development for whose benefit?

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What struck me when I began approaching the topic of knowledge management in the context of development, was the realization that the meaning of “knowledge management” changes depending on the particular notion of “development” it is used with. There are diverse schools of thought on development and how it should be measured, the same way that there are different schools of thought on knowledge management. Though I should be concerned with comparing IM4D and KM4D, or looking at the MDGs in the context of KM, I became fascinated by the diversity (even contradiction) of meanings of these concepts, right at a time when I was reading about discourse. At some point, I began to think that it would be more interesting to address this particular concern instead.

Literature I read about KM4D/KM4Dev, all agree about the importance of harnessing the power of knowledge in today's dynamic and increasingly interconnected and information-saturated world. However, what is meant by "knowledge," “knowledge management,” as well as the general understanding about who directly benefits from harnessing “knowledge” for some developmental purpose, vary. I think it is important to look into these diverse notions, as the concept and practice of knowledge management has been increasingly utilized in public policy and, more importantly, in the practice of development.

Focusing on the concept of “development,” there appears to be a divide between those who see development in terms of "growth" or "modernity," and those whose idea of development is that which is measured by assessing whether or not people have access to basic needs like education, health, and livelihood, and whether or not these people live in a society which has some respectable...

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...lopment organizations were struggling with defining what it is to have development, knowledge management tools and strategies that were embedded within the framework of the “growth” notion of development began to be appropriated as management tools or strategies for these new notions of development, ignoring (or maybe not realizing) the originally firm-centric nature of the concept.

I believe that this is an interesting area of scholarship for those doing research on KM4D, as these obscure details often open up opportunities for interests with self-serving motives to take advantage of this to exploit novel resources such as knowledge and information, at the expense of particular groups and sectors in society. It wouldn’t hurt to be extra cautious especially in a world where people suddenly realize that knowledge is not just power, but also money – a lot of it.

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