Nico Stehr Pioneer In The Theory Of Society And Knowledge

This unique volume brings together a selection of the most important texts of Nico Stehr for the first time and puts them in dialogue with original research that draws on his prolific work. Covering five decades of pioneering sociological research on the theory of society and knowledge, the book introduces the reader to Stehr’s seminal inquiries into the economic, political and social role of knowledge. Original concepts, such as his groundbreaking studies on the Knowledge Society, are introduced as the volume traces Stehr’s pursuit of social scientific research as a source of practical knowledge for modern society. The book comprises three parts devoted to the many facets and the remarkable range of Nico Stehr’s oeuvre. Part 1 provides an introduction to the significance of his pioneering work and career. Part 2 demonstrates the practical application of Nico Stehr’s research as seen through the eyes of eminent scholars. Part 3 presents a selection of the milestones of his publications.

Organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of sustainability and responsibility. They are challenged to develop a holistic approach to value creation that reconciles economic, social, and environmental goals. This book describes how knowledge can facilitate this process and amplifies the idea of knowledge management to strategically serve multiple stakeholders in a sustainable and responsible way. In particular, the book introduces the concept of the "Need Knowledge-Driven Organization." It builds on mature research on organizational purpose, stakeholder theory, and phronesis, and advances the concept of "needs." This provides a new lens for understanding the sustainable and responsible business case: First, people are motivated by their needs, and organizations represent social structures that facilitate the satisfaction of shared needs. Second, needs reflect and combine social, environmental, and economic concerns, making sustainability and responsibility more realizable for practitioners. And third, needs provide a reference point for holistic value creation and can thus align knowledge processes and structures in organizations.

Karl Mannheim’s Ideology and Utopia has been a profoundly provocative book. The debate about politics and social knowledge that was spawned by its original publication in 1929 attracted the most promising younger scholars, some of whom shaped the thought of several generations. The book became a focus for a debate on the methodological and epistemological problems confronting German social science. More than thirty major papers were published in response to Mannheim’s text. Writers such as Hannah Arendt, Ernst Robert Curtius, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Helmuth Plessner, Hans Speier and Paul Tillich were among the contributors. Their positions varied from seeing in the sociology of knowledge a sophisticated reformulation of the materialist conception of history to linking its popularity to a betrayal of Marxism. The English publication in 1936 defined formative issues for two generations of sociological self-reflection. Knowledge and Politics provides an introduction to the dispute and reproduces the leading contributions. It sheds new light on one of the greatest controversies that have marked German social science in the past hundred years.

With human-induced environmental impacts disrupting human life in deeper ways and at a wider scale than anything previously experienced, this multidisciplinary book looks at the ways that current knowledge bases seem inadequate to help us deal with such realities. It offers a critical appraisal of the current knowledge infrastructure, including science, technology, innovation, education and informal knowledge systems.

The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology is a go-to resource for cutting-edge research in the field. This two-volume work covers the rich theoretic foundations of the sub-discipline, as well as novel approaches and emerging areas of research that add vitality and momentum to the discipline. Over the course of sixty chapters, the authors featured in this work reach new levels of theoretical depth, incorporating a global scope and diversity of cases. This book explores the broad scope of crucial disciplinary ideas and areas of research, extending its investigation to the trajectories of thought that led to their unfolding. This unique work serves as an invaluable tool for all those working in the nexus of environment and society.

Outlining an integrative theory of knowledge, Francisco Javier Carrillo explores how to understand the underlying behavioural basis of the knowledge economy and society. Chapters highlight the notion that unless a knowledge-based value creation and distribution paradigm is globally adopted, the possibilities for integration between a sustainable biosphere and a viable economy are small.

Science and technology have long been considered key for development, problem solving and education in low-income countries, and Sweden has been at the forefront of efforts in this area, as one of the first countries to formalize research aid. This book analyses how the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries (Sarec) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) have worked to promote science in low-income countries. In doing so, the book tackles challenging questions around whose knowledges and capacities count, who sets the research agenda, how knowledge resources are distributed, and how complex donor–recipient relationships serve both to address and inflate these issues. Through a discursive analysis of policy material and interviews with former directors at Sarec and Sida as well as other key persons, the book traces how perceptions of the relationship between research and development have shifted over the last five decades. Pointing to why long-term collaboration is necessary in order to contribute significantly to capacity building, as well as highlighting more general tensions relating to the production of knowledge, Sweden’s Research Aid Policy: The Role of Science in Development will be a valuable resource for advanced students and researchers of foreign aid, development cooperation and the history of science and technology.

This comprehensive and innovative Research Handbook tackles the pressing issues confronting us at the dawn of the global network society, including freedom of speech, government transparency and the digital divide. Engaging with controversial problems of public policy including freedom of expression, copyright and information inequality, the Research Handbook on Information Policy offers a well-rounded exploration of the history and future of this vital field.

Springer is proud to announce that 'Universities in the Knowledge Society' has received the ASHE-CIHE award for Significant Research on International Higher Education. Congratulations to Timo Aarrevaara, Martin Finkelstein, Glen A. Jones, Jisun Jung and all contributors! This book explores the complex, multi-faceted relationships between national research and innovation systems and higher education. The transition towards knowledge societies/economies is repositioning the role of the university and transforming the academic profession. The volume provides a foundational introduction to the concepts of knowledge society and knowledge economy, and these concepts ground the detailed case studies of eighteen systems, located across five continents. Each case study was written by a leading expert in that jurisdiction, and provides a critical analysis of the research and development infrastructure, the role of universities, and the implications for the academic profession. The book describes how nations in various geographic regions and at various stages of economic maturity are restructuring their university systems to adapt to the new imperatives, and provides a cross-case analysis identifying common themes and distinctive features. In telling the story of higher education’s on-going global metamorphosis, the contributing authors place current developments in the context of the university’s historic evolution, survey the changing metrics that national governments are adopting to measure university performance, and describe a new international project, the Academic Profession in the Knowledge-based Society [APiKS] that involved a common survey of academics in more than twenty countries to take the pulse of developments “on the ground” while documenting the challenges confronting knowledge workers in the new economy.

This book explores the future of doctoral research and what it means to be involved in all stages of the process, providing international insights into what’s changing, why it’s changing and how to work best with these changes. It looks at the key issues that have been thrown into sharp relief by crises such as world pandemics. Drawing on work from outstanding authors, this book shows the ways in which the doctoral process has altered the supervisor/supervisee model and the challenges that now need to be managed, and demonstrates the importance of aligning all the stakeholders, systems and processes to ensure a successful future for doctoral education. Bringing together a range of perspectives, innovative practices and rigorous research, this book tackles topics such as: how doctoral research changes in keeping with the global expansion and transformation of doctoral education programmes the significant influence funding bodies – be they charities, governments, businesses or non-governmental agencies – can have on doctoral research the extent to which doctoral research penetrates daily life and vice versa how to encourage and embed an ethical approach to research, as well as university responses to external challenges. Uniquely international and bringing together the many stakeholders in the research business, this book is essential reading for all doctoral supervisors, candidates and anyone involved in designing or organising research programmes for early career researchers and doctoral students. Chapter 9 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.