Knowledge equity: a framework for critical reflection

This EPrint offers an introduction to a knowledge equity method for anyone curious about how they might work towards a more equitable and just knowledge system, i.e. knowledge justice.

For those researchers interested in challenging inequalities and working in ways which attend to redressing the power imbalances involved in traditional academic research and positivist epistemologies, knowledge equity can be used to integrate diverse perspectives and better produce and disseminate knowledge.

More specifically, knowledge equity is “a commitment to focus on knowledge and communities that have been left out […] and to break down the social, political, and technical barriers preventing people from accessing and contributing to free knowledge…” (Campbell, 2022).

Knowledge equity can also ground researchers in “an understanding that different forms of knowledge and expertise are vital to progress and drive systems change… It asks us first to consider who we believe to be knowledge producers. It then asks us to consider if and how those knowledge producers are given equitable and meaningful agency as systems analysts, activists and change-makers” (Sandhu, 2021: n.p.).