This paper aims to present the state of the art of a rising French research community on knowledge management, who organized during the past four years, a French speaking congress (GeCSO). Interests in knowledge management (KM) come from various disciplines: economy, social, engineering. These interests are not often linked. Within the firms, KM practices vary a lot depending on national cultures and on activity sectors. However, one can identify a potential symmetry between the diversity of practices and the partitioning of scientific approaches.
In order to synthesize the different approaches in KM, the authors studied the 62 papers published in the first three conferences. To have a first representation of the diversity, they analyzed the keywords that were used: among 173 keywords used by the authors, eight keywords represent 27 per cent of the total amount.
Three main dimensions which emerged from the articles are analysed: the practical dimension, the epistemological point of view, and the intention to define a theory of action.
KM is an emerging domain, especially in French culture. This paper can be seen as a first foundation of the domain, and also a manifesto to develop interdisciplinary research on this topic.
