Knowledge Society

Singapur: Prototyp einer informationellen Stadt

by Agnes Mainka

Source / Quelle: Information, Wissenschaft & Praxis, 62(2-3), 111-121

Singapur: Prototyp einer informationellen Stadt

Informationelle Städte sind urbane Formen der... more Singapur: Prototyp einer informationellen Stadt

Informationelle Städte sind urbane Formen der Wissensgesellschaft. Nach Castells zeichnen sich diese Städte durch die Dominanz ihrer Kapital-, Macht- und Informationsströme über die Stadtgrenzen hinaus aus. Das Konzept der informationellen Städte beschränkt sich aber nicht nur auf dieses eine Charakteristikum. Es gibt zahlreiche andere für eine informationelle Stadt typische Aspekte. So ist eine solche Stadt stets eine Wissens- und Kreativstadt, in der neben einer gut entwickelten Informations- und Kommunikationsinfrastruktur auch weiche Standortfaktoren, wie z. B. Konsum- und Freizeitangebote, eine essentielle Rolle spielen. In der Forschungsliteratur werden die einzelnen Aspekte einer informationellen Stadt in Bezug auf verschiedene Kandidaten dieser Städte erläutert. Bisher gibt es allerdings wenige Fallstudien, die sich auf die Betrachtung der Aspekte der Informationalität einer einzelnen Stadt konzentrieren. In dem vorliegenden Artikel werden die von Stock theoretisch abgeleiteten Indikatoren einer solchen Stadt auf das Fallbeispiel Singapur angewendet, das als Prototyp einer informationellen Stadt betrachtet wird. Die hier vorgestellten Ergebnisse basieren auf intensiven Recherchen, statistischen Auswertungen sowie auf im Juni 2010 in Singapur durchgeführten Interviews mit Vertretern von wissensintensiven Einrichtungen.

Singapore: Prototype of an informational city

Informational Cities are urban developments of the knowledge society. According to Castells, in informational cities flows of capital, power and information are superior to the space of  laces. Yet, the concept of informational cities is not limited to this attribute. There are several typical aspects which form an informational city. Informational Cities are always knowledge cities and creative cities in which well developed information and communication infrastructures play an important role as well as soft location factors like shopping opportunities and leisure time activities. The latest research considers the single attributes of informational cities for different cities. But up to now there are few case studies which concentrate on the informationality of a particular city. This paper applies Stock’s theoretically is cussed indicators of informational cities to Singapore because it is assumed to be a prototypical informational city. The presented results come from field research, interpretation of statistics, and interviews with representatives from knowledge-intensive institutions conducted in June 2010.

Informational cities as urban centers of knowledge era

by Agnes Mainka

Source / Quelle: My Ideal City. Scenarios for the European City of the 3rd Millenium. Universitá luav di Venezia. 2011, 117-122.

Just as there are typical cities of the industrial society (such as Manchester in the 19th and early 20th century) and... more Just as there are typical cities of the industrial society (such as Manchester in the 19th and early 20th century) and the service society (e.g. New York’s Manhattan of the late 20th century), so there exist or will exist in future typical cities of the knowledge society. Following Manuel Castells (1989), we will call such cities “informational cities” (Yigitcanlar, 2010). When Castells published his book on such cities in 1989, he could not have known how existing informational cities would look like (since the internet had not happened yet at the time), but the theoretical foundation for dealing scientifically with informational cities had been laid. Such a city includes a cognitive infrastructure which is based on the infrastructure of information and communication technology (ICT) and consists of a knowledge infrastructure with regard to scientific knowledge and the institutions thereof (Carillo, 2006), as well as a creative infrastructure with regard to “copyright-based industries” or a “creative economy” (Florida, 2005). Referred to Castells “space of flows” builds the main infrastructures in informational cities. This concerns both the ICT infrastructure and the cognitive infrastructure. Today, we have informational cities in front of our eyes: Singapore, Seoul and Dubai set themselves the explicit goal of creating such cities (and are very far along the way); London, New York, San Francisco (and environs) and Shanghai predominantly bank on high-tech industry and services and are modifying their regions into informational cities. Today– at the beginning of the 21st century–we can use Castells’ theory to analyze this development.
The aim of this article is to develop a theoretical framework that allows quantifying the degree of informativeness of a city. We work with a framework of six groups of indicators:
• Infrastructures (ICT infrastructure and cognitive infrastructure as groundwork for knowledge cities and creative
cities),
• Position in the world city hierarchy,
• Structure of the labor market (including analysis of job polarization),
• Mix of companies,
• Political willingness to establish an informational city,
• Weak location factors (e.g., leisure facilities, shopping malls).
In this article, we give a brief overview how the indicators of informational cities could be measured, using mainly the
example of Singapore.

Dimensions of Informational City Research

by Agnes Mainka

Mainka, A., Khveshchanka, S., & Stock, W.G. Dimensions of Informational City Research. In Digital Cities 7 - Real World Experiences, 30 June 2011, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld.

Informational cities are prototypical cities of the knowledge society. According to Castells, in those cities space of... more Informational cities are prototypical cities of the knowledge society. According to Castells, in those cities space of flows (flows of money, power and information) tend to override spaces of place. Infrastructures of information and communication technology (ICT) and cognitive infrastructures have a high impact on urban development and economic growth. This conceptual article frames indicators which are able to mark the degree of “informativeness” of a city. The aim of our article is to provide a basis for further informational city research and to demonstrate a theoretical framework with the help of a case study (with the example of Singapore).

Open Educational Resources: Education for the World?

by Thomas Richter

Richter, T. & McPherson M. (2012). Open Educational Resources: Education for the World? Distance Education, 3(2); Paper accepted for publication (forthcoming)

Education is widely seen as an important means of addressing both national and international problems, such as... more Education is widely seen as an important means of addressing both national and international problems, such as political or religious extremism, poverty, and hunger. If developing countries are to turn into societies that can properly compete with the Western industrial countries, not only is a fundamental shift in thinking with regard to the value of and need for more/better education, but strong support from other (i. e. developed) countries (Worldbank, 2000, p.87f) is also required. This paper explores questions such as whether Western policy-makers can avoid a repetition of some of the failures of the past few decades in terms of providing foreign aid; how educators and providers of educational scenarios and learning contents can foster and manage the creation of a worldwide knowledge society; and in particular, if the provision of Open Edu-cational Resources (OERs) can realistically overcome the educational gap and foster educational justice. Recommendations include using better initial design principles to enable realistic OER reuse in different contexts and environments.

Wissen und soziale Ordnung. Eine Kritik der Wissensgesellschaft. Mit einem Kommentar von Stefan Beck

by Stefan Beck

AutorInnenkollektiv des Sonderforschungsbereiches 640 (Christiane Reinecke, Jörg Feuchter, Regina Finsterhölzl, Andrea Fischer-Tahir, Friedhelm Hoffmann, Johan Grußendorf, Simone Holzwarth, Maren Klotz, Michi Knecht, Verónica Oelsner, Nurhak Polat und Reet Tamme)

The concept of knowledge society has been invented by the social sciences in order to describe perspectives of modern... more The concept of knowledge society has been invented by the social sciences in order to describe perspectives of modern societies. Nowadays the concept circulates increasingly in the political, educational, and economical field and in the media and has already crossed-over the geographical boundaries to whith it had been applied first. Taking knowledge society as a representation serving to interpret and shape social practice, the paper outlines from an interdisciplinary perspective academic debates on the concepts and on notions of knowledge. The paper argues that certain paradigms of social progress and of science as inherent in knowledge society prevent “users” of the concept from considering contesting notions of knowledge, increasing forms of incoherent knowledge, and the accelerating devaluation of knowledge.

Cjeloživotno obrazovanje u informacijskom dobu

by Ivana Batarelo Kokić

Author: Ivana Batarelo

Published in Conference Proceedings: Perspektive cjeloživotnog obrazovanja učitelja i odgojitelja: zbornik radova s međunarodnoga znanstveno-stručnog skupa / Bacalja, Robert (ur.). - Zadar : Sveučilište u Zadru , 2010. 35-43

Title in English: Lifelong Learning in the Information Age

Rad daje pregled odnosa informacijsko- komunikacijske tehnologije (ICT) i uspostave društva temeljenog na znanju i... more Rad daje pregled odnosa informacijsko- komunikacijske tehnologije (ICT) i uspostave društva temeljenog na znanju i razvoju cjeloživotnog obrazovanja. Unatoč nedovoljno proučenom utjecaju ICT-a na cjeloživotno obrazovanje, vidljivo je naglašavanje njene važnosti u obrazovnim politikama. Promjene na različitim razinama informacijskog društva utječu na odgojno-obrazovni rad, čime dolazi i do promjena u pedagogijskoj teoriji i praksi. Ovaj rad postavlja i pitanje usklađenosti odgojno- obrazovne primjene ICT-a s ključnim postavkama cjeloživotnog obrazovanja. Održivost cjeloživotnog obrazovanja u informacijskom dobu uvelike ovisi o odgovarajućim kompetencijama nastavnika i drugih stručnjaka uključenih u proces uvođenja programa cjeloživotnog obrazovanja.

From the Lisbon strategy to EU2020: illusion or progress for european economies?

by António B. Moniz

Paper provided by Universidade Nova de Lisboa, IET-Research Center on Enterprise and Work Innovation, Faculty of Science and Technology in its series IET Working Papers Series with number 01/2011.

The majority of papers published in the last decades on European Union policy strongly stress the importance of the... more The majority of papers published in the last decades on European Union policy strongly stress the importance of the so-called Lisbon Strategy approved in the year 2000. The same applies to studies and reports on the shift of the European countries towards modernisation and restructuring policy in recent years. This EU development strategy defines a new direction for the coordination of national policies. But why has it become so important? One of the reasons is the fact that many of the papers are based on the concept of “knowledge society” as the key driver for an increased competitiveness of all political and economic regions of Europe. In this context, the term “knowledge” means the inter-linkage of education (including training, qualification, skills) and innovation (including research, information and communication). The use of the concept represents an important shift in the European strategy: further development would not only be based on investment in material infrastructures, but also more on the immaterial ground. However, this Lisbon Strategy was criticised by many politicians and opinion-makers in the first years of this century because the European structures were not prepared for such a quick change. At the same time, the focus for investment moved away from the traditional support of industrial sectors (manufacturing, agriculture and fisheries, construction) towards the “new economy” sectors. The vision of a knowledge society remained appealing also in a changing international context: the Middle East wars (Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel-Palestine) and the fast growth of the Chinese economy. However, the shadows of new recessions have strongly questioned the options made by the European Council. New challenges have emerged with the need to redefine collective strategies in terms of European development as set by the Lisbon strategy. “Europe 2020” is one more attempt to define a new strategy. But at present no clear path has been identified. Whether the programme will bring about progress for the European economies, or is again an illusion, is not yet clear. This shows, however, that new paths and common strategies are still needed in Europe.

« Société des savoirs et production sociologique : l’exemple de la jeunesse »

by vincenzo cicchelli

This article starts with the largely shared assumption that the circulation of knowledge between different kinds of... more This article starts with the largely shared assumption that the circulation of knowledge between different kinds of spheres of discourses (mediatic, scientific, policy and administrative discourses) is a major phenomenon. The paper intends to address both adolescence and youth as an object of knowledge as well as an object of policy intervention. After providing the history of the ways in which political discourses converge with scientific researches and construct age categories, I suggest an analysis of the numerous semantic coincidences that one can find when the question of youth autonomy is assessed. Finally, this article attempts to give some clues in order to answer the following question: how sociologist could practice his craft in a context of huge diffusion of his knowledge and his frequent access to the figure of expert?

Hypertextualité et modification du rapport au savoir - Hypertext: a shift in the relationship to knowledge

by Pierre Fastrez

Published in 'Education permanente', 2003, Vol. 152, 31-42.

Nous proposons un recadrage de trois problématiques propres aux effets cognitifs des spécificités sémiotiques des... more Nous proposons un recadrage de trois problématiques propres aux effets cognitifs des spécificités sémiotiques des hypermédias, stigmatisées par les premières années de recherche sur cet objet : l’associativité hypertextuelle, la non-linéarité et le rapprochement entre navigations réelle et hypertextuelle. Nous nous arrêtons sur la question de la navigation, et tenterons de montrer comment cette question se pose dans les hypermédias, et pourquoi elle s’y pose de façon plus importante que dans d’autres supports, comme le livre.
Par ailleurs, nous mettons en évidence comment les spécificités sémiotiques des hypermédias identifiées dans la première partie de l’article (non-linéarité, absence de parcours de lecture par défaut unique, etc.) rendent illusoire le but d’appréhender le propos de l’auteur dans sa totalité, comme on peut le faire dans le livre. Le rapport au savoir proposé par l’hypertexte se fonde non plus sur l’appréhension d’un ensemble de connaissances préconstruit par un auteur, mais sur une reconstruction propre à l’utilisateur. Ce renversement remet en question la façon de cadrer la navigation évoquée plus haut, qui suppose implicitement la nécessité pour l’utilisateur de se représenter mentalement l’organisation formelle de l’ensemble du document consulté.

In this paper, we will reframe three issues that are related to the cognitive effects of hypermedia, as they have been addressed during the first decade of research on hypermedia: hypertext associativity, non-linearity and the parallel between hypertext navigation and physical navigation. We will further discuss the navigation issue. We will consider how this issue should be addressed, and why it is more important for hypermedia than it is for traditional text.
We will then stress how the hypermedia specificities discussed earlier make the aim of apprehending the author’s point in its entirety (as it is possible with a book) illusory. The relationship to knowledge proposed by hypermedia is based on a reconstruction that is specific to the user, not on the apprehension of a body of knowledge as assembled by the author. This shift questions the way we considered navigation, which assumes that it is necessary for the user to build a mental representation of the hypertext structure as a whole.

Societat del coneixement, riquesa i desigualtats

by Xavier Martinez-Celorrio

X. Martínez Celorrio (2004)
REVISTA GUIX. Elements d’Acció Educativa, núm. 308 (pp.6-9)

La societat del coneixement comporta un nou model de produir i acumular riquesa, de generar noves desigualtats socials... more La societat del coneixement comporta un nou model de produir i acumular riquesa, de generar noves desigualtats socials i d’estendre una individualització del risc. També reforça una nova divisió social del coneixement que fa elevar el nivell bàsic a la secundària superior. Tot un repte per al futur democràtic de l'educació.

Knowledge society implies a new model to produce and accumulate wealth, generating new social inequalities and extending a high individualization of risks. It also reinforces a new social division of knowledge that does raise the basic level to upper secondary. A challenge for education's democratic future.

Die Wirklichkeit des Wissens!? Zur Kritik der instrumentellen Vernunft in der Wissensgesellschaft

by Torsten Heinemann

Published in: Salon des Interdépendants. 2007. 1(1).

‚Neuro-Enhancement‘. Gesellschaftlicher Fortschritt oder Medikalisierung des Sozialen.

by Torsten Heinemann

In: Leben mit den Lebenswissenschaften. Wie wird biomedizinisches Wissen in Alltagspraxis übersetzt? Ed. by Katharina Liebsch und Ulrike Manz. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2010. pp. 131-51.

Public opinion: Petra Gehring: "Wie mit einer Phantomdebatte Marketing gemacht wird." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 2011. 49: 30.

‚Hirnforschung‘ zwischen Labor und Talkshow – Ideal der Wissenstransformation?

by Torsten Heinemann

In: Jenseits des Labors. Transformationen von Wissen zwischen Entstehungs- und Anwendungskontext Ed. by Florian Hoof, Eva-Maria Jung, and Ulrich Salaschek. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. 2011. pp. 215-37.

‘Optimise your brain!’ – Popular science and its social implications

by Torsten Heinemann

Co-authored with Heinemann, LV, published in: BioSocieties 5, 291-294 (June 2010) | doi:10.1057/biosoc.2010.9

CLIL for CALP in the multilingual, pluricultural, globalized knowledge society: Experiences and backgrounds to L2 English usage among Latin American L1 Spanish-users

by Carl Anderson

Latin American Journal of Content & Language Integrated Learning, 4(2), 51-66.

An important aspect of preparing learners for the globalized “knowledge society” is the development of (cognitive)... more An important aspect of preparing learners for the globalized “knowledge society” is the development of (cognitive) academic language proficiency (CALP) in an L2 for use in postgraduate and/or professional environments. This small-scale study sought trends in acquisition and usage of English as an L2 amongst Latin American L1 Spanish-users. Among other findings, although stronger informal conversational skills (BICS) correlated with early exposure/instruction, many participants who came to English relatively late in life for use in postgraduate/professional situations had been able to develop sufficient CALP for success, although reporting significant challenges in L2 CALP development perceived as related to underdeveloped L1 CALP, despite L1 tertiary educational experience. Further investigation is vital, but there is a clear need to consider the non-linguistic (as well as linguistic) elements that play a role in the development of CALP for different purposes and at different levels, in both the L1 and any L2, amongst learners in different contexts.

A Sociolinguistic Approach to Applied Epistemology: Examining Technocratic Values in Global “Knowledge” Policy

by David Rooney

This special issue presents an excellent opportunity to study applied epistemology in public policy. This is an... more This special issue presents an excellent opportunity to study applied epistemology in public policy. This is an important task because the arena of public policy is the social domain in which macro conditions for ‘knowledge work’ and ‘knowledge industries’ are defined and created. We argue that knowledge-related public policy has become overly concerned with creating the politico-economic parameters for the commodification of knowledge. Our policy scope is broader than that of Fuller (1988), who emphasizes the need for a social epistemology of science policy. We extend our focus to a range of policy documents that include communications, science, education and innovation policy (collectively called knowledge-related public policy in acknowledgement of the fact that there is no defined policy silo called ‘knowledge policy’), all of which are central to policy concerned with the ‘knowledge economy’ (Rooney and Mandeville, 1998). However, what we will show here is that, as Fuller (1995) argues, ‘knowledge societies’ are not industrial societies permeated by knowledge, but that knowledge societies are permeated by industrial values. Our analysis is informed by an autopoietic perspective. Methodologically, we approach it from a sociolinguistic position that acknowledges the centrality of language to human societies (Graham, 2000). Here, what we call ‘knowledge’ is posited as a social and cognitive relationship between persons operating on and within multiple social and non-social (or, crudely, ‘physical’) environments. Moreover, knowing, we argue, is a sociolinguistically constituted process. Further, we emphasize that the evaluative dimension of language is most salient for analysing contemporary policy discourses about the commercialization of epistemology (Graham, in press). Finally, we provide a discourse analysis of a sample of exemplary texts drawn from a 1.3 million-word corpus of knowledge-related public policy documents that we compiled from local, state, national and supranational legislatures throughout the industrialized world. Our analysis exemplifies a propensity in policy for resorting to technocratic, instrumentalist and anti-intellectual views of knowledge in policy. We argue that what underpins these patterns is a commodity-based conceptualization of knowledge, which is underpinned by an axiology of narrowly economic imperatives at odds with the very nature of knowledge. The commodity view of knowledge, therefore, is flawed in its ignorance of the social systemic properties of knowing’.

'The Academic Library and Democratic Development in the Knowledge Society: the changing role of a classical knowledge institution'

by jori van cranenburgh

Changing knowledge regimes: Universities in a new research environment

by haldor byrkjeflot

Lifelong learning and the knowledge economy: those that know and those that do not:— the discourse of the European Union, in

by Jacky Brine

Published 2006 in BRITISH EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL, 32(5): 649-665.

This article is based on a textual analysis of European Commission documents that, from 1993 to 2006, construct the... more This article is based on a textual analysis of European Commission documents that, from 1993 to 2006, construct the discourses of lifelong learning and the knowledge economy. Exploring an apparent conceptual laxity, it finds absolute consistency in the construction of two categories of learner: the high knowledge-skilled learner (graduate/postgraduate) for the knowledge economy, and the low knowledge-skilled learner located in (or beyond) the knowledge society. The low knowledge-skilled learners are not only those 'at risk', they are increasingly constructed as 'the risk'. The analysis suggests that the binary classification is initially classed and raced - and only then is it gendered. In contrast, labour market studies of the knowledge economy, providing either gendered or national data, obscure the vital cross-cutting matrix of social class, 'race' and age. The article advkcates further studies of lifelong learning practices and labour market data based on finely-crossed analyses of social class, poverty, age and race.

Politics and knowledge. Beyond the university reforms

by federica giardini