Preface

On behalf of the ISFiT21 Research Team – we are so happy that you have opened up this report and want to read what we have been working on! We want this report to be a source of knowledge that, paradoxically enough, helps students and others be critical of the knowledge that they are fed. Raising awareness about the biases that knowledge carries and the stratifications knowledge can create was the foundation of this report, and I feel that the end result really exemplifies consequences of problems related to knowledge. These questions are about how knowledge is to be discussed in universities, about the consequences of digital platforms and their own spread of knowledge, about the loss of knowledge for children living in the midst of a pressing humanitarian crisis, and about knowledge framed by powerful politicians.

We would like to explain briefly how we have worked on the report for those interested. The Research Assistants have each been responsible for their own case, and I, the Head of Research, and the Research Coordinators have helped them during the process with ideas, editing, sources, etc. The Research Coordinators have also written about the thematic directions and I have written the introduction. We have worked as a team even though everyone has had their own main responsibilities. While working on this report, we have enhanced our understanding of the theme “Creating Knowledge” through experience with how both working with and presenting knowledge contributes to the knowledge base we all share. Processing the cases together through workshops and discussions has made us more aware of how knowledge differs from person to person, and how we ourselves are creating knowledge through this report. We come from a variety of study fields and backgrounds, which has been helpful when working as a team as many different perspectives have been taken into account!

I am so proud of the Research Coordinators and Assistants for what they have created – this would definitely not have been possible without their hard work, curiosity and willingness to learn! I think it’s safe to say that we have learned so much during this process, and we want to bring this knowledge out to all of you – so I deeply recommend reading this report! Thank you ISFiT21 for giving us the opportunity to create this report, and thank you for putting such an important topic on the agenda!