Mainstreaming margins: analysing the knowledge of an Australian university research team

Contemporary university research teams have multiple aspirations, opportunities and responsibilities. Their roles include identifying and interpreting current broader sociocultural trends and aligning those trends with their specific foci. For teams working in particular paradigms to address certain research questions, their work can entail investigating the intersection between mainstream and marginal forms of knowledge. The interplay between mainstreams and margins remains one of the most significant elements of contemporary social life and its attendant scholarship (see, for example, Crawshaw, Purewal & van den Akker 2013; Kossek, Lewis & Hammer 2010; Slater 2010). Much of that scholarship highlights that the boundaries between mainstreams and margins are fluid and permeable rather than fixed and permanent (Danaher et al. 2013). At the same time, it is clear that individuals and groups vary widely in their levels of capital and their access to power. This chapter applies this emphasis on the complex relationship between mainstreams and margins to the aspirations and outcomes of an Australian university research team. At the time of the study reported here, the team comprised nine members and focused on capacity-building in educational contexts. The broader study was directed at the team members' individual and collective knowledge management practices and their capacity-building activities in the educational context; further detail on the research design is provided below.