To explore these questions we focus on three programs funded through federal initiatives, all of which act as intermediating agencies (Metcalfe 2004; Slaughter and Rhoades
2004) for the generation and dissemination of knowledge. These agencies are the Canada
Foundation for Innovation, the Workplace Skills Strategy, and the Canadian Council for
Learning. Within each agency, identifiable discourses are at work that shape the production
and consumption of knowledge in particular ways. These discourses circulate through
multiple interactions and practices, but are also at least partially visible in primary texts
associated with these organizations. The texts we have chosen to analyze and compare
across programs include, first, their self-descriptions of agency goals, rationale, activities,
priorities and intended outcomes. Second, we compare the organizations’ calls for proposals, all of which are intended to influence and direct, though distribution of resources,
the production of knowledge through research—including practice-based, applied and pure
social science research. These calls are socially-constructed documents that reveal what
kinds of knowledge are valued, what kinds of inquiry are expected to produce this
knowledge, which actors are expected to be involved in knowledge production, what
outcomes are expected to measure and validate the process of knowledge generation, and
what forms of knowledge and audience are most valued for its dissemination.