Configuring Knowledge: an essay on knowledge in the information age

The passage from industrial societies to other forms of societies has been strongly influenced by knowledge/information and technology. This transformation has had an effect on the economy and society in different ways. Some interpretations argue that such developments, based on the principle of rationality, have brought about the improvement of the occupational status of workers, whereas some interpretations argue about the elusive role of information as opposed to knowledge. In a more critical understanding, there are also interpretations which emphasise the inclusive and exclusive character of the network and the irrationality of information which on the political level sees a shift of knowledge from public good to intellectual property. This article looks at the theoretical developments which characterised the different interpretation of the role of knowledge in society.

ABSTRACT: Internet and the Explosion of Knowledge The impact of information technology revolution has been so globally comprehensive that all the available tools of academic inquiry – media theory, cultural studies, political economy, philosophy etc. – have been employed to study them and we have a vast literature addressing this issue. What is conspicuous by its relative absence is any concerted attempt to understand the explosion in the field of knowledge and major changes in the rules of the knowledge game as a result of the Internet revolution. This is despite the fact that such an inquiry was inaugurated even before the advent of world wide web by the well-known French philosopher Lyotard in this book ‘The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge’ in the early eighties. “As the economy becomes postindustrial, the culture becomes postmodern” was the formulation Lyotard advances his enquiry from. He went on to analyze the transformations of knowledge in the wake of new information technologies. At the level of practice, however, the academic world is abuzz with the impact of the restructuring that is going on accompanying the information revolution and is plagued by enormous anxieties regarding a whole range of issues from diluting of standards to subjection of researchers to the management. Outside the academia, however, the theme of ‘knowledge’ and ‘explosion of knowledge’ has been circulating widely in the spheres of media, economy, politics and society. ‘Knowledge society’, knowledge economy, knowledge management, dot the pages of policy documents, conferences, blogs, mailing lists etc. With the emergence of open source software and the attempts to apply its underlying philosophy to other fields, the idea of ‘knowledge commons’ has become the repository of utopian longings as well as inspiration for practical efforts to open up access to knowledge and advance cooperative models of knowledge production. In this whole discourse of ‘knowledge’ it is understood implicitly that computers and Internet are going to play a central role in the organization of knowledge globally and that they are already doing so to a great extent. This state of affairs can be understood on the assumption that the meaning of knowledge itself has changed in the transition to the information age. That is why one can often find the argument that what has changed with the Internet is merely the communication of knowledge and the assertions to the effect that information is not knowledge. The conception of knowledge that the university is built upon is no longer the same in the realm of the Internet and in some sense information is indeed knowledge. In the proposed paper, we seek to explore the new conception of knowledge that is in the making in the era of pervasive information technology. For example, what kind of knowledge does software constitute? Software is merely a ‘tool’, or a technique, if seen from the old perspective. But construction of software constitutes one of the most important knowledge activities for the connected world. Or, what is the knowledge that knowledge management speaks of and seeks to manage? We will try to look at the range of knowledge activities that take place in and through the Internet to explore whether the contours of a newly emerging conception of knowledge can be discerned. In the process we will attempt to clarify in what sense can the ‘digital information’ be considered to be knowledge. It is our understanding that only when armed with such a clarity on the question of the relationship of knowledge and information, can we approach the question of the significance of the ‘explosion’ of knowledge seen to be occurring with the rise of the new information technologies. We examine whether we can characterize the transition that has taken place in the conceptions of knowledge as a transition from science to information, i.e., as a transition from knowledge as representation to representations and organization of knowledge. In this paper, we examine some of the consequences of this transition on the world of knowledge.

The Handbook of Service Industries, 2007

Contents 1. Introduction 2. The origins of information/knowledge age 3. Knowledge society predecessors 4. Knowledge about knowledge 5. Knowledge societies 6. The society of societies 7. The technical state 8. The power of knowledge and information 9. The information society 10. The network society 11. In what kind of society do we live? 12. Concluding remarks Glossary Bibliography Biographical Sketch Summary This chapter covers theories of the modern information age in a number of steps: First, there is a description of some of the intellectual precursors that give rise to the notion that we are living in an information or knowledge age. Second, an enumeration of some of the perspectives that lead to the idea of modern societies as knowledge or information societies. Third, the usage of the term knowledge, defined as a capacity for action is explicated in greater detail. Fourth, the core sections of the article deal with the theory of the knowledge and the information society as well as some of its competitors such as the network society. The article presents the argument that advanced societies are best conceptualized as knowledge societies, last but not least because economic growth, social change and inequality generally but also the nature of social conflicts and identity formation are increasingly generated by knowledge. That is, knowledge does not merely open up the secrets of nature and society but is the becoming of a world.

The paper will present the central discourse of the knowledge-based society. Already in the 1960s the debate of the industrial society already raised the question whether there can be considered a paradigm shift towards a knowledge-based society. Some prominent authors already foreseen 'knowledge' as the main indicator in order to displace 'labour' and 'capital' as the main driving forces of the capitalistic development. Today on the political level and also in many scientific disciplines the assumption that we are already living in a knowledge-based society seems obvious. Although we still do not have a theory of the knowledge-based society and there still exist a methodological gap about the empirical indicators, the vision of a knowledge-based society determines at least the perception of the Western societies. In a first step the author will pinpoint the assumptions about the knowledge-based society on three levels: on the societal, on the organisational and on the individual level. These assumptions are relied on the following topics: a) The role of the information and communication technologies; b) The dynamic development of globalisation as an 'evolutionary' process; c) The increasing importance of knowledge management within organisations; d) The changing role of the state within the economic processes. Not only the differentiation between the levels but also the revision of the assumptions of a knowledge-based society will show that the 'topics raised in the debates' cannot be considered as the results of a profound societal paradigm shift. However what seems very impressive is the normative and virtual shift towards a concept of modernity, which strongly focuses on the role of technology as a driving force as well as on the global economic markets, which has to be accepted. Thereforeaccording to the official debate -the successful adaptation of these processes seems the only way to meet the knowledge-based society. Analysing the societal changes on the three levels, the label 'knowledge-based society' can be seen critically. Therefore the main question of Theodor W. Adorno during the 16th Congress of Sociology in 1968 did not loose its actuality. Facing the societal changes he asked whether we are still living in the industrial society or already in a post-industrial state. Thinking about the knowledge-based society according to these two options, this exercise would enrich the whole debate in terms of social inequality, political, economic exclusion processes and at least the power relationship between social groups. 2004). Every day we combine, generate, protect, create, transfer, codify and save knowledge. Knowledge can be found in books, information systems, data systems, organisations, in the new media, in social activities, in cognitive structures, in all kind of products and in social systems.

2001

This paper presents a critique of notions of information and knowledge found in the management literature and amongst proponents of 'knowledge management' interviewed in the course of a study of changing operations of the Federal Government of Canada vis a vis the 'knowledge-based economy' as it is found in Canada (Shields, Taborsky, Jones, and O'Hara 2000). Interviews with a range of Federal Government Departments and Agencies on a number of topics including knowledge management were conducted throughout the Summer of 2000. During these interviews a number of competing definitions and numerous misunderstandings of the relationship between knowledge and information emerged. 42 We will distinguish and contrast these with definitions derived from semiotic and information science frameworks. We argue for the importance of the collective and processual nature of knowledge. Our conclusions allow us to specify the shortcomings of existing knowledge management approaches and to identify a necessary and specific focus for future knowledge initiatives in organizations. 42 These interviews were conducted with research assistants Kevin Jones and Charles O'Hara as part of a Strategic Grant to Rob Shields, Suzan Ilcan, Dan O'Connor and Edwina Taborsky on 'Challenges and Opportunities of the Knowledge Based Economy' funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We wish to thank our interviewees and informants, colleagues Suzan Ilcan and Dan O'Connor, and the organizers and participants in a SSHRC Strategic Theme Focus Conference for their comments and suggestions.