A Pragmatic View on Multi Sectoral Knowledge. Enacting Information Systems in Emergency Response

Today’s grand challenges and global crises require a holistic response drawing on knowledge and information across different sectors and domains. While recent work has examined the role of knowing practices and boundary objects across multiple disciplines, we know less about how differences between these knowledge sectors matter for actor’s knowing and reporting practices. Our approach is to draw on pragmatist principles, which we argue underlie practice theory, to make the implicit differences between knowledge sectors more explicit. Empirically we follow the enactment of a standardized information system to report on a multi-sectoral emergency response to the refugee crises in Rwanda, in particular focusing on the sectors health, education and livelihood. We conceptualize multi-sectoral knowledge by differentiating sectors in terms of how visible, scalable and timely its effects unfold in practice and …