Lost in Translation? Regenerative practices for bridging knowledge

Natalia Radywyl and Debra Polson

Designing systemic interventions, particularly when undertaking regenerative work, often requires complex constellations of collaborators who can contribute diverse forms of expertise, knowledge and wisdom. Yet projects involving multiple partners or stakeholders can easily suffer from a lack of shared language, a lack of trust, and power asymmetries. These factors undermine the ability of collaborators to mobilise their pluriversal knowledge as a shared resource, thereby impacting partnership health and ultimately project outcomes.

This workshop is for people seeking frameworks and tools for such collaborations, particularly when undertaking regenerative work. Rather than simply providing tools or methods for supporting complex collaboration (of which there are already many), the workshop takes a specific focus on bridging knowledge systems. In the workshop, participants explore translational practices that allow different knowledge systems and vocabularies to come together.

The practices and related frameworks presented in the workshop reflect findings from interviews and synthesised case studies in which translation was a critical feature in project collaboration, such as when undertaking social innovation, systems transformation and translational design. The workshop is therefore grounded in real examples, with the facilitators also drawing from their own research and practical project experience.

Participants are first introduced to the idea of project collaboration as a process of structuring a relational knowledge system, where translational practices help to establish and reinforce these relations. Through a series of activities, participants then explore three interrelated phases of translational collaboration that are common to successful projects: framing, mediation, and reconfiguration. The activities involve storytelling, mapping, and co-creation to experience translational practices and develop related tools that they can adapt in their work.

KEYWORDS: knowledge mobilisation, translation, collaboration, regeneration, knowledge systems, system leadership, facilitation, systems transformation, co-creation, co-design

RSD TOPIC(S): Cases & Practice, Methods & Methodology, Socioecological Design