Finding common (research) ground between general practitioners and neuroscientists: the vital role of knowledge circulation in closing the evidence-to-practice gap

Background It may take 15 years or longer before research evidence is integrated into clinical practice. This evidence-to-practice gap has deleterious effects on patients as well as research and clinical processes. Bringing clinical knowledge into the research process, however, has the potential to close the evidence-to-practice gap. The NEUROTRANS-Project attempts to bring research and practice together by focusing on two groups that usually operate separately in their communities: general practitioners and neuroscientists. Although both groups focus on dementia as an area of work, they do so in different contexts and without opportunities to share their expertise. Finding new treatment pathways for patients with dementia will require an equal knowledge exchange among researchers and clinicians along with the integration of that knowledge into research processes, so that both groups will benefit from the expertise of the other. Methods The NEUROTRANS-Project uses a qualitative, multi-stage research design to explore how neuroscientists and general practitioners (GPs) approach dementia. Using a grounded theory methodology, it analyzes semi-structured interviews, case vignettes, focus groups with GPs in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, and informal conversations with, and observations of, neuroscientists from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Magdeburg. Results The NEUROTRANS-Project identified a clear division of labor between two highly specialized professional groups. Neuroscientists focus abstractly on nosology whereas general practitioners tend to patient care following a hermeneutic approach integrating the patients’ perspective of illness. These different approaches to dementia create a barrier to constructive dialogue and the capacity of these groups to do research together with a common aim. Additionally, the broader system of research funding and health care within which the two groups operate reinforces their divide thereby limiting joint research capacity. Conclusions Overcoming barriers to research collaboration between general practitioners and neuroscientists requires a shift in perspective in which both groups actively engage with the other’s viewpoints to facilitate knowledge circulation (KC). Bringing ‘art into science and science into art’, i.e. amalgamating the hermeneutic approach with the perspective of nosology, is the first step in developing joint research agendas that have the potential to close the evidence-to-practice gap.

Knowledge-based psychological ownership and knowledge hiding: The roles of loss of knowledge power and emotional intelligence

Individuals' knowledge activity is essential for knowledge circulation in organizations. To examine the relationship between knowledge-based psychological ownership and knowledge hiding, we conducted a threewave online survey with 310 knowledge workers in China. We used the bootstrapping method for mediation effects analysis and found that loss of knowledge power mediated the effect of knowledge-based psychological ownership on knowledge hiding. The results of a conditional process analysis further indicate that emotional intelligence attenuated the indirect impact of knowledge-based psychological ownership on knowledge hiding through the mediator of loss of knowledge power. Our findings enhance understanding of why workers refuse to share their knowledge, and how to decrease knowledge-hiding behaviors in organizations by developing employees' emotional competency.

The Role of Open Source Software in Mastering Technologies of an Information System and Its Implication to Technology Transfer

The philosophy and practice of open source software (OSS) affected not only software production but also implementation and use. However, little is known about the intricacies of implementation and use of domain-specific, frontend information systems compared to production. Especially, empirical studies that examine the learning mechanisms in OSS implementation in developing countries are scant. This paper fills the gap by investigating the implementation of an OSS in a resource-constrained setting. Drawing upon communities of practice and networks of practice theories, the paper examines the mechanisms of the OSS approach that enable knowledge circulation, technology transfer, innovation, and sustainability, and interrogates the technology transfer conceptualization in the light of the approach. It also highlights the measures practitioners and policymakers should take to benefit from OSS.

Intellectual Property Institution in the Cultural-Historical and Strategic Mode

Relevance. The rapid expansion of the space of action of the relations of the «knowledge economy», the institution of intellectual property (IP) is enhanced by «digitalization», the whole economic architecture of the world is changing. The high dynamics and complexity of changes in economic systems and the world order, «knowledge circulation », complicate effective adaptation and constructive participation in these processes. The world is faced with the need to assess the cultural, historical and strategic consequences of all the effects of the institutionalization of IP relations. Methods. The article uses a systemic, cultural and historical analysis, based on global political economy and historical («old») institutionalism. The initial formulation of questions in this area should be of a qualitative, conceptual nature. This article uses this approach, but relying on available statistics and the possibility of a qualitative comparison of the consequences of the institutionalization of IP rights. Results. The contours of the institutionalization process, the introduction of IP relations into the global political and economic turnover, its main groups of interests and beneficiaries are considered. Qualified consequences for the economic architecture of the world and the redistribution of «world knowledge». The role of the Agreement on IP Regimes (TRIPS) in the formation of intellectual-monopoly capitalism has been determined. The effects generated by the regime of «closed science» and «closed markets» are highlighted. The mechanism of making a profit based on IP rights is considered. Signified of the importance of the advanced development of the ability to use the appropriate institutions, adequate to features of historical Russia’s cultural ecumene and civilizational characteristics of the peoples of Eurasia, and the need for a strategic transformation of personnel training systems. Discussion. The change in the economic architecture of the world and the unforeseen effects of the redistribution of «world knowledge» as a result of formation of intellectual-monopoly capitalism is an indisputable historical fact. Its consequences for the future of humanity have not been studied, uncertainty and risks are growing. It requires its awareness, consideration of the cultural and historical significance of the effects, requires the involvement of researchers from various subjects and civilizational perspectives.

Secrecy and the Genesis of the 1951 Dutch-Norwegian Nuclear Reactor

Despite the restrictions on knowledge and materials of the Anglo-American nuclear monopoly in the early Cold War, Norway and the Netherlands managed to build and operate a joint nuclear reactor by July 1951. They were the first countries to do so after the Great Powers. Their success was largely due to the combination of the strategic materials of heavy water (Norway) and uranium (the Netherlands). Nonetheless, they had to overcome significant political and technical obstacles. In that process a number of specific nuclear secrets played a central role. This case is used to study how and why knowledge circulation was impeded by secrecy. Specifically, I will explore four different secrets that illustrate how the Netherlands and Norway, being outside the British and American secrecy regimes, chafed against those regimes. Knowledge circulation was enabled through relations within networks that were at the same time scientific, diplomatic, and personal. I will identify three main factors that affected the mobility of information: the availability of strategic nuclear materials, the scientists’ individual interactions, and national interests.

A Educação do Campo como opção decolonial: a experiência de construção do Instituto de Agroecologia Latino-Americano (IALA-amazônico)

This article focuses on the experience of building the Amazon IALA, particularly from the specialization course on “Rural Education, Agroecology and Agrarian Issues in the Amazon”, developed in a partnership between the Federal University of South and Southeast Pará and Via Campesina. The reflection points to some analytical shifts towards a decolonial option in education from a pedagogical experience connected politically and epistemologically to the social struggles and disputed territories in southeastern Pará. Education as a political demand of the people of the countryside transforms the context of conflicts rather than the realization of the pedagogical dynamics that thus becomes an integral part of the subjects' political subjectivation processes. The encounter with social struggles also becomes a recognition of the forms of denial of the possibilities of epistemic agency to subaltern individual and collective subjects, leading to an option for epistemic disobedience, to restore these wasted experiences to the field of knowledge and thus, broaden the meanings of the relationship between the university and social movements, facing the contradictions of the institutionalization processes, expanding the forms of knowledge circulation and ensuring the dialogue of knowledge as an effective practice.

Epistemic Encounters: Social Sciences and the Rethinking of Urban Planning Policies in the Early 1970s Romania

This article aims to conduct a case study on urban planning models drawn by social scientists in 1970s Romania. It looks at the trans-national channels of knowledge circulation and reconstructs specialists’ role in creating new bridges of cooperation between the first and second world. It also analyzes the gradual re-signification of these ideas locally as part of the socialist state development project. More precisely, it wants to answer three intertwined questions: To what extent did the trans-nationalization of knowledge in the late 1960s determine a particular approach to urban planning in Romania? What does this tell us about local professional practices’ autonomy? Which was the international relevance of Romanian social sciences’ practice? The article contributes to an emerging scholarship on the genealogy of these ideas by placing the transnational debates of the late 1960s and early 1970s consumed under the umbrella of various international organizations, such as the ISA and the UN, in conversation with an intellectual tradition dating back to the interwar period.

The Emergence of Social Work Research Between Professionalisation and Nation-Building: A Transnational Case Study

This study explores the transnational history of social work and, as a case study, examines the movement of social work research between Germany and Mandatory Palestine in the 1930s and 1940s. This transnational circulation of knowledge and ideas was driven by a group of German-Jewish social workers who migrated to Palestine and helped establish the profession in the new country. Particular attention is paid to early professional schools of social work, which served as hubs for knowledge circulation and laid the academic foundations of social work long before the discipline found its final form. To study this translation process, this article analyses research activities at Alice Salomon’s Academy for Social and Educational Women's Work in Berlin and Siddy Wronsky’s School of Social Services in Jerusalem. Both institutes were influential in establishing the profession in their countries and closely linked the emerging social work training and research. As a transnational research team, we approached and analysed these activities through archival files and documents in Israel and Germany. This analysis is framed by assumptions about the transnational translation of knowledge and, to add context, presents findings on the origins of social work in both countries and its societal embeddedness.

Knowledge transfer and translation in cultural ecosystems

PurposeThis paper concerns the pivotal role that entrepreneurial universities can play in developing knowledge transfer and translation processes tailored to the cultural ecosystem.Design/methodology/approachThe paper examines IncubiAmo Cultura, an innovative project that aims to mentor potential entrepreneurs and offer incubation and acceleration for cultural start-ups. The research methodology is based on action research and theory building from cases. An interventionist approach has been adopted, as one of the authors is also the founder of the ongoing project.FindingsThe in-depth collection of first-hand information on this pilot project has allowed the authors to formulate an analytical reflection and generate the design of a knowledge translation model driven by an entrepreneurial university that manifests itself through the creation of cultural and creative start-ups.Research limitations/implicationsThis article offers an original contribution to scholarship by offering a conceptual model for knowledge translation in cultural ecosystems. Common values (i.e. social, cultural, ethical and aesthetic ones) emerge as the basis on which to build open innovation and knowledge circulation.Practical implicationsFor local policymakers, this study provides a clue to understand the need for both an integrated vision of knowledge translation and policies that aim to make an impact at the cultural ecosystem level. For entrepreneurial university governance, our investigation offers suggestions on the design and implementation of knowledge translation processes that fit with the specificity of the cultural ecosystem. For practitioners in the cultural field, a change of mindset is required to combine resources, energies and knowledge.Originality/valueThis work fills several gaps in the literature, as research generally concerns knowledge transfer from entrepreneurial universities to the market with regard to high-tech sectors. In contrast, the cultural sector is often neglected, despite its importance in the renewal and development of a territory.