Knowledge Democracy

Knowledge Democracy and Ecologies of Knowledge

Knowledge democracy is understood to mean at least three things. First, it recognizes that knowledge is relational and is represented in diverse forms, which include music, song, storytelling, sculpture, murals, theatre, puppetry, community meetings and so much more, as well as the academic forms of text, statistics and graphic representations. Second, knowledge democracy recognizes the diversity, complexity and holistic nature of often excluded or marginalized epistemologies. It recognizes the specificity of the knowledge of women farmers in Africa, of indigenous [Page 480]peoples in all parts of the world, of the homeless on issues of place or those differently abled on issues of inclusion and of social movement activists of the shack dwellers movements in southern Africa. And third, it recognizes the critical role of knowledge in action to make a difference in our lives and of knowledge creation and use as a strategy for social change.

Knowledge democracy differs from similar sounding concepts of either knowledge economy or knowledge society. Knowledge economy, as it was originally intended, has been taken up by the market and the state to mean the production of highly skilled workers to fit into the global economic system of production. As evidence now shows, this is a system that is increasing rather than decreasing inequalities within our nations and amongst our nations. Knowledge society is a broader and more interesting concept that relates knowledge to issues of the state, to citizenship, and to inclusion. The literature on knowledge societies, however, largely assumes that the ‘body’ of knowledge that we are to work with is essentially the Western canon. The challenge in a knowledge society framework is how to make better use of already existing knowledges and processes.

Knowledge democracy is experienced at the micro- and local levels, but it has aspects of global movement visibility as well. Spaces where one can see knowledge democracy at work are broad indeed. They can be seen in the recovery and revitalization of indigenous ways of knowing in Canada and in many other parts of the world. They can be seen in aspects of the ‘open-access' movement for information. They can be seen in community-based organizations such as the Community Council or the Kool-Aid Society in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, which do community-based research linked to social action. They can be seen in the work of CanAssist at the University of Victoria, where the knowledge of a person's differently abled ability is combined with technological models to create breakthroughs in adaptation for better community living. They can be seen around the world in places like Mpambo Afrikan Multiversity and the Society for Participatory Research in Asia and in hundreds of community economic development initiatives across Canada. But an additional space where knowledge democracy can be seen to be working is within the movement of community university research and engagement—a movement of the co-construction of knowledge.

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