Knowledge Transfer: Exchanging Knowledge with the Field By Gemma John (University of Manchester)

Contributors to this special issue of Anthropology Matters frame the relationship between a field researcher and the people he or she meets whilst conducting fieldwork in terms of the exchange of knowledge. As the field researcher immerses him or herself in fieldwork, this involves getting to know those he or she meets intimately, as well as them getting to know the researcher. Yet, ‘the field ’ is not only a site in which knowledge is exchanged between the field researcher and the people he or she meets as part of fieldwork, but has also become one of a number of potential sites in which knowledge is created and ‘expertise ’ can be located. Nowotny (2001) explains that ‘expertise ’ no longer appears as a quality located in specific institutions, such as the university, and specific people, such as academics, but is distributed between an array of institutions and people. ‘Knowledge transfer ’ concerns the way in which these sites are joined in novel ways, to meet consumer demand (Gibbons 1994). Contributors, then, also frame ‘the field ’ as a site of expertise, and knowledge transfer as the practical problem of exchanging knowledge between people in ‘the field ’ and the field researcher so that each might benefit from the others ’ expertise. However