Motility of practiced knowledge: an exploration within the UK construction industry

This paper introduces a model of intra-organisational knowledge management in terms of motility of practiced knowledge. While existing conceptualisations of knowledge, such a tacit and explicit, have proved a valuable lens for focusing on knowledgeable practices within organisations and in relatively well understood or stable contexts, this paper argues that their use may be less effective in considering practiced knowledge as it is shared and communicated between organisations and when knowledge needs are still being negotiated. Based on research into the construction industry’s approach to the issue of sustainability and the knowledge challenges it poses, this paper introduces the concept of motility of knowledge as an alternative lens through which to make sense of, and improve, the industry’s ability to support innovation for sustainability. A motile account of knowledgeable practice helps us to focus on movement, mutation and decay, and to question the application of existing approaches to knowledge management within inter-organisational domains. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for practice.