Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

Technology, theeconomy, andsociety, constituteelementsfundamental tothe understandingof the knowledgesocietyTechnology hasits limits, butthere are no limitsto innovationone of those moments of maturation thataccompany any process of birth, or oftransition from one area of knowledge toanother. Caution is therefore called forwhen we use these concepts if productivedialogue about their meaning is to beachieved. At the same time, the diversityof synonyms reveals the existence of threemajor areas—technology, economy, andsociety—that intersect at the heart of theconcept. Thus, we find ourselves facingknowledge technology, a knowledgebasedeconomy, and a knowledge society(Wolton, 1997, in French). There is nodisputing the importance of informationtechnology to the knowledge society, justas no one downplays the importance ofthe role it plays in the formation of theconcept itself. Similarly, there is agreementon the transformations that knowledgetechnologies perform on new economiesand societies. This can only imply thattechnology, the economy, and society,in their contemporary manifestations,constitute elements fundamental to theunderstanding of the knowledge society.The new age, with all its visions andhopes of expanding the limits of humanoptions, is being established within theradius of these poles. In this context, wecannot overlook, either, the concept’sUtopian significance, for to speak of aknowledge society is, fundamentally, tospeak of an open-ended historical visionin the process of formation (Breton, 1997,in French; Nur al-Din Afayah, backgroundpaper for the Report, in Arabic). The term“knowledge” in “knowledge society” alsorefers to the outcome of the combinationof information, expertise, and capacityto govern, an outcome which makes theconstruction of knowledge possible andopens new horizons in terms of greaterhuman control over nature throughpossession of resources and systemsin spheres of work, knowledge andproduction. At the same time, it mustbe said that the societies whose majorfeatures most closely approach thoseof the knowledge society operate at theforefront of the information technologyindustry, and develop educational systemswhose universities and research centresfoster innovations and inventions.Such societies also provide an enablingatmosphere, institutions, laws, and a firmbase of individual and political freedomthat stimulate the production and use ofknowledge.The transformations seen by humansocieties at the end of the last centuryas a result of changes in the content andmechanisms of the knowledge society andof the information technology revolutionhave necessitated the reorganisation ofsociety and the economy. The result hasbeen disruption in numerous areas of life.The epistemological paradigms and appliedmechanisms that once prevailed withinsociety have ceased to be appropriate forthe structural changes this revolution hasunleashed. The terms “economy,” “society,”“culture,” “education,” and “media” are nolonger understood according to the logicof the nineteenth or the first half of thetwentieth century. Rather, they call for a newapproach using innovative mechanismsdesigned to meet the requirements of anew age. Within this vision, new economieshave formed, as have new means ofcommunications and new principles ofwork, perception, and interaction. It is nolonger adequate to do the right thing; onealso has to do it in the right way.Technology has become one of themanifestations of our existence, andour age has indeed become “the ageof technology.” Constantly and rapidlyevolving information channels dominateand have become electronic marketsproducing and distributing an infinitearray of goods and services. Globalisation,with its new economic order, has helpedtransform man into a consumer. Thiscomposite effect, represented by theinformation and knowledge-basedeconomies made possible by technology,has had its substantial impacts on humancognition and behavior.As we have shown, in the knowledgesociety, technology, economy, and societyintersect and interact, nurtured by an32 ARAB KNOWLEDGE REPORT 2009