[Air-l] SECOND ONLINE CONGRESS: Towards what knowledge society?

Fernando Garrido - Observatorio de la Cibersociedad fgarrido at cibersociedad.net
Wed May 26 03:35:44 PDT 2004


The Observatory for the CiberSociety calls for participation in the SECOND 
ONLINE CONGRESS. From an open and committed multidisciplinary perspective 
the Congress will focus on the concept of CiberSociety as its object of 
study. The Congress invites participants to reflect on the following 
question: Towards what knowledge society? The Congress will take place in 
cyberspace on November 2-14, 2004.


You can get al the information from the web: 
http://www.cibersociedad.net/congres2004
Observatory for the CiberSociety: www.cibersociedad.net
Contact: <mailto:congres at cibersociedad.net>congres at cibersociedad.net



Date: 2-14/XI/2004
Place: ONLINE
Call for groups: 11.06.2004: Deadline for the candidate's proposal 
acceptance of work groups.
Call for papers: Start at 21.06.2004


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EDITORIAL LINE

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Towards what knowledge society?


content areas


One of the consequences the popularisation of information and communication 
technologies brought with it is the creation, during the last decade, of 
many neologisms and new expressions, which penetrated the language of 
academia, politics and society. The often announced new social reality has 
come to, in many different ways, refer to itself, multiplying the sensation 
of change possibly even beyond change as such.


Probably one of the most ambitious and utopian notions, which we have come 
across in recent years, is the concept of Knowledge Society. The discourse 
behind this concept, more wish-full thinking than analytical or real, 
presupposes that the new (?) highly technified society will result in a new 
way of production and evolved social life. In accordance with that type of 
discourse, once we left behind the industrial society with the smoky 
factories and the post-industrial society of consume and mass media, we 
will dawn into a new era based on the synergetic exchange of knowledge.


Leaving behind the more or less utopian proposition of that idea, it is 
true that we are dealing with an open concept, which can be discussed and 
changed on which we want to base our central and transversal debate of this 
congress.


The Congress's first objective is to question and analyse under critical 
perspectives that discourse. Discover its genesis, its development and 
implications for the different spheres of our social reality, that is, in 
politics, in economics and in our society. ¿Does the notion of Knowledge 
Society respond to an analysis of our social reality, is it a political 
tool or just another empty concept in the hands of the establishment?


The implications for the political sphere start, in the first place, with 
the public policies to be developed amongst which we have to highlight the 
application and introduction of TIC in Education or in the Public 
Administration, regulation of the new socio-technical space, the fight 
against the digital divide or the promotion of new productive activities 
based on this sector, amongst many others. A new space for political 
participation is opened up with the introduction of new technologies in 
this sphere with concepts like digital or electronic democracy. 
Nevertheless, considerations about a citizen's more active and 
participatory role have to be contrasted with the more and more efficient 
social control mechanisms and threats to our intimacy, which, maybe lead us 
towards a digital panopticum.

Local, regional, state and international institutions are called not only 
to act in these areas, but also to think about their discourses and 
policies. We hope that this forum makes it happen.


The appearance of a new paradigm- or the breaking up of the old one- is 
determining today's economy. The economic globalisation processes and 
internationalisation of finances, the industrial outsourcing, new 
productive methods or new organisational business models, as well as the 
appearance of new tools for knowledge management are just a few of the 
characteristics of this new so-called knowledge economy.

However, is there really anything substantially new in these tendencies? Up 
to what point is it little more than a restrengthening of the old 
capitalism, brought now to a macro-corporation, planetary scale and 
(finally) freed of any state and union control mechanism under which they 
evolved? Is it possible or desirable to regain that control? But how? What 
role would in these processes the technologies of information and 
communication play?

There is a need and urgency to analyse exhaustively what there is behind 
these innovations, concepts and ideas.


Thirdly, the social aspect of recent events, for example, phenomena of 
spontaneous/instantaneous organisation of the so called civilians in the 
context of 11-S or of 11-M make it an up-to-date topic of social apportion 
of the new technologies. Situations like these serve as examples for all 
those that hope/d and predict/ed that we are/were not facing a mere (other) 
technological revolution but facing a revolution of the social technologies.

The spectacularity and notoriousness of these social manifestations only 
confirm and spell out what was the footprint of the social sciences in the 
nineties, when new processes of social framing, creation and negotiation of 
individual and collective identities, establishing new processes and 
parameters in our social relations mediated by digital technologies, etc.

And even in spite of these new notoriousness, the debate is kept open about 
up to what point are these social dynamics new or not, if they were or not 
more or less latent in our own society in which we live, whether there are 
or not enough symptoms to diagnose that we are at the dawn, not only of an 
economic production mode or a new model of dealing with 
politics/administration, but also facing a new social model. The so-called 
(new) knowledge society, is it really a new society? Maybe a new ideology? 
Or just a new catchword?


This chain of questions should be the leitmotif of this II Online Congress 
of the Observatory for the CiberSociety. A succession of open questions and 
of uncertain answers, which the more we ask them and looked at from a 
critical constructive and independent few point less will they fall victim 
under the inertia. The debate about the Knowledge Society is the excuse and 
the axis from where to start (or come back to) to think and discuss about 
the model of our society
 Technified, digitalized, globalised and more 
unequal than ever
 The blurred question mark with which we identify this 
call wants to become a provocation to reflection.


The CiberSociety Observatory thus invites you to debate this topic from a 
perspective which is multidisciplinary, critical and open, specialised or 
horizontal, in a format which proofed its fertility at the first edition of 
the congress towards the end of summer 2002. In this occasion our objective 
is to promote reflections by all social sectors, about the issue of towards 
what model of technological society do we want, or are we or do we want to 
advance.




Document prepared by the Scientific Committee of the 2nd Online Congress of 
the Observatory for the CyberSociety, April of 2004

Fernando Garrido
Coordinador Ejecutivo
II Congreso Online del Observatorio para la CiberSociedad
www.cibersociedad.net/congreso2004






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