History and Past Activities
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History and Past Activities |
Karel Müller
Faculty of Humanistic Studies, Charles University
Prague
Czech Republic
e-mail: muellerk@fhs.cuni.cz
Commodification of Knowledge and its Institutional Context
The paper (i) reports about the empirical results of a project studying innovation systems in selected accession countries from the perspective of common practices in regulating national innovation capacities in the EC countries, and (ii) debates theoretical interpretation of the findings using current S&T concepts.
A comparative study of innovation systems in the accession countries which were affected by the EC regulatory regime indicates that their innovative capacities have been constrained by their current practices and institutional framework. The implementation/imitation of the EC practices (regulatory measures, extension of the scope of actors, promotion of intermediary actors and interactive networks), have not brought about the structural effects which were intended.
Specific experience has been gained by those post-socialist countries which attempted to restructure their economic system by way of "shock therapy". The massive privatisation of economy provides an exemplary case of commodification of knowledge: all available knowledge was "appropriated" by its producers and supplied to localities of emerging demand. Consequently, the social landscape of knowledge production and distribution has changed: it became more diversified, dynamic, richer in horizontal and informal networking and more responsive to demand — with a de-constructing effect on existing knowledge producing institutions. On other hand, it mobilised fierce competition which undermined the public framework of knowledge production, its evaluative capacities and co-operative potential which is needed for building (more sophisticated) innovation systems.
The concluding part argues that commodification of knowledge can be interpreted within the duality of power of codified and tacit knowledge. It increases access to codified knowledge but constrains the transformation of tacit into codified knowledge thereby limiting access to the stock of knowledge.
Sociology of Science and Technology NETwork - last update: April 2006