Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

egion, greatest among them that thebridging of this gap hinges on a sharingof power. The appeals for solidarity,cooperation, and joint action in theconclusions and data of these reports maybe nothing more than a mask to obscurethe real face of power, which in fact createsand widens the knowledge gap (CentreEurope-Tiers Monde, 2007, in French).Reading Chapter 10 of UNESCO’s 2005report on “The Renewal of DemocraticPractices in Knowledge Societies,” andChapter 9, which calls for “LinguisticPluralism, Strengthening CulturalDiversity, and Sharing Knowledge,” wesee the distances that are opening upbetween report discourses and the realityof the situation in countries of the South,including the Arab countries. At thesame time, the thickness of the walls thatseparate knowledge from the externalmechanisms that create the knowledge gapand the meagreness of the Arab knowledgeperformance become apparent.This does not mean that we are callingfor an adoption of the values of others,or arguing that we should becomedependent on and compliant with thewishes of power. It does not meanwhat Ibn Khaldun called “imitating theconqueror.” What we mean first andforemost is the incorporation within ourown thinking of the knowledge that isavailable today to all mankind (‘AbdallahAl-‘Urawi, 1996, in Arabic), or, in otherwords, the values of knowledge andscholarship and the fundamentals ofpolicy, economics, and management. Inthis last sphere, specifically, we believe thatopenness to the world is an expressionof the desire to achieve reconciliationwith our historical identity and the worldand to attain the human development towhich we aspire.The battle over political modernisationcontinues under various guises, just asthe values of enlightenment and reasonare still embraced to varying degreesin the majority of Arab countries, as away to build a political discourse morefaithful to the values of reason, justice,and balance (Kamal ‘Abd al-Latif, 1997, inArabic). These are the shared values whosegeneral principles all of humanity triesto reconstruct, in a spirit of agreementover the importance of interdependence,consensus, and mutual assistance ininternational relations. At the same time,the necessity of benefiting from the newrealities to allow the emergence of theknowledge society cannot be overlooked.Using the tools that brought about theknowledge revolution, declarations ofprinciples and intentions can be convertedinto deeds and action, not simply in orderto bring about political modernisationin Arab society, but to achieve a formof political modernisation that isreinforced with solidarity and cooperationworldwide.PROBLEMATIC ISSUES OFTHE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETYAs a reality still in process of formation, theknowledge society, with all its componentsand programmes, raises many theoreticalissues and practical questions, requiring thatvisions be formed and positions taken. Ifthe ICT revolution that helped prepare forthe birth of new economies and drew theborders of knowledge in a new society isdescribed by most as “the soft revolution,”the softness was merely the superficialoutward form of actions intended to carveout new directions in a rapidly globalisingworld. Faced by the “softness” of thesymbols used to penetrate the worlds of theimage, of information, and of the market,to manage them in new ways, and to laythe foundation for a new society, we mustpay attention to the problematic issuesthat have arisen and will continue to arise.We must look at the issues consequent onthis revolution, particularly given that theirresults affect us all in our concern to enterthe knowledge society and experience itsadvances and achievements.We should not delay dealing withproblematic issues raised by the knowledgesociety, whether local or global, on thepretext that most Arab countries have notWe are affectedby everything thathappens in theworld since we arean active party—even though, asArabs, we may bemerely second orthird level actorsWe should notdelay dealingwith problematicissues raised by theknowledge society,whether local orglobal, on thepretext that mostArab countrieshave not yet joinedthis societyTHE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: CONCEPTS AND PROBLEMATICS OF THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY41