UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
CSO 403: SOCIOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE
LECTURER: Prof. Mauri Yambo SEMESTER: October ’06-Jan 2007
COURSE OUTLINE
COURSE OBJECTIVES
To expose students to the social construction of knowledge, and to answer certain fundamental questions: What is knowledge? How do we know? How do we know that we know? [And: What difference does that make?]
COURSE DESCRIPTION/CONTENT
Various forms of knowledge in traditional and contemporary society are discussed, including: symbolic/semiotic, instrumental, scientific/technical, mythological and faith/belief. A distinction is made between subjective and objective bases of knowledge, myth and reality, propaganda and truth. Major conceptual, theoretical and empirical perspectives on knowledge are examined, for example: symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, semiology, dialectics and informatics. The main source of knowledge: family, community school/university, laboratory, church, government, the media, "bush telegraph" and thought-and-practice (or learning-by-doing); patterns and instruments of knowledge/information processing, transmission, reception, storage and retrieval in traditional and contemporary society; uses to which knowledge is put: socialization, education, training, social mobilization, conversion, diffusion of innovation and entertainment; linkages between knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP); and concomitants of knowledge and behaviour change: social differentiation and change, technical change, and changes in the quality of life.
[Famous Question: “What did he know, and when did he know it?”]
I. INTRODUCTION: KNOWLEDGE AND EPISTEMOLOGY -- SOME KEY CONCEPTS AND TYPOLOGIES
– Epistemology
– Variations/Meanings of Knowledge
– The Seven Fundamental Questions at the Root of All Knowledge
– A Selection of Key Concepts:
– Concept and Idea, Fact and Fiction, Truth and Belief and Faith
– Reality v. Myth [Check: “Reality Check”, “Reality TV”, Virtual Reality]
– Perception, Fantasy, Illusion and Hallucination
– Norms and Values
– Information v. Knowledge
– Scientific Knowledge Claim.
– Simple Knowledge Structure.
II. BEING, THINKING AND KNOWING
– The Senses and the Environment
– Thought: Its Locus, Subject-Matter and Consequences
– The Role of Culture (and the Special Place of Language)
– Self (including self knowledge), Identity and Otherness
– Knowledge and Human Interests
– Bodies of Knowledge and Knowledge Gaps.
– Uses of Knowledge.
III. LEARNING: EDUCATION, TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE
– The Main Sources of Knowledge:
– Experience – “the best teacher”
– Family, Community, “Church”, Peers, Wazee
– School/College/University, Laboratory, Library, Archive
– The Work-Place
– The Media and “Bush Telegraph” or Grapevine
– Thought (Reflection, Study, Meditation) v. Practice (Learning-By-Doing)
– The Learning Curve and the Curve of Forgetting
– Transfer of Learning
– Education versus Training; Patterns of Access.
IV. SELECTED THEORIES AND MODELS OF KNOWLEDGE
– Social Learning and Socialization Theories
– Diffusion and Communication Theories
– The KAP Model
– Kuhnian Model of Scientific Revolutions.
– Semiotics (Study of Signs, Symbols and symptoms): Art, Metaphor, Simile, Totem, Body Language
– Toward a Theory of the Memetic Sphere.
V. PATTERNS OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE IN TRADITIONAL AND 21ST CENTURY SOCIETY
– In Traditional Society [Contexts: The traditional village; the local community (Comte, Toennies)]
– In the 21st Century Society [Context: The global village]:
– North-South Variations in the Production, Processing and Distribution of Information and Knowledge
– The Digital Divide:
– The Problem of Access to Digitized Information and Information Resources: Barriers Specific to Technology and Social Structure [incorporating Gender, Educational Level, Age, Income, Race and Geography/Locale (Rural-Urban, North-South)]
– On The Right to Know and The Need to Know [Transparent Governance, Corporate Governance, Human Rights, Cultural Rights, Gender Rights, Religious Rights, and Social and Environmental Impact Issues]
– The Role of ICTs in the Generation, Transmission and Storage of Information/Knowledge and Culture:
– The Social Significance of Digital and Mobile Communication
– Trading in News, Information
– The Global Media [CNN, BBC, Reuters, Sky News, Time Magazine, Bloomberg, CNBC, Dstv]: Link between subscription and information
– E-Commerce: B2B, B2C and C2C Communication [E-Banking, eBay, Amazon, Sambaza, Breaking News, Ringtones, Music and Video Downloads, Online Library]
– Television Broadcasting in East Africa
– Computer-Based Communication, Data Search and Commerce:
– 24/7 Connectivity, E-Mail Communication, E-Learning, Web Access: Link between advertising and free online access
– Search Engines and Data Mining Techniques [Google].
VI. THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION
– The Five Disciplines:
– Characteristics of the Learning Organization: Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Shared Vision, Team Learning, Systems Thinking
– “Microworlds: The Technology of the Learning Organization” (Senge)
– Intellectual Capital [Intellectual Property]
– Knowledge Ecology and Knowledge Management.
VII. KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERTISE
– Certification and Credentialism, Title and Performance, Experts and Expatriates
– Professional v. Expert, Expertise and Technocracy, Knowledge Workers
– The Uses of Information/Knowledge: Socialization (Transmission of Culture, Integration, Social Competence, Physical and Spiritual Survival), Education and Training, Mobilization (Propaganda, Diffusion of Innovation, Empowerment (Social, Cultural, Political, Economic), Entertainment, Enlightenment
– Intellectual Property, Patents, Copyrights, Copycats
– Expert Systems
– The Price and Advantage of Expertise (or “Buying Expertise”): Patterns of Global Migration and Competition.
VIII. POWER AND KNOWLEDGE
– Revisit Knowledge and Class/Human/Corporate Interests
– Reading Foucault: The Archaeology of Knowledge(1972) and Power/Knowledge (1980).
IX. THE SHELF-LIFE OF KNOWLEDGE (Or Knowledge and its Preservation)
– The Shelf-life of Internally Preserved Knowledge:
– Knowledge as Memory (as Remembrance) and Learning as “Committing To Memory”
– Culture as Collective Memory
– The Problem of Entropy: The Fading of Memory over Time
– The Shelf-life of Externally Preserved Knowledge:
– Artifacts/Cultural: Still Pictures, Paintings, Murals, Sculptures, Drawings; Museums, Galleries, Shrines, Monuments
– Writing/Typographic: In Books, Manuals, Journals, Newspapers, Diaries, Letters, CDs, E-mail; Libraries
– Video: Motion Pictures (Celluloid, Video Discs and Cassettes, Digital)
– Audio: Audio-Cassettes, CDs
X. PRACTICALS: CLASS APPLICATION OF ICTs
– Accessing Specified Websites, and Mining Specified Data
– Sending, Receiving and Printing E-mail (With and Without Attachments)
– Using Search Engines on the Internet, and Downloading Files
– File Sharing
– Online Research
– Developing Databases.
[All Students are Required to Have E-Mail Addresses and to be Able to Send and Receive Mail from Class Members]
READING LIST
I. INTRODUCTION
Abel, Theodore. 1974. “The Operation Called Verstehen,” pp. 40-69, in Marcello Truzzi, Ed. 1974. Verstehen: Subjective Understanding in the Social Sciences. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing. [See Murray L. Wax's article, listed below, for a reply to Abel. Those interested may read the whole of Truzzi's book. Note also that Giddens, in New Rules... (p. 126 and 150-51) also touches on the concept]
Berger, Peter L. and Thomas Luckman. 1967. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Anchor Books
Cohen, Bernard P. 1989. Developing Sociological Knowledge: Theory and Method. Second
Edition. Chicago: Nelson-Hall [In particular, read about scientific knowledge claim and simple knowledge structure]
Giddens, Anthony. 1989. Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press [An introductory text. Read selectively]
Giddens, Anthony. 1991. The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press [Read in particular the passages touching on trust and expert systems. This will give you and angle on the concept of expertise; and on reflexivity and the hermeneutic circle]
Grünwald, Ernst. 1970. “Systemic Analyses,”pp. 187-236, in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers. [An extended attempt to analyze, to "clarify", the ambiguities that surround the fundamental concept of the Sociology of Knowledge – whose "object" is meaning, and "appropriate method" understanding – namely, the "connectedness of knowledge {or cognition} and social being"]
Habermas, Jürgen. 1972. Knowledge and Human Interests. Boston: Beacon Press, 1972 [You will get good ideas here about hermeneutics, and about how knowledge is embedded in human interests – in just the same way as human interests are embedded in knowledge. So much so that there is a matrix of knowledge typologies and interest typologies]
Hartung, Frank E. 1970. “Problems of the Sociology of Knowledge” pp. 686-705 in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers.
International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences [Read selectively]
Lakatos, Imre and Alan Musgrave, Eds. 1970. Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. 1970. “Concerning the Production of Consciousness,” pp. 97- 108, in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Parsons, Talcott. 1970. “An Approach to the Sociology of Knowledge,” pp. 282-306, in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Soyinka, Wole. 1990. Myth, Literature and the African World. [Canto Edition] Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [originally published in 1976]. [Soyinka delves into the complexity of “the African self-apprehended world in myth and literature.” In the essays on drama he seeks more specifically to delineate the African world-view – that is, "to transmit through analysis of myth and ritual the self-apprehension of the African world." This is a world-view that, he argues, is far from ossified ("stagnant," tradition-bound) – immersed as it is in three worlds: of the ancestor, the living, and the unborn]
Speier, Hans. 1970. “The Social Determination of Ideas,” pp. 263-281, in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers
Wanderer, Jules J. 1970. “An Empirical Study in the Sociology of Knowledge,” in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers. [Proposes an alternative to identifying or examining intellectual systems substantively, that is to say, in terms of their subject matter. In "certain" cases, he argues, we may do so by establishing "the manner in which their proofs are structured." That is to say, via "underlying structural dimensions."]
Wax, Murray L. 1974. "On Misunderstanding Verstehen: A Reply to Abel," pp. 70-82, in Marcello Truzzi, Ed. 1974. Verstehen: Subjective Understanding in the Social Sciences. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing.
Woherem, Evans E. 1993. Information Technology in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities. Nairobi: ACTS Press; and Maastricht: Research Institute for Knowledge Systems (RIKS), 1993.
II. BEING, THINKING AND KNOWING
Ardrey, Robert. 1975. The Territorial Imperative. New York: Dell Publishing.
Berger, Peter L. 1970. "Identity Problem in the Sociology of Knowledge," pp. 373-384, in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Berger, Peter L. and Thomas Luckman. 1967. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Anchor Books. [The thrust of their argument, captured in the title, is that reality is socially constructed; and that, of all realities, the reality of everyday life, intersubjectively revolving around the 'here' and the 'now', is the reality par excellence – a self-evident reality "taken for granted as reality." As a socially constructed reality, they add, society has both an objective and a subjective dimension]
Currie, Ian D. 1970. "The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis," pp. 403-421, in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers. [The Hypothesis interrogates the dialectic between language and thought; language and world views; and language and perceptions of the objective world]
Giddens, Anthony. 1989. Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press. [Read selectively]
Habermas, Jürgen. 1972. Knowledge and Human Interests. Boston: Beacon Press.
International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
Larrain, Jorge. 1979. The Concept of Ideology. London: Hutchinson & Co.
Marx, Karl. 1966. Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts. See excerpts (pp. 169-196) in Erich Fromm. 1966. Marx's Conception of Man. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing. [The excerpt critiques Hegel's dialectic and general philosophy, and in particular gives a sampling of Marx's ideas about knowledge, consciousness, self-consciousness, being (for-self and as such) and alienation]
Marx, Karl. 1966. German Ideology. See excerpts (pp. 197-216) in Erich Fromm. 1966. Marx's Conception of Man. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing. [The excerpt is a sampling of Marx's ideas about the dialectical link between the material base and the superstructure – between material conditions ("productive forces") and ideas/thinking/consciousness. This dialectic leads, in his terms, to an inescapable factuality – that of "ruling ideas" being invariably those of the "ruling class"]
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. 1970. "Concerning the Production of Consciousness," pp. 97- 108, in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Merton, Robert. 1970. "Paradigm for the Sociology of Knowledge," pp. 342-372, in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Morley, David and Kevin Robbins. 1995. "Cultural Imperialism and the Mediation of Otherness", Chapter 10, pp. 228-250, in Akbar Ahmed and Chris Shore, eds. 1995. The Future of Anthropology: Its Relevance to the Contemporary World. London and Atlantic Highlands: Athlone. [Focuses on the interplay between culture, the media and Otherness -- one of the consequences of which is cultural hybridity]
Mudimbe, V.Y. 1988. The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge. Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press; and London: James Curry. [See pp. 44-97 for his commentary on "The Missionary Discourse and Africa's Conversion", and pp. 135-141 for a critique of Tempels' Bantu Philosophy]
Soyinka, Wole. 1990. Myth, Literature and the African World. [Canto Edition] Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [originally published in 1976]. [Soyinka delves into the complexity of "the African self-apprehended world in myth and literature." In the essays on drama seeks more specifically to delineate the African world-view – that is, "to transmit through analysis of myth and ritual the self-apprehension of the African world." This is a world-view that, he argues, is far from ossified ("stagnant," tradition-bound) – immersed as it is in three worlds: of the ancestor, the living, and the unborn].
Weber, Max. 1970. "Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism," pp. 387-402, in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers. [Here, Weber explores the "religious-cultural" roots of capitalism's core ideas and practices]
Yambo, Mauri. 1995. "Random Access Power: The Promise and the Pitfalls" (Pp. 163-181) In Heidi Willer, Till Forster and Claudio Ortner-Buchberger (Eds.), Macht der Identitat – Identitat der Macht: Politische Prozesse und Kulturelle Wandel in Afrika (The Power of Identity - The Identity of Power:...). Munster: LIT Verlag.
Yambo, Mauri. 2005. “Toward a Theory of the Memetic Sphere” Hekima: Journal of the
Humanities and Social Sciences. Vol. III, Number 1 (pp. 143-154). [Earlier draft written in 1999].
III. LEARNING: EDUCATION, TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE
Agochiya, Devendra. 2002. Every Trainer’s Handbook. New Delhi: Sage Publications. [A book with very useful insights. It has chapters on, inter alia: 1. The broad theme of training, focusing on underlying concepts, the scope of training, training purposes, stakeholders, and on-the-job training. 2. The learning process per se and in relation to training programmes, characteristics of adult learners, and participants’ learning styles. 3. An integrated approach to learning, in the context of a training programme. 4. Steps in designing a training programme. 5. The practicalities of managing/‘delivering’ an actual training programme. 6. Selected training techniques (including pre-requisites, requisite arrangements, procedures and/or support materials), in particular: lectures, case study, role-play, management games, laboratory training, practical assignments for individuals and groups, group discussion, panel discussion, brainstorming, placement, field trip and demonstrations. 7. The characteristics and dynamics of the training group. 8. Trainers’ roles, functions, styles and dilemmas. 9. Training evaluation: principles and procedures.]
Armstrong, Michael. 2004?. A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 9th Edition. London: Kogan Page. [A useful source for many concepts, such as: competence, competency, performance, performance competency, competence analysis, workshop, leadership, the PEST approach to scenario planning, performance management, 360-degree feedback, the learning curve (or EWS), learning organization, self-directed learning, planned/systematic training, training needs assessment/analysis, training gap, coaching, action learning, just-in-time training, and training evaluation]
Cole, G.A. 1997. Personnel Management: Theory and Practice. London: Letts Educational. [See
Chapter 24, pp. 254-261, on theories of learning; Chapter 25, pp. 262-270, on the learning organization]
Giddens, Anthony. 1989. Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press. [Read selectively]]
Sifuna, Daniel N. 1990. Development of Education in Africa: The Kenyan Experience.
Nairobi: Initiatives Ltd.
Yambo, Mauri. 1986. Technical Training and Work Experience: Tracer Study of YP and HIT Leavers. [Research Report to DANIDA]
IV. SELECTED THEORIES AND MODELS OF KNOWLEDGE
Akers, Ronald L., Marvin D. Krohn, Lonn Lanza-Kaduce and Marcia Radosevich. 1982. " Social Learning and Deviant Behavior: A Specific Test of a General Theory," pp. 636-655, in American Sociological Review. 1982. Vol. 44.
Andrews, Kenneth and Denise Kandel. 1979. "Attitude and Behavior: A Specification of the Contingent Consistency hypothesis". American Sociological Review 1979, Vol. 44, pp. 298-310. [This is relevant to KAP]
Blau, Peter M. 1968. "Interaction: Social Exchange" in International Encyclopedia of the
Social Sciences, vol. 7. New York: Macmillan
Boisot, Max. 1987. Information & Organizations: The Manager as Anthropologist. London: Fontana Paperbacks
Cherry, Colin. 1966. On Human Communication. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Dawkins, Richard. 1989. The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [See pp.189-201 for a discussion of memes]
Giddens, Anthony. 1989. Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press. [Read selectively. He touches on Semiotics, Socialization and Symbolic Interactionism, for example]
Giddens, Anthony. 1991. New Rules of Sociological Method: A Positive Critique of
Interpretative Sociologies. Cambridge: Polity Press [Read his thoughts on symbolic interactionism (p. 22), and on paradigms, relativism, hermeneutic analysis and Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions (pp. 142-146)]
Jules-Rosette, Bennetta. 1984. The Messages of Tourist Art: An African Semiotic System in Comparative Perspective. New York: Plenum Press. [Touches on the semiology of money, etc.]
Kuhn, Thomas. 1970. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 2nd Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Focus on paradigms and the process through which a "paradigm shift" occurs to signal a scientific revolution. That's the whole thing, really, but you can do it quickly]
Larrain, Jorge Larrain. 1979. The Concept of Ideology. London: Hutchinson & Co.
Mannheim, Karl. 1970. "The Sociology of Knowledge," pp. 109-130, in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Mead, George Herbert. 1934. Mind, Self and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Read Mead for Symbolic Interactionism. Or read others who have commented on Mead's ideas, such as Giddens, in Sociology; or Arnold Rose, in "A Summary of Symbolic Interaction Theory"]
Rogers, Everett M. and F. Floyd Shoemaker. 1971. Communication of Innovations: A Cross- Cultural Approach.2nd Edition. New York: The Free Press [Read this for "Diffusion" Theory]
Rose, Arnold. 1974. “A Summary of Symbolic Interaction Theory,” pp. 139-151, in Denisoff, Callahan and Levine, eds. 1974. Theories and Paradigms in Contemporary sociology. Itasca, Il.: F.E. Peacock Publishers.
V. PATTERNS OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE IN TRADITIONAL AND 21ST CENTURY SOCIETY
Boisot, Max. 1987. Information & Organizations: The Manager as Anthropologist. London: Fontana Paperbacks
Cherry, Colin. 1966. On Human Communication. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Cole, G.A. 1997. Personnel Management: Theory and Practice. 4th Edition. London: Letts Educational. [See pp. 94-96, which touch on the impact of IT in offices]
Doob, Leonard. 1961. Communication in Africa. New Haven: Yale University Press
Kaplinsky, Raphael. 1984. Automation: The Technology and Society. Harlow: Longman [See especially Chapters 5 and 6 (pp. 77-107) which cover "Automation in the Coordination Sphere" and "Inter-Sphere Automation -- The 'Factory of the Future' "]
McLuhan, Marshall. 1964. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: Mentor Books. [Discusses at the place of the "electric galaxy", successor to the Gutenberg Galaxy, in society]
Senge, Peter M. 1994. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization.
New York: Currency Doubleday. [Paperback Edition] [See Chapter 18: "Microworlds: The Technology of the Learning organization," pp. 313-338)
Senge, Peter M., Charlotte Roberts, Richard B. Ross, Bryan J. Smith and Art Kleiner. 1994. The
Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. New York: Currency Doubleday. [Read Senge’s and his colleagues’ ideas about “infrastructure for learning” on pp. 32-47]
Woherem, Evans E. 1993. Information Technology in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities.
Nairobi: ACTS Press; and Maastricht: Research Institute for Knowledge Systems (RIKS). [Read especially pp. 29-35 and 69-83]
Yambo, Mauri. 2003. Television Broadcasting in East Africa: Airtime Allocation to Local and Foreign Programmes. Nairobi: Development Through Media.
Yambo, Mauri. 2005. "Toward a Theory of the Memetic Sphere" Hekima: Journal of the
Humanities and Social Sciences. Vol. III, Number 1 (pp. 143-154).
[Use Search Engines to Get Additional Information from the Internet on, for example, the Digital Divide, Citizens’ Rights to Information, E-Commerce, B2B, B2C and E-Learning]
VI. THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION
Hicks, Linda, "The Nature of Learning", Chapter 10 in Laurie J. Mullins. 1999. Management and Organisational Behaviour. 5th Edition. London: Financial Times Pitman Publishing
Malhotra, Yogesh. 1998. "Knowledge Management for the New World of Business," pp. 1-5, at www.brint.com/km/whatis.htm [Article previously published in Asia Strategy Leadership Institute Review, Vol. 6, 1998 (Special Issue on Knowledge Management). For more on-line articles on Knowledge Management, visit http://www.brint.com/km/
Malhotra, Yogesh. 1998. "Knowledge Management, Knowledge Organizations & Knowledge Workers: A View from the Front Lines," (Interview with Maeil Business Newspaper of February 19, 1998). Copy available on-line at http://www.brint.com/interview/maeil.htm
Senge, Peter M. 1994. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Currency Doubleday. [Invaluable resource for team learning and the learning org.]
Senge, Peter M., Charlotte Roberts, Richard B. Ross, Bryan J. Smith and Art Kleiner. 1994. The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. New York: Currency Doubleday. [Read Senge's and his colleagues' ideas about "infrastructure for learning" on pp. 32-47; also covers team learning and the learning organization].
Stewart, Thomas A. 1994. “Your Company's Most Valuable Asset: Intellectual Capital,”
pp. 28-33, in Fortune. October 3, 1994.
[Use Search Engines to Get Additional Information from the Internet on, for example, Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management]
VII. KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERTISE
Berger, Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckman. 1967. The Social Construction of Reality: A
Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Anchor Books, 1967
Crane, Diana. 1970. "The Gatekeepers of Science: Some Factors Affecting the Selection of Articles for Scientific Journals," pp. 488-503, in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Dibble, Vernon K. 1970. "Occupations and Ideology," pp. 434-451, in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Giddens, Anthony. 1991. The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press [See pp. 21- his discussion of knowledge application processes, expert systems, disembedding mechanisms, trust in expertise, and, paradoxically, the institutionalization of doubt under the conditions of modernity]
Kaplinsky, Raphael. 1984. Automation: The Technology and Society. Harlow: Longman [See especially Chapters 5 and 6 (pp. 77-108) which cover "Automation in the Coordination Sphere" and "Inter-Sphere Automation -- The 'Factory of the Future' "; see also pp.139-149 on the impact of automation on employment -- including the employment of highly skilled HR]
Rogers, Everett M. and F. Floyd Shoemaker. 1971. Communication of Innovations: A Cross- Cultural Approach.2nd Edition. New York: The Free Press
VIII. POWER AND KNOWLEDGE
Crane, Diana. 1970. "The Gatekeepers of Science: Some Factors Affecting the Selection of Articles for Scientific Journals," pp. 488-503, in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Dibble, Vernon K. 1970. "Occupations and Ideology," pp. 434-451, in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Foucault, Michel. 1972. The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language.
London: Tavistock
Foucault, Michel. 1980. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews & Other Writings, 1972-1977. (Edited by Colin Gordon). New York: Pantheon Books.
Habermas, Jürgen. 1972. Knowledge and Human Interests. Boston: Beacon Press, 1972 [You will get good ideas here about hermeneutics, and about how knowledge is embedded in human interests -- in just the same way as human interests are embedded in knowledge. So much so that there is a matrix of knowledge typologies and interest typologies]
Marx, Karl. 1966. German Ideology. See excerpts (pp. 197-216) in Erich Fromm. 1966. Marx's Conception of Man. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing. [The excerpt is a sampling of Marx's ideas about the dialectical link between the material base and the superstructure – between material conditions ("productive forces") and ideas/thinking/consciousness. This dialectic leads, in his terms, to an inescapable factuality – that of "ruling ideas" being invariably those of the "ruling class"]
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. 1970. "Concerning the Production of Consciousness," pp. 97- 108, in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Morley, David and Kevin Robbins. 1995. "Cultural Imperialism and the Mediation of Otherness", Chapter 10, pp. 228-250, in Akbar Ahmed and Chris Shore, eds. 1995. The Future of Anthropology: Its Relevance to the Contemporary World. London and Atlantic Highlands: Athlone. [Focuses on the interplay between culture, the media and Otherness -- one of the consequences of which is cultural hybridity]
Mudimbe, V.Y. 1988. The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge. Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press; and London: James Curry. [See pp. 1-23 for his commentary on "Power and Knowledge of Otherness"]
Seeman, Melvin. 1970. "Intellectual Perspective and Adjustment to Minority Status," pp. 452- 467, in James E. Curtis and John W. Petras, eds. 1970. The sociology of knowledge: A Reader. New York: Praeger Publishers. [Explores the potentiality in marginal status, and more specifically "adjustment to marginality", to become the mother of intellectual "perspective and creativity in the realm of ideas"]
IX. THE SHELF-LIFE OF KNOWLEDGE (Or Knowledge and its Preservation)
DeGregori, Thomas R. 1985. A Theory of Technology: Continuity and Change in Human
Development. Ames: Iowa State University. [See his contribution to the debate on the beneficial impact of printing on the preservation of knowledge]
Koestler, Arthur. 1971. The Ghost in the Machine. Chicago: Gateway. [See pp. 299-301 for a discussion of entropy, and of humankind's nearly hopeless struggle to accumulate knowledge on a continuous basis]
McLuhan, Marshall. 1969. The Gutenberg Galaxy. New York: Mentor Books. [Discusses at length the impact of typography on human civilization]
Sagan, Carl. 1977. The Dragons of Eden. New York: Ballantine Books. [See pp. 234-36, on the benefits of writing as a tool for preserving knowledge]
Toulmin, Stephen and June Goldfield. 1965. The Discovery of Time. London: Hutchinson. [See pp. 26-39, on the origins of writing]
X. PRACTICAL: CLASS APPLICATION OF ICTs
– Create your own annotated list of what you consider to be the 20 most interesting websites for this course in terms of relevance of content, data search, file-sharing and downloading opportunities, data banking and database management, and online research in general.
[YOU ARE NOT EXPECTED TO READ ALL THE TEXTS, BUT THE LIST WILL HELP YOU TO CHOOSE WHAT TO READ FOR EACH SECTION – AND TO MONITOR REFERENCES MADE IN CLASS]
