Subject: persistent gaps between knowledge and practice

Steve Pedersen asks "../what are some of the gaps between knowledge and 
practice you see that just drive you crazy?/". The list is endless, look 
at the lists of so-called "lessons learned" from the Millennium 
Development Goals (MDGs 2015). Every one of them was something we knew 
in 2005!

As one of Einstein’s favorite quotes puts it: /"In theory, theory and 
practice are the same. In practice, they are not."/ That is even more 
true in social processes than it is in the physical sciences, because 
everything depends on context, knowledge only has relevance in context, 
and in social processes context is highly varied.

Consider: Given the size of a barrel, anyone with the right math can 
tell you how many liters of oil it can hold. But, how many people will 
fit on a 20 meter pleasure craft? It depends on whether the boat is 
moored off North Africa facing a shore full of refugees, or the boat is 
moored in Monaco and owned by a wealthy individual. Context should be 
the initial consideration and the ongoing consideration in 
implementation, and context depends on local knowledge, tacit knowledge 
and outside knowledge.

How do we get context right? We have learned lessons here. Issue 
assessment, program development, and implementation all have to involve 
a multistakeholder bottom up approach that is more accountable to the 
engaged community and less focused on meeting frequently wrongly 
specified performance indicators imposed by funding sources. External 
expertise is a contribution to the multistakeholder dialogue, but it is 
neither a “silver bullet” nor a “trump card”.

If I had a New Year’s wish here it would be for more attention to 
"humble knowledge", a more cautious use of "expert knowledge", and 
greater multistakeholder engagement in the design, implementation, and 
evaluation of our well-intended efforts

Sam Lanfranco (co-host of CLICK4HP)

-- 
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"It is a disgrace to be rich and honoured
in an unjust state" -Confucius
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Dr Sam Lanfranco (Prof Emeritus & Senior Scholar)
Econ, York U., Toronto, Ontario, CANADA - M3J 1P3
email: [log in to unmask]   Skype: slanfranco
blog:  http://samlanfranco.blogspot.com


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