Design research knowledge and professional knowledge.
Practice-based research must have relevant knowledge surely not just for the sake of knowledge, but for practitioners in the field of practice that the research is undertaken within. But what about so-called non-researcherly knowledge, everyday practical knowledge? On the net, the ability to publish often automatically grants the ability to produce knowledge. I guess the ability to think and talk and reason can produce knowledge. Publishing in any medium can be dangerous if there is not a community of people to challenge the knowledge presented.Could it be argued that it is not knowledge if it is not acknowledged by a community of others? A single person could constitute a community, a community of one, and her/his knowing could well be acknowledged by that community. With more people, knowing must be challenged and acknowledged by the community. his type of knowledge is still contained to the community.
Knowledge is not instantaneous, but networked. Being networked means that hat it is nothing unless it is discussed, published, made to be known to others through different networks.
I am trying to think about the knowledge that I am seeking to attain in my PhD. It is not ever entirely clear what shape this knowledge will take, as there are very few guidelines.
A criticism of my research so far is that the findings are existing in a vacuum. I have not sought to network my thinking and participate in communities that are into similar things. This means my knowledge has no relevance. It’s not to say that I am entirely disconnected from the world, as my practice(s) as designer and researcher connect me daily with other practitioners and researchers, with whom I can discuss things.
I have not connected with a group of skinners and contemporaries that I can feel comfortable with, to share professional knowledge, to ask questions from. I have some peers here, but none that are going through the same problems or thinking about the same things. Am I barking up a tree all alone? How should I continue my search? How should I be publishing?