It is a commonplace that modern social in addition to economical systems are intensely knowledge-based, in addition to that the centers...
It is a commonplace that modern social in addition to economical systems are intensely knowledge-based, in addition to that the centers of knowledge production are no longer solely located inwards the industrialized due north in addition to west. Further, anyone who follows a Twitter feed knows that knowledge centers around the globe are connected at the speed of low-cal (more or less), amongst reactions to novel weblog posts or magazine articles coming from Dhaka, Mumbai, in addition to Beijing most as speedily as from London in addition to Boston. (There seems to endure to a greater extent than involvement inwards the writings of Marx inwards Bombay than Cambridge, at the moment!)
How do these modern realities of knowledge production in addition to diffusion move out when it comes to the construction of inequalities that accept historically existed betwixt North in addition to South in addition to East in addition to West? Who are the producers in addition to consumers of knowledge today? How does the involvement currently expressed yesteryear many universities to "internationalize" their curricula contribute to (or mayhap impede) a globalizing organization of knowledge? And through what mechanisms in addition to networks of conduction do knowledge systems motion across the planet?
Michael Kennedy's Globalizing Knowledge: Intellectuals, Universities, in addition to Publics inwards Transformation seeks to respond some of these questions. He begins amongst an of import observation: data in addition to knowledge are non the same. Information, similar the toll of grain on the Chicago Commodities Exchange, is available globally in addition to instantly. An agreement of the factors that influence the toll of grain -- theories of agricultural markets, shipping bottlenecks, corporate interests, in addition to other obscure causal factors is to a greater extent than hard to do in addition to to a greater extent than hard to share. The creation of this sort of knowledge is primarily the move of universities, in addition to the diffusion in addition to transmission of this knowledge depends on expertise in addition to educational sophistication inwards other parts of the globe as well.
Kennedy frames his destination inwards this majority inwards these terms:
I promise to induce an approach in addition to methodology amongst which intellectuals in addition to their institutions in addition to networks tin rearticulate a civilization of critical discourse around global world responsibility. (xv)One complication for the business is grammatical: are nosotros interested inwards i knowledge or multiple knowledges? How do the mental frameworks in addition to knowledge systems of dissimilar communities relate to each other? Is at that topographic point a characteristically Indian shape of economical scientific discipline that distinguishes it from parallel move yesteryear English linguistic communication or American economists (Sen versus Arrow)? (See an before give-and-take of Gabriel Abend's handling of "global sociology" in addition to the differences that be betwixt North American in addition to Mexican sociology; link.)
Here are the fundamental challenges that Kennedy identifies for a legitimate sociology of "globalizing knowledge":
First, the sociology of globalizing knowledge demands that nosotros explicate how globalizers recognize learning offered yesteryear other times in addition to places.... Second, sociologists should explicate how globalizers fuse horizons, edifice on those distant recognitions. They should explore how a novel mutual sensibility across planes of departure is cultivated. Finally, as translation occurs across multiple dyads simultaneously, if unequally, synthetic elaborations develop. These articulations are oftentimes implicit, but they tin acquire explicit in addition to therefore plain of report to to a greater extent than rational critical discussion. (9-10)Experts in addition to the creators of knowledge stand upwardly for i pole of Kennedy's analysis -- scholars, researchers, theorists, creators, intellectuals, critics. But to position expertise is itself a sociologically loaded task. Expertise is socially constructed.
Recognizing intellectuality plant at many levels. We mightiness essay to determine who is, in addition to who is not, an intellectual based on the character in addition to autonomy of his work. We mightiness also figure the human relationship betwixt the intellectual in addition to her judges, to run across whether their assessment reflects an audience sufficiently intellectual to judge. (44)(See Michelle Lamont (link, link.)
The other major pole of Kennedy's move is the thought of a public -- a national world in addition to a global public. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 world is yesteryear definition not a grouping of experts. But inwards Kennedy's sentiment a world is non simply a fix of disconnected consumers of data either. It is "a secondary association formed yesteryear the communicative practices that found it, non derived from anything preformed. ... Publics are higher upwardly all social relations made through communications" (25). Publics are dynamic, non passive. One implication of this approach is fairly radical; it implies that nosotros tin do novel publics through novel communicative practices. (Is this what nosotros break inwards the viewership of Fox News in addition to associated spider web resources?) And in addition to then the creation of a democratic in addition to tolerant world inwards a nation or part is itself a large challenge inwards social construction. In business office this is the business of "public sociology" -- to articulate values in addition to factual frameworks that tin convey together an extended population of individuals into a "public" amongst commitments to values similar fairness in addition to tolerance of difference.
Universities play a critical work inwards both the creation in addition to the dissemination of knowledge. Universities are domicile to experts, in addition to they are also the house where large numbers of the "public" make the tools necessary to empathize in addition to deploy the findings of goodness knowledge. But universities are non exterior of gild or immune from social in addition to economical pressures. Recent coverage of the pressures that accept been exerted against geophysicists who criticize the geological assumptions of the fracking manufacture is a instance inwards point. Naomi Oreskes in addition to Erik Conway's Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming demonstrates how conservative in addition to manufacture recall tanks (e.g. the George C. Marshall Institute) accept worked rattling hard to discredit the scientific credentials of scientists whose move threatens their interests.
Kennedy has an interesting notion that seems to help amongst his broad task, the thought of "engaged ethnography". He describes this thought inwards these terms:
... enquiry that seeks through its report in addition to elaboration of vernaculars [local knowledge] greater clarity of the ways inwards which ability relations move in addition to then as to facilitate greater claims to justice in addition to normative goods amid those engaged as good as amid those informed yesteryear those actions in addition to its study. (18)This is an of import clarification, because it shows that Kennedy recognizes that at that topographic point are some kinds of knowledge that are substantively dissimilar (perhaps epistemically sounder) when framed at the local level. And this inwards plow suggests that nosotros should recall as good of James Scott's arguments on this plain of report inwards link).
Kennedy seeks inwards this majority to contribute to a novel sort of sociology of knowledge -- what is intended specifically to endure a sociology of globalizing knowledge. This requires to a greater extent than than simply noting that ideas in addition to findings circulate through the cities, universities, in addition to media to a greater extent than speedily in addition to to a greater extent than fully than inwards before decades. Kennedy attempts to move beyond the commonsensical ideas nosotros all accept of "globalizing knowledge" yesteryear focusing on several dynamic activities: flows, network influences, in addition to processes of framing. These are some of the mechanisms in addition to plumbing through which globalizing knowledge is shaped. And he also seeks to position some of the social influences of privilege in addition to ability that shape both the mechanisms in addition to the content of knowledge.
Kennedy is a participant-observer on this fix of topics, having served as manager of major centers for international studies at several universities in addition to having participated inwards processes of rapid expert-directed alter inwards Eastern Europe. His efforts to brand feel of the ways inwards which interconnectivity in addition to cultural departure are affecting the creation in addition to diffusion of knowledge world-wide supply an innovative contribution to the debate.
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