Michael Gibbons et al. (1994)

1
Michael Gibbons et al. (1994)

• The New Production of Knowledge
• (London SAGE)

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Bibliographic Information

• The book has an interesting story of production
• Book was (is) highly influential in Europe (less
  so in the U.S.)
• 2001 a new book (Re-Thinking Science) and 2003
  the Minerva article.

3
Mode 1 Traditional

• Traditional way of knowledge production captured
  by the concept and phrase of Mode 1
• Mode 1, generated within a disciplinary,
  primarily cognitive, context (p. 1)
• Mode 1 problems are set and solved in a
  context governed by the, largely academic,
  interests of a specific community. Mode 1 is
  hierarchical and tends to preserve its form
  (p. 3)

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Five Principles of Mode 2

• Knowledge Produced in the Context of Application
• Transdisciplinarity
• Heterogeneity and Organizational Diversity
• Social Accountability and Reflexivity
• Quality Control.

5
Relationship Mode 2 / Mode 1

• A parallel existence of Mode 2 and Mode 1
• Mode 2 developed out of Mode 1
• Importance of communication for Mode 2
• Mode 2 demands participation in knowledge
  production
• Mode 2 has co-evolutionary effects.

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Prerequisites for Mode 2 (1)

• New technologies such as rapid transportation and
  ICTs enabled (enable) many different sites to
  interact and communicate
• The crucial importance of communication and
  communication density
• Communication expansion also leads to a greater
  diversity of knowledge

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Prerequisites for Mode 2 (2)

• Communication increase is partially a positive
  pay-off of past (partially, but not only, public)
  investments into knowledge infrastructure
• The massification of higher education
• Increased levels of communication and broader
  applications of technology
• Proliferation (diffusion) of sites with knowledge
  competences
• This knowledge surplus supports the emergence of
  Mode 2

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Prerequisites for Mode 2 (3)

• The importance of knowledge for dynamic markets.

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Homogenous/Heterogeneous Growth (1)

• Definition of homogenous growth
• homogenous growth would be the expansion of a
  given entity, say papers in nuclear physics,
  where the growth often follows a logarithmic
  curve. In this case, growth essentially consists
  of the production of more of the same, whether
  these are numbers of papers produced or number of
  scientists working in a given field (p. 34)

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Homogenous/Heterogeneous Growth (2)

• Definition of heterogeneous growth
• Heterogeneous growth, by contrast refers to a
  process of differentiation through which
  rearrangements of component elements take place
  within a given process of set of activities. In
  these cases it is the number of rearrangements
  that grow rather than solely the number of
  outputs (p. 34)
• In Mode 2, not only are more actors involved in
  the genesis of knowledge but they remain socially
  distributed (p. 34)

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Homogenous/Heterogeneous Growth (3)

• Example for homogeneous growth e.g., more
  article output (article production).

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Homogenous/Heterogeneous Growth (4)

• Example for heterogeneous growth
• E.g., taking article production into account,
  other information (indicators) are considered,
  such as the number of authors per article and
  their background the diversity of institutions
  involved do these institutions cover different
  sectors and also different countries

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Homogenous/Heterogeneous Growth (5)

• There is the claim that such a networking
  diversity often fosters new insights
• A possibility of verification or testing of that
  hypothesis could be to look at the citation
  frequency of articles (in the same discipline of
  field) and to search for patterns Are articles,
  with a diversity background of authors and
  institutions, more frequently cited?
• This could imply not only assessing the article
  output (of a person or institutions), but also
  carefully to observe citation frequencies.

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First Principle Knowledge Produced in the
Context of Application (1)

• A general sensitivity for contexts and a
  challenging of more traditional forms of
  knowledge production
• Problem solving often is related to a specific
  application
• problem solving which is organised around a
  particular application (p. 3)

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First Principle Knowledge Produced in the
Context of Application (2)

• A wide range of considerations and continuous
  negotiations (thus the importance of
  communication) are highly important for Mode 2
• Diverse supply and demand factors and the
  societal distribution of knowledge
• Knowledge production becomes diffused throughout
  society. This is why we also speak of socially
  distributed knowledge (p. 4)

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First Principle Knowledge Produced in the
Context of Application (3)

• Mode 2 demands participation in the knowledge
  production
• It is one of the imperatives of Mode 2 that
  exploitation of knowledge requires participation
  in its generation (p. 14)
• Analytically/conceptually speaking the two terms
  in the context of application and applied
  science are not completely identical, but
  partially overlapping (the OECD uses the terms
  basic research, applied research and experimental
  development)

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First Principle Knowledge Produced in the
Context of Application (4)

• Application supports further development of
  theories
• Conceptually, in Mode 2, the two terms
  discovery and application lie very closely
  together and also overlap (through application
  your scientific discoveries are being tested)
• Currently in Mode 1 conventional wisdom is
  that discovery must precede application. When
  knowledge is actually produced in the context of
  application, it is not applied science, because
  discovery and applications cannot be separated,
  the relevant science being produced in the very
  course of providing solutions to the problems
  defined in the context of application (p. 33-34)
• In this, the product and the process by which
  materials are made become integrated in the
  design process, implying a closer integration in
  the process of discovery with that of
  fabrication (p. 19)

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First Principle Knowledge Produced in the
Context of Application (5)

• A clear-cut distinction between science and
  technology becomes increasingly difficult (many
  overlapping conceptual characteristics)
• The importance of application for innovation
• Brokering roles of governments for the
  competitiveness of the innovation system
  (patterns of cooperation and competition
  between/among knowledge producers)

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First Principle Context of Application, Codified
/ Tacit Knowledge (6)

• Definition of codified knowledge
• Knowledge which needs not be exclusively
  theoretical but needs to be systematic enough to
  be written down and stored. As such, it is
  available to anyone who knows where to look (p.
  167)

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First Principle Context of Application, Codified
/ Tacit Knowledge (7)

• Definition of tacit knowledge
• Tacit knowledge, by contrast, is not available
  as a text and may conventionally be regarded as
  residing in the heads of those working on a
  particular transformation process, or to be
  embedded in a particular organizational context
  (p. 24)
• Knowledge not available as a text and which may
  conventionally be regarded as residing in the
  heads of those working in a particular
  transformation process, or to be embedded in a
  particular organizational context (p. 168)

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First Principle Context of Application, Codified
/ Tacit Knowledge (8)

• Functional characteristics of codified knowledge
  migratory and mobile
• Functional characteristic of tacit knowledge
  embedded (and less mobile)
• Hypothesis/question Is for technological
  knowledge the tacit component larger or more
  crucial?
• Firms/companies focus on commercial applications

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First Principle Context of Application, Codified
/ Tacit Knowledge (9)

• The knowledge base of companies/firms
• a firm employs individuals who are
  practitioniers from a number of communities, be
  they scientific, technological or managerial. The
  job of the management is to configure the
  competence of individuals into a distinct,
  firm-specific knowledge base which will form the
  core of its capability to compete in national and
  international markets (p. 25)
• Firm employees belong to wider communities
• Firms have codified and tacit knowledge
• The tacit knowledge component is highly important
  for the competitiveness of a firm.

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First Principle Context of Application,
Academic/Business Convergence (10)

• The importance of tacit knowledge brings academia
  and business culturally closer together
• Universities can adopt some values from business
• For example, universities can adopt values
  from the corporate culture of industry, bringing
  forth an entirely new type of academic
  entrepreneur (p. 37)

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First Principle Context of Application,
Academic/Business Convergence (11)

• And companies can take over some academic values
• Conversely, big firms adopt some of the norms of
  academic culture, for example when they give
  employees sabbaticals or provide other forms of
  training possibilities (p. 37).

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Second Principle Transdisciplinarity (1)

• Definition of transdisciplinarity
• Knowledge which emerges from a particular
  context of application with its own distinct
  theoretical structures, research methods and
  modes of practice but which may not be locatable
  on the prevailing disciplinary map (p. 168)
• In the process of transdisciplinary knowledge
  integration is not provided by disciplinary
  structures but is envisaged and provided from
  the outset in the context of usage, or
  application in the broad sense specifies earlier
  (p. 27).

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Second Principle Transdisciplinarity (2)

• Based on previous work of Erich Jantsch the
  following typologies with regard to disciplines
  can be developed Pluri/multidisciplinarity
  Interdisciplinarity Transdisciplinarity
• The focus of transdiscipinarity is on
  problem-solving and not on establishing a new
  or transdisciplinary discipline

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Second Principle Transdisciplinarity (3)

• Transdisciplinarity has four distinct features
• (1) evolving framework for problem-solving
• (2) a contribution to knowledge
• (3) access and diffusion of knowledge results
  demands participation in the process of their
  production
• (4) transdisciplinarity is dynamic
• It is problem solving capability on the move
  (p. 5)

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Second Principle Transdisciplinarity (4)

• Transdisciplinarity enables other, alternative
  career patterns.

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Third Principle Heterogeneity and Organizational
Diversity (1)

• There are three crucial features for
  heterogeneity and organizational diversity
• (1) increase of knowledge producing sites
• (2) linkage of sites through functioning
  networks of communication (p. 6)
• (3) recombination and reconfiguration of
  subfields at these different sites

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Third Principle Heterogeneity and Organizational
Diversity (2)

• The importance of networks for heterogeneity and
  organizational diversity
• The development of hybrid institutions and
  communities
• Hybrid foras and the definition of a hybrid
  forum
• The meeting point of a range of diverse actors,
  frequently in public controversies. Hybrid foras
  can act as new markets for knowledge and
  expertise (p. 167).

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Fourth Principle Social Accountability and
Reflexivity (1)

• A greater sensitivity for the impact of knowledge
  production on society
• An explicit reflection of the values of the
  individuals/groups who are involved in the
  knowledge production.

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Fifth Principle Quality Control (1)

• The peer review process as primary quality
  control in Mode 1
• A broader range of quality control in Mode 2
• Examples for quality control in Mode 2
• Will the solution, if found, be competitive in
  the market? (p. 8)
• Will it be cost effective (p. 8)
• Will it be socially acceptable? (p. 8)

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Fifth Principle Quality Control (2)

• The dependence of quality control on
  institutional space
• In Mode 1 In Mode 1, control is exercised by
  different types of knowledge producing
  institutions Such institutions include, for
  example, universities, national academies and the
  professional societies (pp. 32-33)
• In Mode 2 Because knowledge production in Mode
  2 occurs within transient contexts of application
  it is unlikely that the communities of
  practitioners who exercise quality control will
  be backed up by relatively stable institutions
  such as one finds in Mode 1. knowledge producers
  with many different institutional affiliations,
  either simultaneously or sequentially (p. 33)

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Fifth Principle Quality Control (3)

• Success definition in Mode 1 academic
  excellency
• Success in Mode 1 might perhaps be summarily
  described as excellence defined by disciplinary
  peers (p. 33)
• Success definition in Mode 2 efficiency or
  usefulness
• In Mode 2 success would have to include the
  additional criteria such as efficiency or
  usefulness, defined in terms of the contribution
  the work has made to the overall solution of
  transdisciplinary problems (p. 33).

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Other Characteristics of the Knowledge Production
of Mode 2 (1)

• The search for first principles (in Mode 1) is
  complemented in Mode 2 by a general interest in
  specific, ordered structures
• researchers do not concern themselves with the
  basic principles of the world but with specific
  ordered structures within it (p. 24)
• The recovery of interest in specific, ordered
  structures (pp. 43-44)

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Other Characteristics of the Knowledge Production
of Mode 2 (2)

• The importance of design for knowledge
  designing as one form of knowledge production
  (Can the artificial be separated from the real
  world?) referring to the earlier linkages of
  discovery, application and fabrication
• Knowledge through design Instead of purifying
  natural substances or resorting to complex
  reactions to obtain those with the desired
  properties, the required materials can now be
  built up atom by atom, or molecule by molecule,
  by design (pp. 44-45)

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Other Characteristics of the Knowledge Production
of Mode 2 (3)

• Complementing (partially replacing) experiments
  by simulation
• The experimental process with its underlying
  trial and error approach in the empirical world,
  is increasingly complemented, if not in part
  replaced, by new computational methods of
  simulation and dynamic imaging (p. 45).

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Other Characteristics of the Knowledge Production
of Mode 2 Three-Tiered System of Communication
(4)

• (1) Communication between Science and Society
• (a) Traditional way of communication
• Traditionally, communication between science and
  society was essentially one-way scientists were
  the holders of privileged expert knowledge, while
  the lay public was to be enlightened and
  educated (p. 36)
• (b) New societal demands on science
• Enhanced social accountability, particularly
  evident in the last few decades, arose as a
  better educated citizenry placed new demands on
  science (p. 36)

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Other Characteristics of the Knowledge Production
of Mode 2 Three-Tiered System of Communication
(5)

• (c) Current two-way communication
• Thus, communication between research and society
  increasingly takes the form of diffusion
  processes that carry scientific and technological
  knowledge into society while norms and
  expectations held by different institutions and
  communities are brought home more forcefully to
  the research communities (p. 38)

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Other Characteristics of the Knowledge Production
of Mode 2 Three-Tiered System of Communication
(6)

• (2) Communication among Scientific Practitioners
• Communication among scientists is influenced by
  two factors one is their mobility, while the
  second relates to how they set priorities and
  select problems (p. 38)

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Other Characteristics of the Knowledge Production
of Mode 2 Three-Tiered System of Communication
(7)

• (3) Communication with the Entities of the
  Physical and Social World
• The more sophisticated and complex society
  becomes, the more dense will be the content and
  form of dialogue with nature (p. 42).