[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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