1. ¹Centre for Knowledge Dynamics and Decision Making, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa
2. ²University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa (Retired)

Correspondence: Mariana van der Walt, PO Box 181, Simon's Town, Cape Town 7995, South Africa. Tel: +27 83 285 3799; E-mail: info@vanthinking.com; Web: www.vanthinking.com

Received 13 December 2005; Accepted 19 October 2007.

Abstract

This paper investigates the notional development of various approaches claiming to add value in knowledge generation during the 20th century, with the aim to identify what it is that enhances productiveness in knowledge generation. Observing that knowledge generation is a complex phenomenon, an approach is used for the investigation that was developed specifically to study un-deterministic complex systems. A list of salient features for scientific knowledge generation is presented as a result. In addition to these features, various problem types are identified from literature. These two are then integrated to provide a proposed framework for scientific knowledge generation, which is trans-disciplinary and useful for scientific problem-solving in a pluralist reality. A case study illustrates the implementation of this framework.