ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we discuss the nature of knowledge, define it in research terms and show how it relates to practice-based research. We open with a discussion about the meaning of the term and distinguish between knowledge that is visible in the world and tacit knowing that is invisible but fundamental to how practitioners do their practice. Through this, we outline the difference between knowledge which is explicit and available for communication across time, and knowing as something hidden inside the practitioner. We then discuss five principles of new knowledge as original, validated, contextualised, shareable and retainable. Key questions are examined, including the role of practice in generating new knowledge and the relationship of the artefact to knowledge. Artefacts are typically central to practice and can be equally central to research in the practice-based context. One aspect of practice-based research that is special is that the delivered outcomes often have to include artefacts, or documentation of them, together with the written description. The chapters that follow in this section relate to different aspects of practice-based knowledge or formalising the nature of knowing, providing a broad picture of what knowledge is and how it is advanced in practice-based research.
