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Knowledge, Technology and Society Team
Linking technological change in health, agriculture and environment to poverty reduction and social justice.

About Knowledge, Technology and Society Research team

Our Approach

The Knowledge, Technology and Society Team puts forward the premise that science and technology offer crucial ways to reduce poverty and increase social justice by improving agricultural livelihoods, tackling ill-health and sustaining the environment.  The team therefore works to understand and influence the institutions and power-knowledge relationships that link technology, ecology and society; while simultaneously seeking to connect global debate with local realities through interdisciplinary research, networks and partnerships, teaching and training. 

Such an approach is necessary because, although scientific advances promise tangible solutions for poverty and ill-health, many people remain excluded from the benefits of basic technology.  In addition, although knowledge is crucial for linking rapid health, agricultural and environmental change to poverty reduction and social justice, global policy solutions often emphasise universalised and standardised forms of knowledge which fail to recognise dynamic local realities.  Although technology is made accessible, this often occurs through institutions which understand and use knowledge in particular ways, often highlighting the abstracted, neutral nature of science, rather than exploring how technology, science or knowledge might work in local contexts.  Because these processes are responded to differently by people in local contexts, they frequently result in policy collapse, consternation, and social injustice. 

In the world we live in, rapid innovation in science and technology occurs alongside dynamic social and ecological changes, creating optimism and new opportunities for health, agriculture and environmental development alongside new threats, risks and uncertainties. The KNOTS team believes that an interdisciplinary approach to science and technology – which takes seriously both science and society – is thus critical.  Our approach focuses on four core programme areas, Agriculture, Health, Water and Sanitation, and Environment, looking specifically at how to promote poverty reduction and social justice in these areas.  Each programme has developed its own distinct research agenda, but collectively KNOTS researchers explore the following six core analytical themes:

  • Knowledge, Power and Policy
  • Risk, Uncertainties and Dynamics
  • Governance and Regulation
  • Access, Rights and Citizenship
  • Livelihoods and Security
  • Critical Engagements – Research, Communications and Influence

Working across the Agriculture, Environment, Water and Sanitation, and Health programmes – which are often treated as distinct and separate sectors in development – enables us to generate comparisons and cross-learning through debate and joint projects.  The STEPS Centre provides an intellectual umbrella for significant portions of KNOTS work and facilitates the intellectual process of ‘adding up’ across these programme areas. 

Disciplinary Diversity

In order to achieve our aims and to situate scientific and technological knowledge in relation to indigenous, local, bodily or other kinds of knowledge, the KNOTS team encourages disciplinary diversity and is made up of specialists with anthropological, sociological, geographic, economic, ecological and medical expertise.  The team also experiments with and uses distinctive research methodologies involving detailed local fieldwork and collaborative partnerships in order to enhance our understanding of dynamic social and ecological changes.  The team’s work focuses on development contexts in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  Nonetheless, we also research issues and track debates in European contexts, not only because these have significant bearing on development policy but also because of the importance of North-South connections in today’s globalised world.

For further information on the work of the KNOTS Team, please contact Oliver Burch, Team Administrative Coordinator, tel: +44 (0)1273 915670

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