Paragraph title in ConTeXt (similar to LaTeX \paragraph{})

Simply set alternative=text to get the correct spacing. With altenative=text, before and after keys are ignored. Instead you can use commandafter to set the bullet after the section title. By default, ConTeXt inserts a skip of textdistance after the section head, so I set it to 0pt. Here is the complete example:

\definehead[paragraph][subsubsubsection]
\setuphead [paragraph]
           [
             number=no, % To imitate LaTeX
             textdistance=0pt,
             commandafter={\quad\bullet\quad\null},
             alternative=text,
             style=sc,
          ]

\starttext
\startparagraph[title=Knuth quote]
  \input knuth
\stopparagraph
\stoptext

which gives

As an alternative approach you could define an enumeration.

\defineenumeration
  [paragraph]
  [
    text=,
    number=no,
    title=yes,
    titlestyle=sc,
    titledistance=0pt,
    titleleft=,
    titleright={\quad\bullet},
    distance=1em,
    alternative=serried,
  ]

\starttext

\startparagraph{Knuth quote}
  \input knuth
\stopparagraph

\stoptext