Experiential knowledge is information gained through an individual’s lived experiences with a phenomenon. Since experiential knowledge is personal to an individual’s lived experiences, it can be difficult to translate to a broader team and/or replicate by others. However, making space for experiential knowledge in research, particularly in the form of Traditional Ecological Knowledges and local knowledge, can be transformative. A 2016 article in Science discussed the importance of indigenous, local, and contextually-specific knowledges in addressing sustainability, resource management, and other challenges. Mistry & Berardi, 2016 write:
Including individuals from a community with specific knowledge of a particular focus of research can help define research questions and qualitatively supplement quantitative or controlled experimental findings. Additionally, by integrating a community member with experiential knowledge into the research team, others can learn to see or think differently about the research topic from that person. While standard practice within such fields as anthropology, political ecology, and human geography, this approach is increasingly embraced by research teams focused on climate resilience, mitigation and adaptation, environmental health, regenerative food systems, ecosystem management, and biodiversity conservation, as well as by global governance organizations like the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Experiential knowledge transfer and transdisciplinarity have also been embraced and celebrated in art and design, participatory planning, materials science, and architecture. A recent exploration of these practices reveals the profound transformative potential of interdisciplinary collaboration where knowledge sharing for the purpose of problem-solving can lead to the creation of entirely new knowledge, perspectives, and approaches. Regardless of the project or problem, experiential knowledge is best incorporated through close collaboration and physical proximity, a mutual interest in the problem or question to be addressed, the development of a trusting and mutually respectful relationship within which all participants are open to learning from one another (excerpted and modified from Groth et al., 2020).
Sources: Given, 2008; Fazey et al., 2006; Groth et al., 2020; Mistry & Berardi, 2016; Nimkulrat et al., 2020.
Back