I have recently completed a commission from the International Social Science Council [ISSC], a NGO in formal associate relations with UNESCO. My task was to survey scholarly articles written by social scientists over the last decade in order to produce a 'think piece' to enable the secretariat of the ISSC to draft an outline of the 2009 World Social Science Report. This report will be written by experts across the world along the lines suggested by the ISSC.

We get to know a great many things from birth to death merely by being there! Think of wonderful acquisitions such as knowing our home language and specific cultural ways. Of course, there are also things which took a great deal of learning and teaching, or deliberate effort on the part of parents, siblings, and teachers in both informal and formal settings: for example, memorising facts and pieces of text, writing, reading and later gains though schooling such as mathematics. And there are even things we ‘know’ and yet we have no idea where this ‘knowledge’ comes from! For example, even small babies try to avoid loud noises and bad smells.

In this final piece, we turn to a particular interest I have in managing knowledge: turning tacit, implicit, and (practical) know-how into (factual) knowledge; facilitating the horizontal transfer of knowledge; and connecting people/organizations to what they need to know and do in order to turn knowledge into a wealth-creating asset.

Right at the start of a research process are two interesting commitments, or perhaps even virtues. One is a particular dedication to finding out the truth, or to search – again and again – until the conclusions about a question are justified (proved or supported) by good, strong evidence. The other is a certain commitment to honesty, i.e. to abide by the rules that govern the process, and to accept its outcome. This does not only mean that research findings might surprise one, but also that a dearly held pre-understanding might be wrong; and that an answer one would very much have liked came out one way has no support in evidence.