Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Knowledge Society

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Innovation, Employment and Growth Policy Issues in the EU and the US

  • 566 Accesses

It is useful to give a short overview about the Knowledge Society as a subject of current political considerations. In any case it is a favorite theme of political authorities, in Europe and all over the world, apart from USA. The general idea is that scientific knowledge helps the economy grow, depending on the amounts to be spent for research and development. Those ideas are not completely wrong, but a little too naïve. It has been often said that the economics discipline has as a duty to deliver useable analytical instruments for reasonable political measures. But this new field of political action has not yet found the full interest of the economics discipline. Other social sciences have taken the challenge.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Here Schumpeter refers to the psychological ability of a socialist society to “fulfill important functions in the process of creative destruction”.

  2. 2.

    There is also another economic interpretation of status. The game theory speaks of status games when goods are demanded for demonstrative purposes. (s. Reisch, 2003).

  3. 3.

    Walstad, 2002 represents this thesis, see Albert, 2004, 129.

References

  • Albert, M. (2004). Methodologie und die Verfassung der Wissenschaft – Eine institutionalistische Perspektive, In M. Held, G. Kubon-Gilke, & R. Sturn (Hrsg.), Normative und institutionelle Grundlagen der Ökonomik, Jahrbuch 3: Ökonomik des Wissens, (pp. 127–150). Marburg 2004: Metropolis Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Babbage, C. (1993). On the economy of machinery and manufactures. London 1835: Charles Knight, as reprint published London 1993: Charles Knight.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beerli, A., Falk, S., & Diemers, D. (2003). Knowledge management and networked environments: Leveraging inntellectual capital in virtual business communities. New York a.os. 2003: Accenture LLP.

    Google Scholar 

  • BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt & CESifo Group Munich, (2005, June 9–10). 4th Munich economic summit. Europe and the Lisbon goals: Are we Halfway there?, Munich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brödner, P., Helmstädter, E.,& Widmaier, B., (Hrsg.). (1999). Wissensteilung. Zur Dynamik von Innovation und kollektivem Lernen, Arbeit und Technik, Schriftenreihe des Instituts Arbeit und Technik, Bd. 13, München und Mering 1999: Rainer Hampp Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung. (2002). Chance für Deutschland und Europa. Das 6. Forschungsrahmenprogramm, Bonn 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deutscher Bundestag. (2002). Globalisierung der Weltwirtschaft – Herausforderungen und Antworten, 14. Wahlperiode, Abschlussbericht der Enquete-Kommission, 24. Juni 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • European Commission, Information Society Technologies. 2003–2004 Workprogramme, http://www.cordis.lu/ist.

  • European Commission, Towards a European research area. Science, technology and innovation. Key figures 2003–2004, Brussels 2003 (http://www.cordis.lu/indicators).

  • Foray, D. (2004). The Economics of Knowledge. Cambridge Mass. London: The MIT Press (original French edition: L’économie de la connaissance, 2000).

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraunhofer-Institut für Systemtechnik und Innovationsforschung. (2004, August). Innovations- und Zukunftspotenziale Nordrhein-Westfalens. Struktur und Dynamik vonWirtschaft, Wissenschaft und Bildung, Karlsruhe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. (2004). Deutschland in der globalen Wissensgesellschaft. Auswirkungen und Anforderungen, Berlin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayek, F.A. von (1968). Der Wettbewerb als Entdeckungsverfahren, Kieler Vorträge Neue Folge 56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayek, F.A. (1945). The use of Knowledge in Society, The American Economic Review, Vol. XXXV, Nr. 4, September, 519–530.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helmstädter, E. (2001). Wissenteilung, Thünen-Vorlesung bei der Jahrestagung des Vereins für Socialpolitik Berlin 2000, in: Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Bd. 2 Heft 4, 445–465.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helmstädter, E. (Ed.). (2003). The Economics of Knowledge Sharing: A New Institutional Approach. Cheltenham, UK, Northampton, USA: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helmstädter, E. (2004). Wirtschaft und Wissen. Die Institutionen der Wissensteilung als Aufgabe der Ordnungspolitik, in: ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Bd. 55, 37–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helmstädter, E., (2007). The Role of Knowledge in the Schumpeterian Economy, In Hanusch, H. and Pyka, A. (eds.), Elgar Companion to Neo-Schumpeterian Economics, Cheltenham, UK. Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar, 296–315.

    Google Scholar 

  • High Level Group on the Lisbon Strategy. (2004). Facing the challenge. The Lisbon strategy for growth and employment, November 2004. http://europa.eu.int/comm/lisbon_strategy/index_en.html

  • Hull, D.L. (1988) Science as a Process. An Evolutionary Account of the Social and Conceptual Development of Science, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, Paperback edition 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kindleberger, C. P. (1955). Technological diffusion: European experience to 1850. Evolutionary Economics, 5(3), 229–242.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loasby, B. (2003). The cognitive basis of institutions: an evolutionary perspective. In E. Helmstädter (Ed.), The economics of knowledge sharing: A new institutional approach (pp. 100–118). Cheltenham, UK, Northampton, USA: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Metcalfe, J. S., & Ramlogan, R. (2005). Limits to the economy of knowledge and the knowledge of the economy. Futures, 37, 655–674.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, R. R. (2002). Bringing institutions into evolutionary growth economics. Evolutionary Economics, 12(1–2), 17–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reisch, L. A. (2003). Statusspiele – Soziale Vergleichsprozesse und wirtschaftliches Verhalten. In: M. Held, G. Kubon-Gilke, & R. Sturn (Hrsg.), Normative und institutionelle Grundfragen der Äkonomik, Jahrbuch 2, Experimente in der Ökonomik (pp. 217–240). Marburg: Metropolis Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schumpeter, J. A (1912). Die Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, Leipzig: Dunker & Humblot Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Storch, H. Von (1819). Handbuch der Nationalwirtschaftslehre, aus dem Französichen, mit Zusätzen von Karl Heinrich Rau, 3 Bde., Hamburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Technology Commercialization Group, Wettbewerbsfähigkeit im Forschungsbereich. Vergleichende Pilotstudie Deutschland – USA

    Google Scholar 

  • UNESCO (2000). Science for the Twenty-first Century. A New Commitment Paris 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vereeck, L. (2001), Das deutsche Wissenschaftswunder: Eine ökonomische Analyse des Systems Althoff (1882–1907), Berlin: Duncker & Humblot.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Walstad, A. (2002). Science as a Market Process, The Independent Review, 7(1): 5–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willaim, O.E. (1996). The Mechanisms of Governance, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Arbeit und Technik (IAT), Gelsenkirchen, Germany

    Ernst Helmstädter

Authors
  1. Ernst Helmstädter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Europäisches Institut für Internationale, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Rainer-Gruenter-Straße 21, Wuppertal, 42119, Germany

    Paul J.J. Welfens

  2. Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, College Street 1705, Columbia, 29208, U.S.A.

    John T. Addison

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Helmstädter, E. (2009). The Knowledge Society. In: Welfens, P., Addison, J. (eds) Innovation, Employment and Growth Policy Issues in the EU and the US. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00631-9_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00631-9_11

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-00630-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-00631-9

  • eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation