of their time brokering between the different elements of policy demand or ‘pull’ and academic supply or ‘push’. This dynamic is constantly changing, with different emphases on the pull and push at different times. It can feel a little like the art of matchmaking, whether – between individual experts or between areas of policy interest and broader communities of expertise or bodies of work.
Being a ‘super-connector’
It is almost a truism to say that most complex policy problems cannot be solved by one person or one area of knowledge – rather, they require the integration of different insights, areas of expertise, and perspectives. The role of knowledge mobilisers as super-connectors (a phrase coined by Liz Shutt of Insights North East) is critical in this regard. This denotes the ability to identify a range of actors and expertise across sectors, disciplines, and organisations that can contribute to tackling a complex problem and create connections between them to address it.
Facilitating collaborative activity
Knowledge mobilisation is an inherently collaborative activity. It is about bringing people together and creating the space to work collaboratively to consider mutual interests or problems. Above all, it is about creating a shared endeavour – often with limited capacity and resources to pursue it. In many cases, the knowledge mobilisers themselves are the key resource.
Building trust
Knowledge mobilisation is fundamentally about relationships. It requires establishing trust between actors who often have very different perspectives and motivations. It also requires individual knowledge mobilisers to establish credibility so that they are trusted by those they work with. This requires time and effort, as well as awareness of different organisational drivers, languages, and cultures, to develop mutual understanding.
The practicalities of practice
Above all, knowledge mobilisation can be immensely practical and operational. Whether organising meetings, creating routes for engagement, scoping projects, identifying funding sources to support work, or arranging roundtables, all these activities require significant organisation and planning. Sometimes, but not always, processes and structures will exist to support these. Where they don’t, knowledge mobilisers may find they are inventing them.
The art of knowledge mobilisation thus entails a complex array of skills, spanning everything from project management, communication skills and relationship management to evidence synthesis. However, many knowledge mobilisation skills can appear intangible or ‘soft’. This means that their importance in translating knowledge and connecting research to policymaking is often overlooked. Knowledge mobilisers often play a self-effacing role, whilst the expertise of others is often in the limelight. They provide a crucial ‘lynchpin’ in connecting evidence to policy, deploying highly specialist expertise in their own right. It’s about time we started to look more seriously at the contribution and practice of knowledge mobilisers to better recognise the crucial role they play in the research-policy ecosystem.