Knowledge networks have been discussed as mechanisms that facilitate access to resources and information. They are noted as organizations that promote the generation of new contacts and interactions between actors in order to produce knowledge that increases the speed and reliability of communication. They are also understood as platforms that encourage learning and knowledge coordination in order to advance technoscientific innovation processes. Despite these benefits, knowledge networks can engender areas of tension. The article examines the tensions in knowledge networks by analysing the theoretical convergences and divergences between social capital insights, actor-network theory and several contributions from the sociologies of the south. The following four categories are discussed: (1) hierarchy production; (2) blockages to the access to resources; (3) the spatialization of networks; and (4) the different ways of understanding power. The latter offer opportunities to make the tensions in knowledge networks visible. The article proposes initiating a discussion focused on the dynamic movement of asymmetries to analyse knowledge networks between the global North and the global South as entities that are in a process of constant negotiation.