3.7 Approaching knowledge differently

The question of producing and integrating knowledge is crucial when considering the socio-economic transition and a changing civilization, and not only as a response to the following questions : “which knowledge should we be producing?”, “what remains to be discovered?”, “what is relevant to be transmitted to whom and how?”, “how should knowledge be produced?” and “which knowledge should be recognized as legitimate or as vectors of living well together?”. Let us elaborate on several key elements in response to these questions.

Knowledge about climate change is starting to be well known. If the first warnings about climate change from the 1970s seemed insignificant or caused skepticism, then the interdisciplinary work of the IPCC leaves no room for doubt as they are able to predict what is likely to happen. Subsequent international conferences have been held, and international agreements have been signed. We know the scale of the problem. We have known about it for some time. But still, “we” are not doing much. Knowledge that has been produced, accumulated, disseminated allows us to access a certain framework and mobilization. But “higher up”, at the level of government and big business, this framework collides head on with the episteme of growth at all costs : a well established belief system, embedded in laws and institutions, that mobilizes resources and investments and conditions habits to suit short-term interests. Knowledge about the climate crisis is being met with closed doors.

The “awakening’s framework” will allow us to set the table and prepare for next steps. It draws on existing knowledge and a rise in awareness that will shake itself out of sleep and fully unfurl its reach. The Awakening invites us to transform climate science into action-based knowledge. This knowledge/action, this praxeology, will be developed specifically through action, interaction, deliberation and reflection. Undoubtedly, this knowledge/action will be met with opposition. As history reminds us, it will evoke tension, conflict and rifts. In other words, all gestures and initiatives are important as they will, in one way or another, invite us to build the socio-economic transition peacefully.

This preliminary comment leads us to a second one. It is important to go beyond the Cartesian concept of knowledge as a reflection of reality. Knowledge is built through action, which is what then transforms reality. The result is that knowledge has several components, as ATD Fourth World demonstrated¹: life knowledge, action knowledge and academic knowledge. These are all complementary. Once these kinds of knowledge have been recognized, integrating them into each other presents a challenge as this also produces an intersection of powers. The integration of tacit lived know-how and action know-how with global knowledge is primordial within the context of a socio-economic transition. It is important to incorporate citizens’ knowledge into the identification of new perspectives and future transformations.

This question is epistemological and methodological in nature. It involves concrete mechanisms for recognizing citizen knowledge and modes of diffusion and for merging them.

Notes

1
ATD Fourth World Research Group (1999), Le Croisement des savoirs. Quand le Quart Monde et l’Université pensent ensemble, Paris, éd. de l’Atelier et éd. Quart Monde. Groupe de recherche action-formation Quart Monde-Partenaire (2002), Le Croisement des pratiques. Quand le Quart-Monde et les professionnels se forment ensemble, Paris, éd. Quart Monde. Also : Brun, Patrick. « Croisement des savoirs et pouvoir des acteurs. L’expérience d’ATD-Quart Monde », VST — Vie sociale et traitements, vol. no 76, no. 4, 2002, pp. 55 – 60.