@article {RePEc:ieu:journl:v:2:y:2006:i:2:p:9-19,
	title = {{The sociological perspective on the knowledge-based society: assumptions, facts and visions}},
	journal = {Enterprise and Work Innovation Studies},
	volume = {2},
	number = {2},
	year = {2006},
	note = {n/a},
	month = {November},
	pages = {9-19},
	abstract = {<p>The paper will present the central discourse of the knowledge-based society. Already in the 1960s the debate of the industrial society already raised the question whether there can be considered a paradigm shift towards a knowledge-based society. Some prominent authors already foreseen {\textquoteleft}knowledge{\textquoteright} as the main indicator in order to displace {\textquoteleft}labour{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}capital{\textquoteright} as the main driving forces of the capitalistic development. Today on the political level and also in many scientific disciplines the assumption that we are already living in a knowledge-based society seems obvious. Although we still do not have a theory of the knowledge-based society and there still exist a methodological gap about the empirical indicators, the vision of a knowledge-based society determines at least the perception of the Western societies. In a first step the author will pinpoint the assumptions about the knowledge-based society on three levels: on the societal, on the organisational and on the individual level. These assumptions are relied on the following topics: a) The role of the information and communication technologies; b) The dynamic development of globalisation as an {\textquoteleft}evolutionary{\textquoteright} process; c) The increasing importance of knowledge management within organisations; d) The changing role of the state within the economic processes. Not only the differentiation between the levels but also the revision of the assumptions of a knowledge-based society will show that the {\textquoteleft}topics raised in the debates{\textquoteright} cannot be considered as the results of a profound societal paradigm shift. However what seems very impressive is the normative and virtual shift towards a concept of modernity, which strongly focuses on the role of technology as a driving force as well as on the global economic markets, which has to be accepted. Therefore {\textendash} according to the official debate - the successful adaptation of these processes seems the only way to meet the knowledge-based society. Analysing the societal changes on the</p>
},
	keywords = {ICT, knowledge management, knowledge-based society, technology},
	url = {http://ideas.repec.org/a/ieu/journl/v2y2006i2p9-19.html},
	author = {Bettina-Johanna Krings}
}
