What is the Bridging Epistemologies framework? 

The Bridging Epistemologies, proposed by Cook and Brown, identify 4 types of knowledge: explicit and tacit at the individual and collective levels, and consider how they are bridged by the active process of knowing (OUBS,2001). 

The process by which different knowledge types are used in practice is described as a "generative dance". 

According to this metaphor, knowledge creation does not simply rely on an inventory of knowledge elements (epistemology of possession), but on the ability to use those as tools (epistemology of action).

Cook and Brown hold that knowledge is a tool of knowing, that knowing is an aspect of our interaction with the social and physical world, and that the interplay of knowledge and knowing can generate new knowledge and new ways of knowing.

Assumptions of the Bridging Epistemologies Model?

Knowledge can not be transformed from its various forms (individual/tacit etc.), but exist in distinct forms.

How is the  Bridging Epistemologies Framework Used?

The framework Cook and Brown helps to think of knowledge in an organizational context and understanding why and how we know things collectively. Their model strengthens the link between product and process innovation. 

In their view, forms of knowledge distributed among individuals and groups are not the only essential for product development; ways of "knowing" reflected in the interaction of the workers with each other and their objects of work are also essential (OUBS,2001).