Tikkun Olam

The Importance of Knowledge Sharing

October 12, 2023

By Simha Harari

As a writer and style editor, I have found myself in various closed contexts throughout my career, from academia to the editorial world. Being an editor and working in the humanitarian and academic fields, I have noticed that in these types of communities, there is usually a somewhat protective attitude regarding knowledge. In some ways, exclusivity is still considered an advantage or a desirable quality; control and domain over who has access to this knowledge is still very much present. Even though information has become more available in the last few years, it still seems covetable to be part of a separate group that upholds knowledge and its accessibility only to those who belong. Yet, I believe we need to question these highly elitist inclinations because only a few people, those with the power, contacts, connections, and opportunities, can acquire knowledge. Besides this, when something has its basis in exclusion and blockage, it is not uncommon for it to disappear.

This brings me to question the following: Is it essential to share knowledge? Do we have the responsibility of spreading knowledge instead of keeping it in a select group of people? To respond, we must consider that knowledge is not created individually or in isolation; rather, its origins are always found in its communicability. In other words, it builds itself within the networks of people who communicate, understand, and validate each other. It is a collective product.

How does this collective product come to be? What are the substantial reasons as to why it is essential to share knowledge? It must be said that sharing knowledge is defined by the set of actions and media needed to increase access to different types of specialized knowledge. With knowledge sharing, the general public (not only the specialized public) can receive tools to learn in a more self-directed way. At CADENA, we are considering other axes and strategies to develop this last idea, including this present blog.

Firstly, at CADENA, we recognize that sharing enhances critical thinking. Opening the possibility of understanding different perspectives, opinions, and arguments encourages our readers to revisit their beliefs and compare points of view foreign to their own. This is important because, as I previously mentioned: knowledge is a collective product. If we can establish a dialogue in different media, we allow information to flow, adapt, and change according to the necessities of society in a determined period of time.

Sharing allows the opening of channels to reach other types of audiences. Making information more available ensures it does not remain in the hands of “experts.” It ensures that people from different contexts and origins have the opportunity to reach reliable and educative content. This does not mean we will reach the public, but we will avoid exclusivity and even sectarian behaviors in knowledge. Sharing and communication avoid closing a discourse on itself.

Something that relates to this is that knowledge, apart from being a collective product, is how we create communities. In other words, it works in two directions: we generate knowledge by engaging with other people, and knowledge is a motive to engage with different people. Thus, sharing knowledge is a way of amplifying networks.

These three points refer to the advantages of sharing information in general; however, why is it desirable to do so at CADENA? Even if these three reasons are also crucial for a humanitarian and educational organization such as CADENA, I believe other particular motives must be mentioned:

First, transparency. Sharing information about what we do and why we do it makes our position visible; it shows where we act and why. In this blog, it is not only relevant to ask what I can do but why it is necessary or relevant to do so. I believe that sharing the reasons for our projects will not only be nurturing for those who read us but will create a more complex and complete scenario of the problems, contexts, backgrounds, and the highs and lows of our actions.

Social activism is not reduced to fieldwork or interventions. Changing how we think is also a way of social activism. Reading, writing, and education have effects on the world. Understanding action as the production of impact ––that also needs to be evaluated according to its utility–– can be limiting. I believe it is essential, but focusing only on this type of activism prohibits us from acknowledging the existence of other intricacies in the required network to transform the world.

Because of the motives above, sharing information is extremely important within the humanitarian aid sector because, from knowledge, we can also establish support networks. Both knowledge sharing and knowledge creation processes are ways of transforming realities, one of the main objectives we hold at CADENA and as humanitarians.

1. (gatekeeping) For example, the inaccesibility to academic articles and texts; the various filters to study at undergraduate or postgraduate levels; and gender, race, and class prejudices when participating in academia are some examples of gatekeeping.