Open AccessKnowing That and Knowing How: Towards Embodied Strategy
Author(s) -
ROBERTS SIMON,
HOY TOM
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
ethnographic praxis in industry conference proceedings
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1559-8918
pISSN - 1559-890X
DOI - 10.1111/1559-8918.2015.01057
Subject(s) - embodied cognition , bridge (graph theory) , ethnography , division of labour , sociology , action (physics) , gesture , social worlds , epistemology , knowledge management , psychology , computer science , political science , social science , medicine , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , anthropology , law , computer vision
This paper explores two different forms of knowledge. We compare embodied understanding with propositional or abstract knowledge. Ethnographic research, with its commitment to understanding through immersion and engagement in social fields produces dexterous, intuitive and practical cultural knowledge, which is highly suited towards culturally attuned activity. We argue that ethnography can often be reduced to propositional knowledge as a result of the lack of team participation in research and how we communicate insight. Ideas of professional expertise sit behind the division of labour that characterises client‐researcher relationships. Accompanying that division of labour is a need for the communication of ethnographic research to bridge the gap between client and external worlds – the world we as researchers explore and that our clients needs to act in. By engaging our clients in shared, immersive experiences we can create the conditions for them to develop ‘know how’ about relevant social fields. The shared nature of this understanding forms the basis for the development of ‘embodied strategy’ – collective action based on shared, deep, first‐hand understanding of a world.