Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

pay too little attention to the qualitativedimension. Education indicators, forexample, concentrate on the number ofstudents enrolled and not on other, moreknowledge-relevant aspects, such as thequality of education available frominstructors, what qualifications thelatter hold, and the presence or absenceof buildings, science labs, and so on(Mohammed Bakir, background paper forthe Report, in Arabic).The paradigms that give rise to theseindicators, with their operational character,claims to objectivity, and technologicaldeterminism, could be useful in thesocieties in which they were constructed.These paradigms may acquire a limitedefficacy outside their historical context.However, they must be modified andaugmented so that they become suitablefor a new unit of analysis related to anew reality, such as that of the Arabs.This gives the methodology a universalcharacter, since testing it in variedresearch areas would provide an occasionto reconstruct or create alternatives thatmeet new requirements. Reports issuedby international organisations havenot been able to rid themselves of thispositivist mindset, and the indicatorsand concepts devised within thesereports are not merely vessels to storeeverything and nothing. Similarly, the factthat we can measure the knowledge gapquantitatively does not exempt us from amore profound diagnosis of knowledgeperformance in the Arab world, since theprevalence there of systems of referencethat have no connection to what happensin the world around them compounds theknowledge gap. This is what makes thechallenges of closing the knowledge gapin the Arab world complex and multiple.We do indeed most urgently need to closethe existing knowledge gap. However, wealso need to shake up what is stagnantin our knowledge and rock the pillars ofour unquestioned convictions and ourpreconceived notions in such a way asto help us to go beyond our text-bound,traditional epistemologies. When thishappens, the broadening of the orbit ofthe study of knowledge, especially froma critical perspective, may become one ofthe means of expanding our options inlife and establishing a knowledge societyfulfilling our aspirations for our societies.THE POLITICALMODERNISATION MINDSET:EVOKING HUMAN RIGHTSThe second major system of referenceguiding the construction of knowledgesociety reports, emerging at the end ofthe last century and the beginning of thethird millennium rests on the premisesof a liberal and neo-liberal politicalmodernisation.This becomes clear when we studythe principles of the World Summits onthe Information Society (Geneva 2003,Tunis 2005), especially in their strong linkwith the “human rights” vocabulary asestablished in the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights of 1948 and the Covenantson Economic, Social and Cultural Rightsof 1966 and 1976. The 2005 UNESCOReport Towards Knowledge Societies springsfrom the same perspective as portrayedby its appeal for adherence to the principleof “the right to knowledge” and itsdefence of the principles of tolerance andsolidarity.Some human rights issues are framedin the context of a defence of thevalues of transparency and democraticreform as a pre-condition of the enablingenvironment that fosters knowledge. Inthis way, the right to knowledge, accessto information, and difference of opinionare transformed into unquestionedrequirements for the establishment of theknowledge society and the improvementof knowledge performance (UNESCO,2005, in French).Declarations of principles defendingthe rights to development, knowledge,and access to information have, however,nothing to do with what actually happenson the ground. They are no more thandeclarations of intent and hope cast inWe need toshake up what isstagnant in ourknowledge androck the pillars ofour unquestionedconvictions andpreconceivednotionsAccess toinformation,and differenceof opinion areunquestionedrequirements forthe establishmentof the knowledgesocietyTHE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: CONCEPTS AND PROBLEMATICS OF THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY39