Salience, Credibility and Legitimacy in a Rapidly Shifting World of Knowledge and Action

Abstract

We are in a rapidly changing world where new dynamics are stressing the knowledge-action landscape: a greater understanding that cross-scale interactions are critical; increasing pressure to more fully address issues of equity in sustainable development challenges; rapidly transforming digital technologies; and the emergence of a “post-truth world”. These stressors are ripening at a time in which there is increased urgency in linking knowledge to action to solve some of the earth’s most pressing human-environment problems. This paper explores to what degree one model of knowledge-action may be useful in the face of these stressors. This model relies on co-production of knowledge across boundaries, and the importance of knowledge in meeting criteria of salience, credibility and legitimacy. Tentative explorations suggest utility of this model in responding to the changing knowledge-action landscape.