Reflection - Credit Crisis .. and Schon at work (?)

Just like a good many others, I've been watching with amazement the credit crisis unfold on the television set... and even more remarkably, I've been watching how the many governments around the world appearing to clumsily be responding to it. Some efforts are co-ordinated (the 7 national banks around the world that co-ordinated the recent drop in interests rates together). Other efforts are not (the US borrowing again to "recapitalize" failing financial institutions.. while European banks avoid co-ordination in their efforts to "save" banks there).

As usual there is remarkable clarity almost 20/20 vision looking back to identify the root causes (it looks so clear now) .. but for what lies ahead, there seems to be much more uncertainty. I'm wondering if I'm alone in seeing this as a great example of Schon's "reflection in action". I make the suggestion because it seems to have many of the same characterisitcs of "reflection in action" that he speaks of. Specifically, no one knows what will work for sure.. many suggestions .. many different "possible" solutions emerging .. but no one knows. Many economists and politicians are on television talking about and drawing on past experience to guide the rest of us on how the problem can be dealt with but we haven't been in this sort of sitation ever before.. and yet they are being asked to "apply previous experience to this new situation". Perhaps a new segment of "learning by doing" is going, thus the continued drop in consumer confidence and continued drop in the markets.

The economists inability to make their current suggestions verbally explicit becomes an example of "knowing in action". Drawing on tacit knowledge .. knowledge that we reveal in the way that we carry out tasks and approach the problem. Knowledge dervived from research, and also from practice and reflection on previous experience.