Stehr, Nico
--05.5.17--
Knowledge as a productive factor.
Raymond Aron ... stresses the extent to which science and technology
shape the social organization of productive activities and,
consequently, other forms of life in society.
Daniel Bell elevated theoretical knowledge to the axial principle of
society. For him, codified theoretical knowledge becomes 'the director
of social change'. In the economy, instrumental knowledge replaces
labor as the source of added value. The strata of the producers of
scientific and technological knowledge become the key agency and actors
of future social and economic development. For Bell, knowledge tends to
be conceptualized rather narrowly as exemplifying the status of
objective scientific knowledge and 'intellectual technology'.
Stehr defines knowledge as capacity for social action (p. 27).
Knowledge as capacity for action cannot be reduced to scientific
knowledge.
The tremendous importance of scientific and technical knowledge in
developed societies is related to one unique attribute of such
knowledge, namely, that it represents incremental capacities for social
and economic action or an increase in the ability of how to do it that
may be privately appropriated, if only temporarily.
Incremental knowledge lacks homogeneity, and some achieve the status of
key inventions, discoveries, or economic applications. This depends on
the context and contingencies at hand.
Incremental knowledge is not new, what is new is the tempo with which
it is being produced, as well as the extent to which the proficatbility
of a company and its ability to sustain competitive advantages are
dependent on new knowledge, or the defense of its market share is
dependent on access to and implementation of incremental knowledge.
The faster new knowledge diffuses, the sooner the economic
advantage and ability to profit from it diminishes. Firms are
inclined to hoard and protect incremental knoweldge from easily
diffusing. Thus, scientific knowledge is one of the most important
conditions for the possibility of modernization in the sense of a
persistent extension and enlargement of social and economic action.
The probability of fabricating incremental knowledge and enjoying the
economic advantages that flow from such knowledge is a stratified and
contingent process. Advantage goes to those who already have made and
command significant elements of incremental knowledge. Incremental
knowledge is most likely to be easily obtained by those who are able to
benefit disproportionately from what they already know.
The notion of knowledge as a capacity for social action signals that
the application of knowledge always occurs under definitive social and
cognitive circumstances. The material realization of knowledge is
generally dependent on specific social and intellectual contexts. Thus,
any analysis of the role of knowledg in economic affairs requires
scrutiny and attention to such contextual details. This includes
economic factors like the presence of complementary assets cush as
manufacturing ability and marketing skills, and institutional
arrangements, such as political realities, the nature of work
arrangements, the type of financial institutions, the degree of social
inclusion and exclusion, and the cultural fabric of regions and
societies.
The increase in the significance of knowledge for economic relations
brings a growing importance of social circumstances, networks, and
constraints normally considered extraneous to economic conduct by
economic discourse.
What is scarce and difficult to obtain is not access to any knowledge,
but to incremental knowledge, that is, specific or novel knowledge
claim. The greater the tempo with which knoweldge ages or decays, the
greater the potential influence of those who manufacture or augment
knowledge and those who transmits those increments. ...'it is a
continuing sequence of innovation at a pace that provides a lead,
however short, over the others' that provides advantage.
If knowledge is sold, it remains within the domain of the producer and
can be spun off once again. However, the transfer of knowledge does not
include the transfer of the cognitive ability and the social context
required to generate such knowledge. Cognitive skills are scarce,
tacit, and not easily transferable.
The translation of knowledge claims is the job performed by experts,
counsellors and advisers who apply knowledge to knowledge. They mediate
the complex distribution of changing knowledge and those who search for
enabling knowledge.
In economic settings, incremental knowledge has particular importance
as a source of added value. The strategic importance of knowledge as an
immediately productive force in economic contexts specifically affects
the ways in which production and the delivery of services is organized,
as well as the types and the diversity of commodities and services
produced.
The commitment of private firms to innovation is closely linked to
their ability to temporarily appropriate the marginal additions to
knowledge and the economic advantages that may accrue from the control
over such knowledge.
For Joseph Schumpeter, innovations become a central, if not the main
component of the dynamics of economic action. Innovations are seen to
be more important than is price competition among firms. Pioneering
entrepreneurs who 'reform or revolutionize the pattern of production by
exploiting an invention or, more generally, an untried technological
possibility for producing a new com ??? one in a new way, by opening up a
new source of supply of materials or a new outlet for products, by
reorganizing an industry' are at the centre of the dynamics of the
capitalist system ([1942] 1950: 132).
For Schumpeter, innovations refer to the initial introduction of a new
product or system (product innovation) and process into the economy
(process innovation).
The term innovation is inclusive and refers to the realization of
additional knowledge as well the entire process of transforming
knowledge into practice. Schumpeter includes the diffusion process of
the realized invention throughout the population of potential users.
The developmental process moves in a linear fashion from invention to
innovation and diffusion.
Knowledge has to be first generated, then made available, interpreted,
and linked to local circunstances before it can be implemented. The
former task is the job of knowledge producers, the latter the task of
experts, counsellors and advisers whose function is to pragmatize
knowledge.
The realization of knowledge is an extremely complex intellectual and
organizational process that relies on sources of knowledge both
internal and external to firms or organizations. The social process of
innovation does not follow consistent patterns.
--05.5.2--
Stehr explicitly prefers the term knowledge society, instead of post-industrial, network, information society.
He
describes knowledge society as deriving from major changes in the
economic structure. So, knowledge economy precedes knowledge society.
For
him, knowledge societies will be very specific in different countries,
due to history, religion, language, environmental conditions, culture
and institutions.
Factors from the industrial society decline in
importance (preconditions for changing and growing economy). The most
common denominator of the changing economic structure is a shift away
from an economy largely driven and governed by material inputs into the
productive process and its organization, towards an economy in which
the transformations of productive and distributive processes are
increasingly determined by symbolic or knowledge-based inputs.
[One
insight is that products are more symbolic. Cars, clothes, gadgets of
all types, sell lifestyle, sell symbols of status, of happiness, of
whatever. It is not the intrinsic value, but what the product
represents. That is why media and advertising became so important
nowadays.]
[But, manufacturing does NOT decrease. First, the
proportion of white-collar to blue-collar increases. Second, there are
two types of industries: one traditional, and other that produces goods
with high level of knowledge (electronics, pharmaceuticals, computing,
etc.). A good measure is the percentage of the cost due to materials,
which is remarkably low in the second case. Also, the second type has a
different dynamics: advantages are short-lived, and innovation is the
norm.]
[Another point is the principle of increasing returns,
totally different from the diminishing returns from the industrial
economy. Once a technology is developed, a product is created, every
new sale is only marginally costly. The more sales the better, and from
both a supply and a demand perspective. From a demand perspective, it
is more interesting to buy products that are standard, widespread, used
by all. Also, products in this type of industry suffer from price
decreases; start high, end low.]
Employment, what's happening with employment? Must check.
Features of the knowledge economy:
- Knowledge is central as a productive force in the economy
- Knowledge economy leads to knowledge society
- Central life-style interests progressively drift away from purely economic ones
- More generalized struggles, not primarily driven by material ones (identity conflicts, like Castells?)
- Natural,
social, and cultural conditions become increasingly important to
economic activity (scientific-technical, environmental, institutional
changes)
- Emergence of a primarily knowledge-based workforce
--05.5.1--
The
striking change in the emerging knowledge-based economy is the
uncoupling of the raw materials economy from the industrial economy.
Changes in the price structure do not affect profoundly the cycle of
economies. The demand for raw material in manufacturing diminishes,
because of technology, institutional changes, relative price changes of
factors, environmental regulations, market pressures, and consumer
preferences.
... increasing
trend towards greater differentiation, new rationality, more extensive
flexibility, self-determination, and increased reflexivity of work in
the service sector of the economy. (Stehr)
From Stehr:
It
seems that the knowledge economy does not reduce the participation of
industry in GDP, but does reduce labor in manufacturing. Therefore, in
the knowledge economy, there will be fewer workers in manufacturing.
There are two movements: from manual workers to intellectual workers,
and from less- to higher-skilled manual workers. In
other words, there is a decoupling of production from labor, in the
same way that there is a decoupling of production from raw material.
The
expectation is that the jobs lost are absorbed in the service sector or
in service occupations (what are the implications of this difference?).
But it seems that the same productivity increases that happened in
industry will also affect service occupations: productivity of service
workers. Therefore, Stehr believes that the unemployment is permanent,
and the total supply of jobs in the knowledge economy will decrease
relatively to the industrial economy.
There is demand for
highly-skilled workers, mainly in knowledge-intensive industries.
Lower-skilled worker are doomed, wherever they go. Employment grows in
firms where technologies are utilized to a higher extent.
Knowledge-intensive firms are responsible for the majority of the
additional jobs and that the observed employment growth falls in
particular to those who have a better education; the decline in
employment, in contrast, is disproportionately high among people with
few professional abilities and in firms with low knowledge-intensity.
The
decline in employment in both the agricultural and industrial sectors
of the economy in developed economies is taken for granted among
economists. Further, it is assumed that this pattern will continue.
In the lower-skilled section of the workforce, there is growing trend towards part-time and temporary work (contract work?).
Global
competition and mobility forces organization to do more with fewer
employees. The introduction of technology requires higher-skilled
workers earning higher wages, which reinforces the need to do more with
less.
BibliographyStehr, N. (1994). Knowledge Societies. London: Sage.
Stehr,
N. (2002). Knowledge and Economic Conduct: The Social Foundations of
the Modern Economy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
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