Knowledge equity is a

social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...

concept referring to social change concerning expanding what is valued as

knowledge Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is disti ...

and how communities may have been excluded from this discourse through imbalanced structures of power and privilege.

History

Knowledge equity developed from the discipline of

knowledge management Knowledge management (KM) is the collection of methods relating to creating, sharing, using and managing the knowledge and information of an organization. It refers to a multidisciplinary approach to achieve organisational objectives by making ...

, and referred to the knowledge measurement process where tacit or subjective information is included to more traditional structures of information management. This developed into ways of applying a valuation to knowledge, including both those who know and the processes involving accessing, making sense of, and organizing it. The connection with accessing various areas of knowledge creation are often connected to

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre o ...

publications, allowing equitable

access Access may refer to: Companies and organizations * ACCESS (Australia), an Australian youth network * Access (credit card), a former credit card in the United Kingdom * Access Co., a Japanese software company * Access Healthcare, an Indian BPO ...

to those who may need. Access to knowledge and beliefs about what counts for knowledge has continued to shift within the

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the o ...

, leading to a recognition that those who control what counts as knowledge and how that influences hierarchy and knowledge imbalance. Acknowledging beliefs that some forms of knowledge may be perceived to be better than others establishes an inequity and lack of justice for those who are excluded from systems that privilege discursive knowledge over other forms. The

Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best kno ...

has identified knowledge equity as a key element toward its strategic direction for an ecosystem of open and inclusive knowledge, where everybody has the access to create and consume knowledge. This has been connected with education as a social strategy for expanding knowledge equity.

Challenges

Challenges to this notion includes who is involved in the discourse where knowledge is understood and accepted, how tacit and explicit knowledge interact and get integrated into the larger systems that value multiple perspectives, and difficulties expanding beyond cultural limitations on knowledge assumptions. The challenge for social movements to expand entrenched beliefs related to open and free knowledge in a politicized society involves social justice challenges in practice.

References

{{Reflist Social justice Knowledge Knowledge economy Knowledge management