Knowledge that affects: An assemblage approach

Abstract

There is consensus in the field of sustainability science that a collaboration between plural knowledge systems is needed to address matters of concern and to bridge the knowledge/action gap. The field has made many important advances in this regard and a particular focus has been on developing approaches that facilitate processes for generating actionable knowledge - such as principles or policy instruments for the co-production of knowledge. While these are certainly necessary, less attention has been paid to the question as to what exactly is meant to happen to “knowledge” in such processes. Inspired by process-relational philosophy we conceptualize knowledge as an “assemblage” and argue that what is meant to happen is an alignment between what we call, on the one hand, the “representational” and, on the other hand, the “affective” dimensions of knowledge. We argue that applying methods and techniques attuned to an assemblage approach can enhance processes of knowledge generation structured by principles and policy instruments and realize such an alignment. This, in turn, can contribute to closing the knowledge / action gap. So doing, our insights contribute to rehabilitating the affective dimension of knowledge that has been disregarded to the benefit of an understanding of knowledge that focuses solely on the representationalist content.