Knowledge creation rhythms of a science project, in and beyond remote Ny-Ålesund in the Arctic

Development Cooperation as a Knowledge Creation Process: Rhythmanalytical Approach to a Capacity-Building Project in Zanzibar

“…Co-location increases the local buzz and intentional and spontaneous interaction amongst the project members (Bathelt et al 2004). In co-presence, individuals experience each other, share, and are aware of the common understanding of the project, its objectives, and the operational means of achieving them (e.g., Grabher et al 2018;Ojala and Hautala 2019). Although this joint understanding may be maintained in dispersion, it can only be created in co-present interaction (Hautala 2018).…”

“…16, 67) offers preliminary concepts to describe the interaction of rhythms in an ensemble: polyrhythmia as the multiplicity of rhythms, eurhythmia as the harmony, arrhythmia as discordance, and isorhythmia as the equivalence of rhythms. Recently, these concepts have been applied to understand, for example, knowledge creation in a research project (Ojala and Hautala 2019) and learning in adult education (Alhadeff-Jones 2019). Based on these studies, it becomes clear that knowledge is created through the dynamic interaction of various rhythms, whilst the interaction forms its own 'knowledge creation rhythm' at the same time.…”

“…Whereas some rhythms entail stability and consistency to a place, others prompt change and even arrhythmia (Edensor 2010c, p. 3). For instance, seasonal rhythms such as darkness, cold and the lack of additional social rhythms may efficiently isolate people to work in some places (Ojala and Hautala 2019). In Zanzibar and Finland, however, local rhythms also distracted from the formation of a focused knowledge creation ensemble and the (re)production of new routines.…”

“…Rhythmanalysis has been used to scrutinise various spatio-temporal occurrences and power modalities in everyday life. However, it is only rarely applied to the study of knowledge creation processes (Ojala and Hautala 2019) and never to development cooperation. Therefore, in this study, we apply the rhythmanalytical methodology to complement the literature on knowledge creation processes and hopefully gain a deeper understanding of the processes involved in international development dynamics.…”