Making knowledge from movement: some notes on the contextual impetus to transmit knowledge from dance

James Leach

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference paperChapterpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

It is often observed that knowledge is crucial to contemporary developed economies (see, e.g., OECD). “Knowledge” now denotes something people strive to produce, strive to have recognized, and to evaluate, rank, and transact (Strathern; Ong and Collier; Camic, Gross, and Lamont). Indeed it might be fair to say that “knowledge” has become a value term in its own right. As Klein writes, commenting on the recognition of contemporary dance as a form of knowledge, “[i]n the globalised world of the 21st century, knowledge is considered the key to prosperity, inuence and power” (26). In political, business, and media rhetoric, innovation, creativity, and knowledge are often directly connected with economic dynamism, both in labor and in product innovation. In short, knowledge is a product of specic currency in a “knowledge based society” (Klein 27), the societies described by sociologists as operating a “knowledge economy” (Drucker; Powel and Snelman 200). This context is one in which an openness to new sources of knowledge (see Fensham in this volume, Chapter 7), and to new possibilities to extract and make useable knowledge from hitherto overlooked domains (see Zuniga Shaw in this volume, Chapter 10), is quite palpable (Strathern). Knowledge itself is one thing. Identifying new and alternative means of producing knowledge that might have economic or societal benets is another. It opens up the possibility for innovating on knowledge production itself. The rise of funding schemes targeted to art and science collaborations in the rst decade of this century is just one instance of this drive (see Leach and Davis), one that looks for knowledge production potential in arenas and domains hitherto considered “beyond” (Brandstetter 42) the rational and discursive production of knowledge in science (Klein 28).
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationTransmission in Motion
Subtitle of host publicationThe Technologizing of Dance
EditorsMaaike Bleeker
Place of PublicationAbingdon, UK
PublisherRoutledge
Chapter14
Pages141-154
Number of pages14
ISBN (Electronic)9781315524177
ISBN (Print)9781138189447, 9781138189430
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2016
Externally publishedYes

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