The Moment of Truth for Science: The Consequences of the ‘Knowledge Society’ for Society and Science

Peter Weingart

Chapter 6 in Beyond the Knowledge Trap:Developing Asia's Knowledge-Based Economies, 2011, pp 155-164 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

Abstract: AbstractScience is probably the fastest growing enterprise in our society. Since the 17th century, every doubling of the population has seen a tripling in the number of scientists (Price, 1971). This means that, over the last 300 years, Western societies have invested a major part of their resources into the production, revision and verification of knowledge. It is a process that perpetuates itself if sufficiently nourished — the more resources go into science, the more scientists are educated, the more results they produce and the more questions arise. In this regard, the frontiers of science are indeed endless, to paraphrase Vannevar Bush's slogan. The exponential growth of science is seen as the main factor in the shift from an industrialised society to a knowledge society (Bell, 1973)…

Keywords: Knowledge for Development (K4D); Knowledge Management (KM); Knowledge Economy; Public Policy; Local Knowledge; Asia (South Korea; Singapore; Malaysia; Thailand; Indonesia; Vietnam; Philippines; Uzbekistan) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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