Situated Knowledge

Abstract

The term “situated knowledge” has two quite distinct disciplinary connections. The first is with a long twentieth-century tradition in studies of knowledge that comes from the margins of society, from black feminist thought,¹ from non-mainstream science,² and from those outside accepted forms of social communication.³ The second connection is with the study of learning that takes place in the process of engaged observation and practice, such as craftwork in silver, or children’s acquisition of language,⁴ or more recently, computing skills. This latter use is tied closely to studies in tacit knowledge.⁵