History and Past Activities
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History and Past Activities |
David Hakken
SUNY Institute of Technology
Utica, NY
USA
e-mail: hakken@sunyit.edu
Can One Know its Value Before Knowing what the Basic Unit for Measuring Knowledge Is?: Ethnographic Perspectives on the Question of Whether Knowledge is Differently Commodified in Cyberspace.
There is an emerging consensus that the character of knowledge changes in contemporary society, and that commodification is one important dimension of change. These notions are examined in relation to anticipatory ethnographic work on the relationship between automated information technology (AIT) and the possible emergence of a new way of life in "cyberspace". First, a notion of knowledge is developed useful for answering the Cyberspace Knowledge Question, notably one that maintains a rigorous differentiation between "knowledge" and "information." Second, the concept of "commodity" is clarified in relation to Chapter One of Marx's Capital, in order to be more precise about the ways in which commodification of knowledge might be different in cyberspace. Third, three contemporary social processes relevant to the Question are considered: the emergence of multi-sited teams in "global" organizations, the rise and rapid fatigue with "knowledge management" in some of them, and the development of AIT-mediated "distance learning" in institutions of higher education. The approach illuminates the contradictions in social practice out of which such phenomena emerge and to which they respond, and appreciates the potential of such conditions for rapid change in knowledge. It explains why these phenomena suggest a skeptical view of how radical change has actually been. Data and perspectives are based on the author's ethnographic research on AIT and social change and his current experience organizing an international network of ethnographers studying AIT-mediated knowledge in organizations.
Sociology of Science and Technology NETwork - last update: April 2006