Knowledge Sources

Abstract

When we talk about ‘knowledge’ in lay terms, we are usually referring to explicit, propositional knowledge: knowledge that something is the case. In this conceptualisation knowledge is something like an object; it can be acquired, possessed and passed on. It must also have a topic: it is knowledge about something. This is the conceptualisation of knowledge that has underpinned much of the literature on the relationship between evidence and policy, and which was also implicit in my initial conceptualisation of my research question. This first chapter is set in this more traditional paradigm. It asks, where do civil servants turn when they need to learn about a new policy topic?