History and Past Activities
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History and Past Activities |
Maria Nedeva
PREST, The Victoria University of Manchester
Manchester
United Kingdom
e-mail: Maria.Nedeva@man.ac.uk
New mode of knowledge production? The drive towards commodification of research and institutional change
Increased commodification of knowledge has been co-evolving with new concepts and models in STS aiming to understand these processes. Particularly interesting is the distinction of ‘mode 1’ — ‘mode 2’ knowledge production. Two primary claims are that a new pattern of knowledge production can be identified (‘mode 2’) and that it not simply co-exists with the old mode of production but has become dominant in contemporary knowledge societies. One distinguishing feature of mode 2 is that knowledge production takes place in the context of application. Although some criticisms have been leveled at the ‘mode 1’ — ‘mode 2’ distinction it has not been consistently challenged. This is partly due to the nature of its claims (these cannot be directly challenged) and partly to an obvious element of ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’.
The paper discusses the ‘mode 1’ — ‘ mode 2’ hypothesis in the context of its expected consequences. If the claims mentioned above are right some consequences would be: i) ‘knowledge transfer’ would have become an obsolete concept its place being taken by ‘joint knowledge production’; ii) the proportion of institutional base-line funding would markedly decline and the proportion of government funding for collaborative research involving different knowledge producers and users increase; iii) change in evaluation mechanisms and their impact on institutional prosperity and personal success; iv) change in priority and agenda setting mechanisms; and v) change in the level of institutional cohesion. The discussion will be based on a study of institutional change (research organizations and universities) in eight EU countries.
Sociology of Science and Technology NETwork - last update: April 2006