6 - Final Remarks

Summary

This book intended to discuss the fundamentals of transdisciplinarity and the concept of transdisciplinary co-production research, and propose the Knowledge Acquisition Design Framework, aimed at integrative research in the theoretical-practical body of knowledge governance and organizational learning (KLGov), in compliance with the conceptual framework of knowledge governance, an important construct for organizations that learn and innovate.

Throughout the chapters, some contributions and theoretical choices are noteworthy. The first is the use of the term co-production, which can take on several specific meanings; here, it is based on Sheila Jasanoff's studies of science and technology in 2004. The author described the co-production of scientific knowledge with society. She discussed the issue in more detail and pointed out that a significant goal of co-production is to generate knowledge on the basis of governance practices and to shed light on how governance practices influence the production and use of knowledge. With the meaning given by the author, the issue is qualified as transdisciplinarity of co-production or transdisciplinary co-production, with the research studies of Robert Frodeman (2014) and Merrit Polk (2015). The second important contribution, by Polk, is the perception that situated knowledge and scientific knowledge share the responsibility in the search for the solution to relevant problems. The author defined transdisciplinary co-production research, derived from integration processes for knowledge creation, as the combination of scientific perspectives with other types of relevant perspectives, which include co-production from the joint formulation of problems to quality control after implementation.

Another very relevant contribution of this book to the researchers who have read it is the description of the conceptual frameworks, as they were useful for defining the KAD framework itself. The frameworks are rich in detail, which makes it difficult to choose the most suitable one, or the one that will be the basis of a framework for research in the organizational field. Each one is suitable for a specific situation; all of them have in-depth and well-defined theoretical ties and an excellent methodological basis. The contributions of this book extend to the definitions of unity of knowledge, transdisciplinarity, transdisciplinary co-production, and transdisciplinary research, as shown in Table 6.1.

These definitions were developed in response to the challenges of transdisciplinary co-production research on knowledge governance and organizational learning; they may as well be suitable for other contexts.