The Changing Nature and Forms of Knowledge:

A Review

98/16

Professor Ron Johnston

Executive Director
Australian Centre for Innocation and International Competitiveness (ACIIC)

Faculty of Engineering
The University of Sydney

September 1998

Evaluations and Investigations Program Higher Education Division Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs

©Commonwealth of Australia 1998
ISBN 0 642 23806 5

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This report is funded under the Evaluation and Investigations Programme of the Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs.

The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs.

Introduction

The nature of knowledge, the extent and justification of its truth content, and rules for its orderly production have been the subject of epistemological inquiry since the time of Plato. This was given a fresh impetus in the first half of the twentieth century by the need to explain the extraordinary power, and limitations, of scientific knowledge. Meanwhile, those concerned with growing wealth began to look for means to organise the apparently capricious processes of knowledge generation, and to capture greater benefits from its application.

At the same time, inquiries about knowledge remained largely the province of scholars, with occasional acknowledgment as a key component of the civilised culture, and the educated professional. Universities, with their role in the generation, maintenance and transmission of knowledge, were the prime locus of both the production of, and reflection about, knowledge.

Over the past decade, however, there has been a considerable upsurge in interest in and analysis of the nature and contribution of knowledge to the modern economy and society. A number of themes can be identified.

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