Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

the values of democratic politicalreform in varied ways, and these effortshave recently borne fruit in the formof calls for agreement on peacefuldemocratic transformation. None ofthis, however, excludes the possibilityof disingenuousness, meaning that thediscussion is carried on with two sets oflogic and two languages, the disingenuouslanguage helping in turn to build othertypes of deception. This issue has becomemore acute with the entrance of certainpolitical forces that appropriate religiousslogans for the service of politics.In addition, approaches that jump tounjustified conclusions about Arab societydo not fully comprehend that democracyin the West took shape over a long periodof historical experience and, in fact, is stillreshaping itself to address the challengesposed by the knowledge society. Thismeans that in order to continue to defendpolitical reform, more efforts must bemade to achieve a free society, since it isthe cornerstone of the knowledge society(Markaz Disarat al-Wihda al-’Arabiyya,2000, in Arabic).Some may have reservations aboutthe relationship between knowledge andfreedom, since this link is not alwaysrequired. In many countries that havereached the threshold of the knowledgesociety, we find signs of a lack of freedom.However, for the Arab region freedom isan inescapable condition if many of theshackles that prevent the blossoming ofinnovation are to be removed and theway prepared for the knowledge society(Ruqayya al-Musaddaq, 1990, in Arabic).Expanding the ambit of freedomwill help Arab societies to indigenise themechanisms and values of the knowledgesociety. In the wake of the failure, especiallyin Egypt, of the late nineteenth- and earlytwentieth-century renaissance project, andthat of the second generation reformistvocabulary that took shape after the 1967defeat, the political reform movement inthe Arab region has been constructingfor two decades past a third generationreformist vocabulary. As of the end ofthe last century, the Arab political elite hasbeen moving towards the promulgationof a new vocabulary, through which theyhope to build an agreed-upon democratictransformation that will transcend thedefeats and shortcomings so prevalent inmany areas of Arab political life.If some global paradigms indicatelack of an organic, causative link betweenpolitical reform and establishment of theknowledge society, this does not mean thatpolitical reform is not necessary. In fact,it serves as a catalyst for the processes ofinnovation and allows them to appropriatefor themselves new values and advances.Indeed, we might even go so far as to saythat freedom is the other face of knowledge(see Chapter 2).The UNESCO Report TowardsKnowledge Societies stressed the importanceof revitalizing the democratic public spacesin knowledge societies. It revealed that, inthe view of the report writers, the dilemmaof democratic reform is a universal one,since reform of the democratic politicalsystem is a challenge to all–a challengethat includes that of how to ingrain theirexperiences in democracy (UNESCO,2005, in French).In this context, the report underscoredthe importance of technological democracy,pointing out that the benefits ofinformation technologies must be made useof in political practice. This position raisessignificant doubt about the compatibilityof democratic government with postmodernistsocieties, some scholarsbelieving that the age of democracy inEurope has only a short life ahead of it.They base this position on the internaland external contradictions of the socalleddemocratic countries, in addition tothe decline of traditional moral authorityand the restrictions placed on freedomswithin these societies after the events ofSeptember, 2001 (Saint Mary, 1999, inFrench).The preceding comments pertain to thedeveloped world. In the Arab world, theproblem primarily concerns the need tocontinue to expand the package of freedomIn order to continueto defend politicalreform, moreefforts must bemade to achievea free society,since it is thecornerstone of theknowledge societyThe Arab politicalelite has beenmoving towardsthe promulgationof an agreedupondemocratictransformationthat will transcendthe defeats andshortcomings ofArabic political lifeFreedom is theother face ofknowledgeTHE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: CONCEPTS AND PROBLEMATICS OF THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY43