Evolving knowledge for development: the role of knowledge management in a changing world

In today’s changing world, knowledge, and the processes to generate it and manage it, have become key factors in creating competitive business advantage. However, the challenges facing contemporary global societies, from human conflicts to environmental degradation, call for an expanded research agenda in the field of knowledge management. Issues such as improvement of the role of corporate citizenship to promote socially and ecologically responsible operations and development of human and social capital should become part of a purposeful strategy for creating a better future. “Knowledge is power” – and it is up to those with access to knowledge to decide if that power will continue to be used over others to increase the gap between rich and poor or if it will be a power to empower visions and realities based on an inclusive planetary ethic. From an evolutionary systems perspective, this paper explores some of the implications and key contributions that knowledge management can make for the transition toward sustainable forms of social organization. The heuristic of evolutionary learning community (ELC) is presented as a participatory strategy for promoting learning and knowledge creation for evolutionary development.