Geography and knowledge in English architecture – Exploring the spatial dynamics of knowledge creation and transfer in architecture, and the contribution of communities of practice Paper abstract for DRUID summer conference 2003 Rachel Granger PhD Student University of Birmingham Despite recent research, ‘knowledge’ as understood by the appellations knowledge economy, knowledge industries or knowledge management is still a relatively unexplored subject matter. It is often portrayed, as the panacea for modern economies and particularly for cities, where it is argued to anchor much needed urban renewal. But what we know about the so-called knowledge economy is perfunctory. Knowledge is still treated as something of an amorphous term. In research it is frequently oversimplified and conflated with other economic concepts, whilst in public policy, knowledge tends to be used in an abstract fashion. At other times a more narrow, perhaps even artificial definition of knowledge is adopted, which entails only physical codified forms and serves only to distort our understanding of knowledge as a modern economic issue. Against this backdrop, this paper reports on research that is currently being undertaken to bring more tacit knowledge into economic analysis. Implicit is the idea that as a spectrum, knowledge has more and less codified and tacit forms, and that whilst pure tacit knowledge is unable to be observed or measured 1 , there are grounds for finding ways of incorporating more tacit knowledge into economic research. By ‘more tacit’, it is meant knowledge or those knowledge activities that are implicit and qualitative but still capable of being observed i.e. they are not cognitive intangible properties such as intuition or logic, nor are they explicit knowledge forms such as written material, diagrams and so on. The research has developed and is using an alternative knowledge typology, which focuses on experiential learning, knowledge application and knowledge brokering 2 as knowledge activities, and physical competences and episodic knowledge as tools in these activities. Aspects of this typology draw parallels with the concept of a ‘learning economy’ (Lundvall, 1998) in which knowledge is treated as an activity – learning infers active use of information or tacit knowledge to create new knowledge. In particular there are strong links between experiential learning, knowledge application, and knowledge brokering, and concepts such as learning by doing (Arrow, 1962), learning by using (Rosenberg, 1974), and learning by interacting. However, unlike 1 Because it is unknown by the individual and therefore beyond simple comprehension or measurement 2 Knowledge brokering can be understood as knowledge creative situations, which are linked to trust and relationships