The Knowledge-Based Economy: Globalization and Self-Organization in the Dynamics of Communication

[Loet Leydesdorff]

Dear David, 
 
This abstract and the paper are written in a technical language (or code?)
that I barely understand, so I may be off the mark. (A nontechnical version
would be most useful). But I have two related observations. 
 
Indeed, this text is difficult to read because of the level of abstraction.
(It was not meant to be empirical.)

1. Technological innovation and science are two different domains and only
loosely coupled. Most innovation is part of economic activity, not science.
I therefore question whether scientific discourse has in fact become a
coordination mechanism at the social system level. But scientific knowledge
diffusion beyond science is largely invisible, precisely because it is
diffuse, so I may be wrong. 

 There is a lot of innovation going on in the economy which is not
knowledge-based, but practice-based.

2. Conversely, there is an historic activity in progress whereby scientific
discourse and political control are in direct communication. This is the
climate change debate. I have been studying this debate for many years and
it is unprecedented. The latest scientific findings are circulated and
debated in real time in the US Congress and in the national press. The
Internet is playing a leading role. The economic implications and proposals
are staggering. This might be an exemplar of your coordination mechanism
model, but it is not about economic or technological innovation, it is about
science and public policy. 

 I did not work on this, but on the issue of "stem-cell research". You may
find the methodology useful:
 
Loet Leydesdorff & Iina Hellsten, Metaphors and Diaphors
<http://www.leydesdorff.net/stemcell> in Science Communication: Mapping the
Case of 'Stem-Cell Research', Science Communication 27(1), 2005, 64-99.
<pdf-version <http://www.leydesdorff.net/stemcells.pdf> >
 
With best wishes, 
 
 
Loet



With best regards,
David Wojick


The  <http://www.leydesdorff.net/codification/index.htm> Knowledge-Based
Economy:

The  <http://www.leydesdorff.net/codification/index.htm> Potentially
Globalizing and Self-Organizing Dynamics of Interactions among Differently
Codified Systems of Communication


 
Alongside economic exchange relations and political control, the
organization of codified knowledge in scientific discourses has become
increasingly a third coordination mechanism at the level of the social
system. When three coordination mechanisms interact, one can expect the
resulting dynamics to be complex and self-organizing. Each coordination
mechanism is specific in terms of its code of communication. For example,
"energy" has a meaning in physics very different from its meaning in the
economy or for policy-makers. In addition to providing the communications
with functionally different meanings, the codes can be symbolically
generalized, and then meaning can be globalized. Symbolically generalized
codes of communication can be expected to span competing horizons of meaning
that 'self-organize' given historical conditions. From this perspective, the
historical organization of meaning-for example, in discourses-can be
considered as instantiations or retention mechanisms. In other words,
meaning can further be codified in communication flows. Knowledge, for
example, can be considered as a meaning which makes a difference. In the
case of discursive knowledge, this difference is defined with reference to a
code in the communication. When discursive knowledge is socially organized
(e.g., as R&D) its dynamics can increasingly compete with other social
coordination mechanisms in the construction and reproduction of a
knowledge-based order. 


 
<pdf-version <http://www.leydesdorff.net/codification/codification.pdf> >


 
  _____  

Loet Leydesdorff
Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR)
Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam
loet at leydesdorff.net ; http://www.leydesdorff.net/

Visiting Professor 2007-2010, ISTIC,
<http://www.istic.ac.cn/Eng/brief_en.html>  Beijing; Honorary Fellow
2007-2010, SPRU, <http://www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/>  University of Sussex
Now available: The
<http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1581129378>
Knowledge-Based Economy: Modeled, Measured, Simulated, 385 pp.; US$ 18.95;
The
<http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1581126956>
Self-Organization of the Knowledge-Based Society ; The
<http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1581126816>
Challenge of Scientometrics

 
 

-- 

"David E. Wojick, PhD" <WojickD at osti.gov>
Senior Consultant for Innovation
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
US Department of Energy
http://www.osti.gov/innovation/
391 Flickertail Lane, Star Tannery, VA 22654 USA
540-858-3136

http://www.bydesign.com/powervision/resume.html provides my bio and past
client list. 
http://www.bydesign.com/powervision/Mathematics_Philosophy_Science/ presents
some of my own research on information structure and dynamics. 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.asis.org/pipermail/sigmetrics/attachments/20080628/32ac2495/attachment.html>