Knowledge Democracy Across Regions and Generations: Launch of UNESCO UNITWIN Network EpiNet

Date(s): 03/08/2026 - 03/08/2026

Location : Singapore University of Social Sciences

The UNESCO UNITWIN Network on Education, Epistemic Justice and the Knowledge Commons (EpiNet) was launched at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) on 3 August 2026.

EpiNet is the first UNESCO UNITWIN Network dedicated to advancing epistemic justice and the knowledge commons. It brings together universities, research organisations and community partners across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and Australia to work towards more equitable and inclusive approaches to knowledge creation, sharing and governance.

At the launch, we reflected on a fundamental inequality in our global knowledge systems: who gets to produce knowledge, whose knowledge is recognised, and whose knowledge gets published and shared. Much of the knowledge that is globally legitimised continues to come through institutions and publishing systems in the Global North, while Indigenous, local, community-based and lived knowledge remains underrepresented.

EpiNet seeks to challenge this imbalance by recognising that knowledge is not produced only within universities. Communities, Indigenous peoples, practitioners, older persons and many others are also knowledge holders.

We particularly invite researchers and knowledge practitioners across Southeast Asia to bring their work, experiences and knowledge into EpiNet. If we are not deliberate about creating space for scholarship and knowledge from different regions, there is a danger that a platform created to advance epistemic justice could itself become dominated by knowledge from the Global North. EpiNet must instead become a space where diverse knowledge traditions can meet, learn from one another and contribute to a pluriversal knowledge commons.

The launch at SUSS also provided an opportunity to connect these ideas with the wisdom and lived experiences of older persons as knowledge holders. Their memories, experiences and knowledge can contribute significantly to intergenerational learning, care and more inclusive and resilient societies.

The work now begins: to make knowledge creation and sharing more equitable, reciprocal and democratic.

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