Places and modes of existence of experiential knowledge: embodied knowledge, situated knowledge

This issue examines the theories and practices associated with the use of the term “experiential knowledge” by focusing on its sites and modes of existence. Problematizing experiential knowledge from the perspective of its modes of existence involves shifting the analytical focus from a definition of knowledge toward a description of the conditions and modalities through which it is brought about. Such a shift opens up a conception of experience not as something inherently individual, but as something that emerges in the interplay between layers of lived experience—sensory, cognitive, and perceptual—which characterize experiential knowledge, and the properties of the situations in which such knowledge is effectively generated and/or mobilized. At least four constitutive features of the mode of existence of experiential knowledge have been identified: its degree of formalization (i.e., its structuring or shaping); the types of framing involved (sense-making frames, participatory frames, narrative frames); the co-dependence between categories of knowledge (tacit, formal, embodied, etc.); and the principles of integration (holding experiental elements together) and of dispositive logics (organisation and orientation specific to situations).