Social Transformations and Knowledge

Social Transformations and Knowledge

Many observers, be it from the political system, the economic field or the scientific community, would argue that our human future is intimately linked to the future of science and depends on how science is deployed in society. This, of course, is not a novel observation. Its basic message can be traced at least to the philosophers of the Enlightenment – and even the philosophers of the Enlightenment had forerunners who privileged knowledge. In what sense, then, can it be said – as the theory of modern society as a knowledge society asserts – that contemporary societies are becoming more and more dependent on the production, dissemination and use of knowledge? Moreover, in what sense is it the case that we are witnessing a change from a social world in which ‘things’ simply ‘happened’, at least from the point of view of most individuals, to a world in which things are more and more ‘made’ to happen (Lowe, 1971)? Finally, what is the nature of the linkage between social transformations and knowledge in the modern world?

In order to address these questions systematically, we will structure our contribution in the following manner: (1) we will discuss the place of knowledge in prominent social theories of modern society – defined as either post-industrial, network or knowledge societies – as well as the place of knowledge in major policy efforts that proceed from the assumption that knowledge plays a key role for large-scale social transformations; (2) we will advance a sociological conception of knowledge; and (3) we will apply it to the social analysis of change in modern society.

Knowledge in Competition

Many influential social theorists who have tried to capture the unique features of modern society have emphasized the role of knowledge in [Page 118]social transformations. The transformative power of knowledge, for example, figures prominently in the work of Adam Smith1 and even of Karl Marx.2 In our brief discussion of ‘knowledge in competition’ in social analysis, however, we will concentrate on some more recent and notable social theorists who argue that knowledge (and perhaps information) plays a decisive role in the social evolution of modern societies.3

We will focus on Daniel Bell's theory of post-industrial society and on Manuel Castells’ theory of network societies and to a lesser extent on Ulrich Beck's notion of modern society as a risk society, as well as on Herbert Marcuse's and Helmut Schelsky's vision of the emergence of a ‘technical state’ as the outcome of the growing importance of scientific and technical knowledge for the economic and political systems of contemporary society. We will also look at policy proposals such as the World Development Report issued by the World Bank (1999); and the Arab Human Development Reports (AHDRs) (2002, 2003), written by a team of Arab scholars. Both reports were explicitly designed to promote the idea that knowledge is crucial in social transformations of modern societies. The latter will be discussed in more detail in a separate section. Despite obvious differences among these theories and policy proposals – differences that result from the fact that the theories and policies were devised at different times in an era of rapid social and economic change, and hence bear the marks of their different origins – some remarkable commonalities can still be found in these investigations of the social role of knowledge.

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