Socially Distributed Knowledge

Conceptual Overview and Discussion

Conceptualizing learning and knowing as socially distributed is an epistemological perspective or theory about how learning and knowing occur. This perspective emphasizes that people interact and learn in social settings and that part of what they learn is social content. It also recognizes that even when individuals work or study independently they interact with books and tools that are socially located. Socially distributed knowledge is not a special class of knowledge, and it is not limited to knowledge that is developed or deployed by a group of people. From this epistemological perspective, all learning and knowing are socially distributed, and it is impossible to understand any learning or knowing without [Page 880]addressing social aspects of that learning or knowing.

Conceptions about socially distributed knowledge can be considered in relation to three interrelated metaphors: (1) distributed, (2) situated, and (3) positioned.

Distributed implies that knowledge does not reside in individual minds but is disbursed throughout the situation in which the individual knower is located. A feature of the physical environment prompts the individual to recall a relevant technique to adopt in the specific situation. A suggestion from a tutor or work partner becomes incorporated into a task solution. Some of the cognitive work is offloaded onto a tool, such as a calculator or measuring cup, such that the individual and the tool work together as a symbiotic system to enact knowledge. Each of these examples illustrates ways that knowledge is distributed between an individual and the situation in which she or he is placed.

Situated implies that knowledge is developed and deployed within physically and socially defined situations. Research has shown that people perform differently in different situations; practices engaged in one situation cannot be expected to look like practices engaged in a different situation. The physical setting contributes to and constitutes an important structuring device for learners' practices. Available tools and resources contribute to the learners' practices, but the learner determines which objects, events, or people are recognized as tools or resources. Components of the physical and social situation not only stimulate and guide knowledge development and deployment but also become the vehicles for thought.

Positioned implies that knowledge is historically, culturally, and politically located. Historical, cultural, and political factors influence the knowledge to which an individual has access and the practices and beliefs that are recognized or valued as knowledge within his or her community. For example, there are differences in the information that is presented as accepted knowledge by a biology professor, a geography professor, an Aboriginal elder, an environmental activist, or a forester. No one of these individuals is more accurate or knowledgeable than the others. Each holds a wealth of knowledge that is embedded, partial, and mediated. Each provides rich understandings from a particular position or perspective.

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