Knowledge is a vital resource for both understanding and addressing pressing social–ecological challenges of our time. Sustainability scientists have thus increasingly turned their attention to the role and relevance of knowledge for societal change. However, as identified in this study, the research landscape is very broad and fragmented, with little convergence on definitions between scholarly communities. We comprehensively map knowledge-related concepts and their uses in sustainability science, while eliciting points of agreement and controversy across bodies of literature. Clarifying terminology is a first step towards better empirical science and theory building, and ultimately enhances our ability to leverage knowledge for action and decision–making. Our analysis also suggests five entry points to thinking about knowledge in sustainability science: (1) knowledge as system; (2) as entity, or (3) as process; (4) knowledge for and through learning; and (5) knowledge at interfaces. We discuss how, taken together, these perspectives can contribute to a better understanding of the multiple ways in which knowledge can serve sustainability.

知识是理解和应对当今社会紧迫的社会生态挑战的重要资源。因此，可持续发展科学家越来越多地将注意力转移到知识对社会变革的作用和相关性上。但是，正如本研究所确定的那样，研究领域非常广泛且分散，在学术界之间的定义上几乎没有收敛。我们在可持续发展科学中全面绘制了与知识相关的概念及其用法，同时在各个文献学之间引起了共识和争议。澄清术语是迈向更好的经验科学和理论构建的第一步，并最终增强了我们利用知识进行行动和决策的能力。我们的分析还提出了思考可持续性科学知识的五个切入点：（1）知识作为系统；（2）作为实体，或（3）作为过程；（4）用于学习的知识和通过学习获得的知识；（5）界面​​知识。我们讨论了这些观点如何共同有助于更好地理解知识可以为可持续性服务的多种方式。