Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Sage Publications, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Acta
Sociologica.
http://www.jstor.org
ACTASOCIOLOGICA
2003
ABSTRACT
Our changing times provide numerous opportunities for interesting research into different aspect of
the knowledge-based society. Science is becoming a powerful institution influencing people's daily
lives in various ways. But it is also increasingly influenced by social, economic and political forces
shaping its direction and controlling its applications. The boundaries between private and public,
nature and society, are increasingly challenged by scientific and technical advances. Technological
products or tools embody knowledge and mediate it at the same time. Creating and disseminating
knowledge by means of such tools is problematic in many ways, although the tools tend to be taken
for granted as objective and neutral. The status and authority of experts in the knowledge-based
society is neither automatic nor self-evident.The maintenance of expert status and control requires
legitimation and validation displays to fight off public disinterest and scepticism, or legal challenge.
Despite the importance of science and technology, mundane and tacit forms of knowledge are still
crucial. The implications of recent scientific and technological developments for public welfare seem
to indicate that the knowledge society and the welfare state can coexist in a mutually supportive
relationship.
KEYWORDS:
expert knowledge, knowledge society, science, tacit knowledge, welfare state
Acta SociologicaCopyright? 2003 Scandinavian Sociological Association and SAGEPublications (London,Thousand Oaks, CA and
99-105; 034821
New Delhi: www.sagepublications.com) Vol 46(2): 99-105[0001-6993](200306)46:2;
100
ACTASOCIOLOGICA46(2)
sorts of knowledge. Some is developed in scientific settings and published in scientific journals
scrutinized by scientific peers. Some is developed
by various communities of workers in their
worlds of everyday work. There is the auto
mechanic's knowledge of car engines and brake
systems. the fisherman's knowledge of sea
currents and behaviours of different species of
fish, the drug dealer'sknowledge of markets and
means of buying and selling drugs, and the
parent's knowledge about children and how to
raise them. There is common-sense knowledge,
tacit knowledge, codified knowledge, local and
universal knowledge.
Although the definition of 'knowledge
society' can include all these different kinds of
knowledge, there is a strong tendency to focus
on the most prestigious or credible kinds,
namely scientific knowledge, produced and
certified by scientists, as well as professional
knowledge, acquired by formal credentials of
university-educated professionals, such as engineers, psychologists, medical doctors, lawyers
and similar experts. In this narrower sense,
knowledge is supposed to be reliable and even
true, practical and powerful, and give competitive edge in individual and economic strife, war
and politics. Its relationship to science and technology is meant to set it apart from other, more
ordinary forms of knowledge.
Science in the knowledge society
Modern science arose as a social institution in
Western Europe in the 17th century. Science
was incorporated into academia in the 19th
century when it became intertwined with other
aspects of advanced scholarship and teaching.
Science, from the beginning of its institutionalization, has been characterized by its
international way of organizing things.
Research findings are published in international
outlets where they are evaluated, criticized and
built upon by peers of different nationalities.
These scientific, collegial organizational
arrangements have evolved over a long time,
enjoying continuous expansion and almost
unmatched success.
Through most of its history, science has
been considered an esoteric activity,following its
own logic and rules, carried out by individuals
belonging to an elite, more or less isolated from
the rest of society. This view of science has
changed dramaticallyin the past decades in two
102 ACTASOCIOLOGICA
46(2)
104
ACTASOCIOLOGICA46(2)
References
Bell, D. (1973) The Coming of Post-industrial Society. New York:
Basic Books.
Benner, M. (2003) 'The Scandinavian Challenge: The Future of
Advanced Welfare States in the Knowledge Economy', Acta
Sociologica 46(2): 132-49.
Bertilsson, T. M. (2003) 'The Social as Trans-genic: On Biopower and its Implications for the Social', Acta Sociologica
46(2): 118-31.
Collins, R. ( 19 79) TheCredentialSociety: An Historical Sociology of
Education and Stratification. New York: Academic Press.
Collins, R. (1986) 'Is 1980s Sociology in the Doldrums?',
AmericanJournal of Sociology 91: 13 36-5 5.
Fine, G. A. (1992) 'The Culture of Production: Aesthetic Choices
and Constraints in Culinary Work', American Journal of Sociology 97: 1268-94.
Fligstein, N. and Merand, F. (2002) 'Globalization or Europeanization? Evidence on the European Economy Since
1980', Acta Sociologica 45(1): 7-22.
Gibbons, M., Limoges, C., Nowotny, H., Schwartzman, S., Scott,
P. and Trow, M. (1994) The New Production of Knowledge:T1e
Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies.
London: Sage.
Hage, J. (1994) 'Sociological Theory: Complex, Fragmented, and
Politicized', in J. Hage (ed.) Formal Thleory in Sociology: