ABSTRACT
This chapter extends our theoretical journey by developing a more nuanced view of research producers and research consumers. This helps us get a better handle on the underlying dimensions of culture and community. Early thinking posed two or three main communities—research types (research producers), policymakers (research consumers) and sometimes policy administrators. These are the familiar two-community and three-culture conceptualizations. Community dissonance theory portrays a more refined landscape with groups of individual islands linked together in major archipelagoes. Each is inhabited by individuals tied together by culture, basically their professional and institutional norms and patterns of behavior. Differences across cultures, which are not always recognized, can impede communication and collaboration. Professional culture grows out of an individual’s personal background, education, and life experience, whereas institutional culture grows out of an organization’s core technology or what it mainly does. Different core technologies lead to distinct worldviews, professional languages, and behavioral patterns. The chapter lays out the key islands comprising major island groups (archipelagoes) and identifies the cultural friction points that impede cross-island understanding and cooperation.
