Designing for Knowledge Transfer

Abstract

What knowledge can be represented? Is it possible to represent practical knowledge? Is it possible to represent personal knowledge? These issues are concerned with design as a process, where design is an example of the formation and transfer of knowledge, as well as with two contrasting ‘traditions’ of knowledge (Gill, 1988; Josefson, 1987, 1988).

One of these traditions is embodied in the idea of a science of mind. This idea has been developed within the field of cognitive science. Here, knowledge has become tangibly linked to a technology. Orthodox cognitivism or computationalism (Fodor, 1976, 1981; Pylyshyn, 1984) holds that cognition can be defined as computations of symbolic representations. The focus is on representation and logic. Knowledge is non-contextual, in that it is time-independent and depersonalised. The other tradition may be termed ‘human-centred’ (for example, see Cooley, 1977; Gill, 1990; Rosenbrock, 1988, 1989; Rasmussen, 1989; Smith, 1991), where knowledge is context-based and has a personal and social dimension. Here the interest lies in exploring the interdependence of different aspects of knowledge embedded in knowledge transfer. The premise is that knowledge exists in praxis/experience and has a personal and social dimension.