The Knowledge Ecology University 10 minutes on a possible new way of thinking about knowledge work at CDU Knowledge work as teaching, learning and researching… changing place of universities in Australian life I propose that what we have thought about as a knowledge economy, may be more usefully thought about as a knowledge ecology. Prof Helen Verran and her colleagues in Copenhagen. I will take IK as an example because it’s my field, but any other field of teaching and research (IT, social work, education) may also benefit from this new perspective. How might this formulation help us think about our work? Michael.christie@cdu.edu.au

The ‘soft infrastructure’ of Northern Australia Joe Morrison, the CEO of the NLC referred to ‘soft infrastructure’ in his paper ‘Northern Development: Embracing the Indigenous Difference’. : “Indigenous people, their traditions, practices and governance” … philosophies… Our university … a long association with Aboriginal knowledge authorities … in both the teaching and the research programs Most of you have heard me talk before Milŋurr discussion about knowledge and identity. ... local magazine ... epistemological instruction .... Western and Aboriginal ... taken seriously Water hole ... particular place ... particular people. ... Rising and ebbing.... Its fresh water the water in the brains of its particular owners to their particular places. We are who we are by virtue of our connections and commitments, not our boundaries. Thinking about knowledge work (teaching , learning, researching) in terms of openness and emergence as system. strategic and contingent connectedness ... People, places, ideas, practices, structures, things...

The classroom in the knowledge economy university CDU Yolngu teachers struggling to use technology to bring their knowledge practice to life in the university. People in place (including students) telling their own stories, building knowledge together under authority of elders. The knowledge production (involving teaching, learning and research) university processes, Aboriginal practices, teaching, learning redefined as open and emergent as system Much more to be said about this (and I’m sure you have heard me say it) but I just want to contrast this ecological perspective with the economic one. For example in the knowledge economy university, the university makes an effort to, for example: ‘embed’ Indigenous ‘perspectives’ throughout the curriculum specially developed support services for Indigenous students strategies to increase recruitment of Indigenous staff and students In ... knowledge economy Indigenous knowers and their work tend to be cast in terms of either a problem or an opportunity, either way, as something alien bounded, tangible, and so in need of integration into the life of the university, not part of the infrastructure. objects of scholarly interest hence Indigenous knowledge research, Indigenous research methods and methodologies, Indigenous community engagement etc I am not saying that these efforts are wrong headed. They continue to be important. But I am suggesting an ecological perspective gives more interesting directions.

The University in the era of changing governmentalities Some say under neo-liberal agendas, (big business, small government) Big companies are becoming more like universities, and Universities are becoming more like corporations. Universities (as sites of knowledge production) becoming irrelevant? (ie Bad businesses) Maybe some truth in that if we think of ourselves as involved in the knowledge economy BUT An ecological perspective might have us ask ourselves? What do we have that governments and businesses don’t have? What can we do which they can’t do? Governments no longer want to pay us for new knowledge, they want to pay us to solve their problems, and manage risk. which puts us into a good position if we can rethink the knowledge economy as an ecology in which we have a unique part to play. But we have networks which are based upon good faith and trust, on the possibilities of achieving things collaboratively for mutual benefit, and common good. We have the opportunity to work creatively, uncertainly, but accountably, and strategically with our partners Designing ways of agreeing and innovating together in which new worlds, new selves, new structures and new practices, new connections and relationships, categorization and classification systems, methods and analytics have the opportunity to emerge This in the context of everything we undertake while we continue to do the work of teacher education, language teaching, health education etc.

Developing Northern Australia In conclusion: a current example. Many of us are puzzling over the new White Paper for Developing Australia’s North academic institutions get very little mention) government’s insistence that they don’t want to grow the north, they want to create the conditions under which businesses and communities can work together to grow the north in their own ways. In a knowledge ecology university we have Our strategic relationships with government, community and business Collaboratively and continuously negotiating redefinition and redesign of academic courses, government policies Undertaking research and service delivery simultaneously (as they blur into each other as the knowledge ecology emerges) We are in a unique position to do this work which governments, and businesses and civil society and its organs cannot successfully achieve alone. eg Designing new governance institutions incorporating both local Indigenous and wider Australian laws and practices Designing environmental management structures and practices keeping ancestral knowledge alive, and participating in the carbon economy. Devising configurations of software, hardware and connectivity to keep traditional authority alive, and allow Aboriginal cultural authorities to share and profit from their knowledge practices. In this work, Indigenous knowledge authorities and their practices are no longer foreign to our university and in need of integration. They are part of the environment, our habitat, our infrastructure. So for example in our work in the Northern Institute, the demographers engage their skills strategically with industry and communities to generate, define, refine and evaluate policy and to bring about positive change in northern contexts. And so for the workforce development group. If we take this ecological approach seriously, it ultimately means the end of interdisciplinarity. We are not mixing the disciplines, we are engaging them strategically and they are changing.