Cities, human well-being and the environment: conceiving national regulatory knowledge systems to facilitate resilient knowledge, knowledge based development and inter-generational knowing

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the idea of resilient knowledge and how the concept of knowledge-based development might be conceived as scientific discipline, and on what basis. Discussion is presented in two sections. In the first section we explore the idea of the epistemic loss of knowledge. We suggest this type of knowledge loss occurs where there is inadequate preservation of the knowledge necessary to explain the context, structure and meaning of information through time. We provide a brief overview of an emergent approach that could address this problem – an approach called contextual information management. In the second section, we document examples of how this new approach might be harnessed to create a framework for a (national) regulatory knowledge system. We draw upon one particular case study: the conception of quality standards within the Victorian Community Sector. By extrapolation, we suggest these ideas could well have wider applications – for example, the harmonisation of regulatory standards across State and Commonwealth areas of jurisdiction. By extension, it is suggested the focus of regulatory interventions should not be on compliance per se, but on creating a shared context between Government, stakeholders and citizens to support the dynamics of problem solving, knowledge acquisition and what we call evolutionary possibility.