Knowledge Policy

Innovative Thinking and Peace: The Peace Innovation Course at Stanford

2008-04-24T13:04:00.007+12:00

Prof. Johan Galtung is fond of giving the example of Mulla and the Eighteen Camels to underline the importance of innovative thinking and compassion in peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

Peace Innovation - a new undergraduate course at Stanford University taught by Prof. B J Fogg (of Computers As Persuasive Technology (CAPT-ology) fame) - aims to "help people use new technology to invent peace". Students work in small groups using Web 2.0 services (Flickr, Google maps, YouTube ....) to explore if they can be used for peacebuilding.

The course is based on the idea that noew technologies such as mobile phones and web 2.0 are great tools of persuading people into believing (belief formation) and behaving in a certain way. Very interesting indeed.

Knowledge 2.0 - Knowledge Outsourcing using Web 2.0 technologies

2008-04-22T19:17:00.005+12:00

Image via WikipediaTeaching in virtual classrooms and knowledge outsourcing is a emerging and fast developing trend in India. The online learning market is set to grow manifold in the coming years and Web 2.0 technologies, in combination with faster Internet are critical in making knowledge outsourcing a key part of services exports from countries like India. Numerous Indian internet startups have harnessed the power of the Web 2.0 to impart online tutoring to pupils at home and abroad. Tutorvista has already developed a niche in this market. A promising company with links to India is WizIQ. According to the company website,

WiZiQ is a web-based platform for anyone and everyone who wants to teach and learn live, online. Teachers and students use WiZiQ for its state-of-the-art virtual classroom, to create and share online educational content and tests, and to connect with persons having similar subject interests.

WizIQ has recently developed a module for Moodle - the most popular education related Content Management System (CMS) solution. The WizIQ moodle module connects to WizIQ's free Online Virtual Classroom - a free alternative to expensive conferencing tools in online teaching/learning software market.

I am currently testing WizIQ for online teaching and have added the module to my moodle site: http://www.tutorvista.com/moodle

Galtung: Positive and Negative Peace

2008-04-22T08:44:00.002+12:00

Image via WikipediaIn 1994 I had the pleasure of taking a course on peace studies at the European University Centre for Peace Studies in Stadtschlaining, Austria where Prof Galtung taught us.

Johan Galtung: Positive and Negative Peace

Author: Baljit Singh Grewal
Affiliation: School of Social Science, Auckland University of Technology
Date: 30 August 2003

Introduction

In this essay, the word peace is the central focus. It is often stated that, the word peace is very often used and abused and that since it lacks an agreeable definition and difficult to conceptualise, it is unreal and utopian. The word peace conjures images of harmony and bliss in psychological, social and political sense. These images seem to conflict with the reality of a chaotic and non-harmonious world. The field of peace research is an attempt to reach towards a world which is peaceful or at least free of violence. Peace Research carries a normative value of striving towards peace, not only in international relations but also in domestic politics. The present essay deals with peace theory and not conflict theory because that is a related but separate branch within peace research.

View the full document here....
You can download the pdf file here ...

Hayek on the use of knowledge in society

2008-04-15T13:10:00.005+12:00

Image via WikipediaHayek, F. (1945). The Use of Knowledge in Society". American Economic Review, 35(4), 519-30.

Here is what Hayek has to say about knowledge use. Excerpt from his classic paper:

"It will at once be evident that on this point the position will be different with respect to different kinds of knowledge; and the answer to our question will therefore largely turn on the relative importance of the different kinds of knowledge; those more likely to be at the disposal of particular individuals and those which we should with greater confidence expect to find in the possession of an authority made up of suitably chosen experts. If it is today so widely assumed that the latter will be in a better position, this is because one kind of knowledge, namely, scientific knowledge, occupies now so prominent a place in public imagination that we tend to forget that it is not the only kind that is relevant. It may be admitted that, as far as scientific knowledge is concerned, a body of suitably chosen experts may be in the best position to command all the best knowledge available—though this is of course merely shifting the difficulty to the problem of selecting the experts. What I wish to point out is that, even assuming that this problem can be readily solved, it is only a small part of the wider problem.

Today it is almost heresy to suggest that scientific knowledge is not the sum of all knowledge. But a little reflection will show that there is beyond question a body of very important but unorganized knowledge which cannot possibly be called scientific in the sense of knowledge of general rules: the knowledge of the particular circumstances of time and place. It is with respect to this that practically every individual has some advantage over all others because he possesses unique information of which beneficial use might be made, but of which use can be made only if the decisions depending on it are left to him or are made with his active coöperation. We need to remember only how much we have to learn in any occupation after we have completed our theoretical training, how big a part of our working life we spend learning particular jobs, and how valuable an asset in all walks of life is knowledge of people, of local conditions, and of special circumstances. To know of and put to use a machine not fully employed, or somebody's skill which could be better utilized, or to be aware of a surplus stock which can be drawn upon during an interruption of supplies, is socially quite as useful as the knowledge of better alternative techniques. And the shipper who earns his living from using otherwise empty or half-filled journeys of tramp-steamers, or the estate agent whose whole knowledge is almost exclusively one of temporary opportunities, or the arbitrageur who gains from local differences of commodity prices, are all performing eminently useful functions based on special knowledge of circumstances of the fleeting moment not known to others.

It is a curious fact that this sort of knowledge should today be generally regarded with a kind of contempt and that anyone who by such knowledge gains an advantage over somebody better equipped with theoretical or technical knowledge is thought to have acted almost disreputably. To gain an advantage from better knowledge of facilities of communication or transport is sometimes regarded as almost dishonest, although it is quite as important that society make use of the best opportunities in this respect as in using the latest scientific discoveries. This prejudice has in a considerable measure affected the attitude toward commerce in general compared with that toward production. Even economists who regard themselves as definitely immune to the crude materialist fallacies of the past constantly commit the same mistake where activities directed toward the acquisition of such practical knowledge are concerned—apparently because in their scheme of things all such knowledge is supposed to be "given." The common idea now seems to be that all such knowledge should as a matter of course be readily at the command of everybody, and the reproach of irrationality leveled against the existing economic order is frequently based on the fact that it is not so available. This view disregards the fact that the method by which such knowledge can be made as widely available as possible is precisely the problem to which we have to find an answer."

What is Knowledge Policy?

2008-04-10T21:30:00.002+12:00

Excerpt from my PhD thesis about knowledge policy

The notion of knowledge policy refers to the political mechanisms used to realise knowledge goals at the individual and social level. The policy focus on impacts of knowledge on society is part of what Nico Stehr (2004) has termed “knowledge politics”. The reason for the emergence of knowledge policies, according to Stehr, include, the emergence of new forms of knowledge leading in part to the diminishing of difference between applied and basic research; the rapid speed and volume of emerging new knowledge creates increased capacities to act, concerns for possible adverse impacts, increased risk and uncertainty, increased social, economic and political centrality of knowledge and a wish by the governments to regulate knowledge in the face of globalisation and finally a further strengthening of the authority of science in modern society. The policy resulting from this new situation, relates to “policy aimed at facilitating the development of knowledge-intensive industries, and is about ‘knowledge work’ and ‘knowledge workers’ ” (Rooney, Hearn, Mandeville & Joseph, 2003, p. xv). Further, the knowledge-related policy discourse has an engineering bent, as it fixes attention on scientific, technological and information infrastructure (Graham & Rooney, 2001 cited in Rooney et al., 2003). Rooney et al. (2003) critique the limited focus of knowledge related policy and argue for a deeper level of analysis that includes social structure and cultural values, in order for a more comprehensive vision of the knowledge society.
Author: Baljit Grewal, PhD Student, AUT University, Auckland

Free Knowledge Online: Ebooks on medical science

2008-04-10T08:05:00.003+12:00

FreeBooks4Doctors: Some books useful for students in all disciplines. For example, look in the Statistics Book Section

Amedeo - The Medical Literature Service

On Being A Scientist: Responsible Conduct In Research by the National Academy of Science in USA.

Some cool web 2.0 links

2008-04-07T23:40:00.005+12:00

Image from WikipediaWeb 2.0 is currently the rage and never a day passes without some new and interesting ideas being implemented. Here are a few that have caught my eye today:

1. opensocial.org: Decommoditizing Social Networks By Connecting User Profiles Via OpenSocial
2. Searchme.com: visual search
3. publishing 2.0
4. pdfmenot: embed pdf files as flash (similar to scribd), and of course;
5. zemanta.com: a blogging helper add-on for Firefox that creates neat looking posts for blogger, typepad and wordpress

Korea inaugurates world's first Ministry of Knowledge Economy

2008-04-02T19:35:00.003+13:00

On 28 February the new government in South Korea inaugurated the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) - a world first. The new ministry was created under the Government Restructuring Plan under which the presidential transition committee announced that the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) will be abolished and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MoCIE) will be expanded to the Ministry of Knowledge and Economy. Also, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) will be merged with the Ministry of Education. In the plan, the current government structure will be reduced to thirteen ministries and two agencies. According to the MKE website, "MKE incorporates certain functions that were previously the responsibility of other Ministries (Information and Communications, Science and Technology, Finance and Economy)".

Lee Youn Ho, the minister-in-charge of MKE remarked on its inauguration that MKE

"is charged with the ever-important task of upgrading Korea’s growth engines of industry and technology. .... our primary undertaking is to create a business-friendly environment that is less burdensome, more transparent, and absolutely welcoming to businesses, both domestic and foreign. I plan to eliminate counterproductive regulations that undermine corporate competitiveness, identify nuisances which impede investment, and establish a Ministry-wide system to resolve such problems. Our other pressing task at hand is to develop a comprehensive mid-to long-term vision to secure new growth engines for the nation. To achieve this goal I am implementing a three-pronged policy to support existing value-added industries, discover and foster next-generation industries, and strengthen the service industry."

Korea is not new to restructuring. It has a history of new knowledge policy initiatives being started everytime a new government takes over. It is also known for its informatization visions like IT839, e-Korea, Broadband IT Korea. Thanks to past strategic direction Korea has become East Asia's premier ICT hub. The challenge before MKE is to expand those gains into wider S&T, higher education and industry sectors. The creation of a supra-ministry with the aim to streamline the whole-of-government approach to knowledge economy carries the hopes of a nation. I deeply suspect that the new system is pro-chaebol and it will be interesting to see how things pan out.

Social Knowledge and Public Policy: Robert K. Merton on governmental commissions of inquiry

2008-03-27T12:04:00.003+13:00

Merton in his essay on social knowledge and public policy makes the following observations about the nature and attributes of the governmental commissions of inquiry.

"1. Government commissions of inquiry are themselves a historically evolving social form for discovering or systematically describing selected aspects of a social reality.
2. Commissions are both producers and consumers of social research.
3. The institutionalization of procedures for undertaking research on behalf of commissions engaged in recommending public policy began some time ago and is presumably still in process.
4. The use of that research need not be confined to its utilization by the commissions inaugurating it.
5. As the historic case of Marx emphatically proclaims, the results of authentic social inquiry can be utilized by people whose political commitments differ sharply from those of the commissioners or the investigators" (Merton, 1982, p. 227-228).

Further

"Whatever their historical origins and their manifest and latent functions, commissions of inquiry are -- commissions of inquiry. That is, they are publicly committed to make a search or investigation directed toward uncovering germane information and knowledge; they are, in short, institutionally committed to research. The research may turn out to be sound or specious, wide-ranging or parochial, deeply significant or inconsequential, inspired or pedestrian. But the public commitment being what it is, research there must be. Yet, surprisingly little seems to be systematically known about the ways in which research programs and projects are brought into being by these policy-formulating commissions, how the research is conducted, and most of all, how the results of research relate to the formulation of proposed policy" (Merton, 1982, p. 229).

Reference:

Merton, R. K. (1982). Social Research and the Practicing Professions. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

Tibet Protests, the Chinese Response and the global (dis) information society

2008-03-24T08:28:00.003+13:00

A chinese friend forwarded me an chain email about the "real" facts of the recent violent protests in Tibet and the response of the chinese government. The email contains a hyperlink to a news story (from a chinese website) which consists of two YouTube Videos made by someone projecting the chinese version of the truth. I would like everyone to visit this link to judge for themselves whether they can digest this truth. The Youtube videos it links to are:
1. Tibet WAS,IS,and ALWAYS WILL BE a part of China"（http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9QNKB34cJo)
2. Riot in Tibet: True face of western media ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSQnK5FcKas )

My point is that often what passes as the dissemination of information on the Internet is propaganda. On all sides of an issue divide, people just harp on about their point of view. Swearing and using four letter words are considered essential to bringing others around to seeing ones point of view. The use of abusive words in political discussions on the Internet is a good topic of research for communication scholars.

Knowledge Cities - an emerging research topic

2008-03-20T23:10:00.003+13:00

Here is the abstract of an forthcoming articles on this topic in the journal "Cities" courtesy of Science Direct (DOI).

Title: The making of knowledge cities: Melbourne’s knowledge-based urban development experience
Authors: Tan Yigitcanlar , Kevin O’Connor, and Cara Westerman
Abstract:

This paper explores knowledge city and knowledge-based urban development concepts, discusses the principles of a knowledge city, and portrays its distinguishing characteristics and processes. It analyses Melbourne’s knowledge-based urban development experience by scrutinising its initiatives on culture, science, technology and innovation, and policies in urban, economic and social development. The paper also illustrates how the city administration played a key role in developing Melbourne as a globally recognised, entrepreneurial and competitive city. It concludes with arguing Melbourne as an emerging knowledge city, identifying its key success factors, and providing some insights for policy makers of other cities in designing their knowledge-based urban development.

The share feature in Google Reader

2008-03-15T11:43:00.001+13:00

Here is my page containing shared items from various RSS feeds on knowledge-related policy issues.

Things you can do here:

How academic corporatism can lead to dictatorship

2008-03-15T11:37:00.001+13:00

Nature 452, 151 (2008). doi:10.1038/452151c

Author: G. A. Clark

SirMichael Crow's Book Review of Daniel Greenberg's Science for Sale (Nature449, 405; 2007) calls for a response because it reflects a worsening philosophical divide in US academia between those who regard universities as analogous to corporations and think

Sent to you by Baljit Grewal via Google Reader:

How academic corporatism can lead to dictatorship

via Nature by G. A. Clark on 3/12/08

How academic corporatism can lead to dictatorship

Nature 452, 151 (2008). doi:10.1038/452151c

Author: G. A. Clark

SirMichael Crow's Book Review of Daniel Greenberg's Science for Sale (Nature449, 405; 2007) calls for a response because it reflects a worsening philosophical divide in US academia between those who regard universities as analogous to corporations and think

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to Nature using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

The OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry (DSTI) reports on Information Society

2008-03-12T19:40:00.004+13:00

OECD's Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry (DSTI) has published a few intresting reports on the indicators of information society. Here is a snip from their RSS feed.

Using input-output tables to measure globalisation [PDF]

Economic globalisation has typically been measured using trade and FDI statistics. However, the emergence of global value chains with products often fabricated in one country, assembled in a second and sold in a third country, challenges these traditional indicators. This paper shows how international input-output tables can be used to provide complementary indicators on the growing importance of these global value chains.

Economic and social impacts of ICT: what do official statistics tell us? [PDF]

Policy makers everywhere want to know about the social and economic impacts of ICT. This paper examines what official statistics tell us about these impacts and suggests areas for future work.

High-speed broadband is changing people’s use of the Internet [PDF]

The Internet is part of everyday life for a billion people and is driving major changes in people's lives. This study analyses the use of Internet and broadband in detail, showing that people’s socio-economic standing has a direct bearing on how they use the Web.

Two interesting blog posts on the knowledge society

2008-03-12T19:31:00.002+13:00

Scanning the Internet I found two interesting blog posts on the knowledge society. I have deep interest in the issues they cover.

The first is a abstract of a paper, submitted to a forthcoming conference in Romania, titled " Towards a durable knowledge society – a preliminary research on a quality indicator of the social knowledge for durable development" looks the concept of social knowledge in relation to ecological footprint and human development indicators. It will be interesting to see the final paper especially the indicator based analysis of the knowledge society.

The second blog post "The Information Society and Terrorism" concerns the application of organisational theoretical perspective to the issue of terrorist networks.

UNICEF South Asia Stats

2008-03-07T19:11:00.000+13:00

My CV

2008-03-03T19:28:00.002+13:00

Here is my CV

Knowledge Economy and Bollywood

2008-03-03T19:19:00.001+13:00

Internationally acclaimed film director Shekhar Kapoor on the Knowledge Economy

Why do you think that the entertainment industry’s concerns have not been given their due importance in the Union Budget over the past few years?

The concept of a knowledge economy and education is not far removed from an entertainment economy that encompasses infotainment.

Technology and entertainment are almost the same businesses today, and the technological tools of dissemination of knowledge and education are the same as those required for New Media.

I am disappointed that the FM has not allocated a much larger sum to broadband. Broadband is key infrastructure to bridge the rural-urban divide.

Knowledge Society and Early Childhood Education

2008-03-03T19:16:00.001+13:00

Excerpt from Steve Maharey's Early Childhood Council Speech 2007

Knowledge society

Like most other nations, New Zealand is transforming to a knowledge society. A knowledge society is a key driver of the economy. Knowledge has always been important, but never as pivotal as it is now.

We are transforming New Zealand to a knowledge-based economy and society; a country producing high-value goods and services; a country competing on the global stage; a country where all New Zealanders have a strong sense of identity and achieve to the best of their abilities.

The development of a knowledge society is of huge importance to education. It requires us to transform the way we think about education and the way we think about knowledge.

Learners will need more than "one shot" of education that will serve them for life. They will need the skills for life-long learning. They will need to sustain the dispositions for learning that you are helping them to develop through quality early childhood education: to be curious, to ask questions, to explore and find out, to persevere and to be resilient.

"Leaked CNN email raises questions over Castro's legacy" - Livenews.com.au

2008-02-21T13:54:00.001+13:00

An interesting but disgusting story about the power of the global media outlets such as CNN in today's world. The following story from livenews.com.au about an leaked email sent to CNN news anchors about how to describe Fidel castro's resignation lays beare the independent credentials of CNN. No wonder some critics have called it Castro News Network. Here is a snippet:

* Please say in our reporting that Castro stepped down in a letter he wrote to Granma (the communist party daily), as opposed to in a letter attributed to Fidel Castro. We have no reason to doubt he wrote his resignation letter, he has penned numerous articles over the past year and a half.

* Please note Fidel did bring social reforms to Cuba – namely free education and universal health care, and racial integration. in addition to being criticized for oppressing human rights and freedom of speech.

Read on..here

Hair Today, There Tomorrow

2008-02-20T10:01:00.002+13:00

A cool stoy in Spiegel Online about "globalisation's personal link".

GLOBALIZATION'S PERSONAL LINK
Hindu Locks Keep Human Hair Trade Humming
By Britta Sandberg

Halle Berry uses hair extensions. So does Angelina Jolie. Much of the hair they end up with comes from women who offer up their locks to Hindu gods in Indian temples. SPIEGEL followed one pilgrim's hair from Bangalore to Munich.

Read on

More about Neoliberalism from Yale Global Policy Forum

2008-02-18T07:44:00.003+13:00

A Short History of Neoliberalism by Susan George

In 1945 or 1950, if you had seriously proposed any of the ideas and policies in today's standard neo-liberal toolkit, you would have been laughed off the stage or sent off to the insane asylum. At least in the Western countries, at that time, everyone was a Keynesian, a social democrat or a social-Christian democrat or some shade of Marxist. The idea that the market should be allowed to make major social and political decisions; the idea that the State should voluntarily reduce its role in the economy, or that corporations should be given total freedom, that trade unions should be curbed and citizens given much less rather than more social protection--such ideas were utterly foreign to the spirit of the time. Even if someone actually agreed with these ideas, he or she would have hesitated to take such a position in public and would have had a hard time finding an audience.

Read on......

2008: The Demise of Neoliberal Globalization by Immanuel Wallerstien

2008-02-18T07:31:00.002+13:00

A concise introduction to "neoliberal globalisation" by Wallerstein.

Yale Global
February 4, 2008

The Washington Consensus promised renewed economic growth to everyone and a way out of the global profit stagnation. Politically, the proponents of neoliberal globalization were highly successful. Government after government - in the global South, in the socialist bloc, and in the strong Western countries - privatized industries, opened their frontiers to trade and financial transactions, and cut back on the welfare state. Socialist ideas, even Keynesian ideas, were largely discredited in public opinion and renounced by political elites. The most dramatic visible consequence was the fall of the Communist regimes in east-central Europe and the former Soviet Union plus the adoption of a market-friendly policy by still-nominally socialist China.

The only problem with this great political success was that it was not matched by economic success. The profit stagnation in industrial enterprises worldwide continued. The surge upward of the stock markets everywhere was based not on productive profits but largely on speculative financial manipulations. The distribution of income worldwide and within countries became very skewed - a massive increase in the income of the top 10% and especially of the top 1% of the world's populations, but a decline in real income of much of the rest of the world's populations.

Disillusionment with the glories of an unrestrained "market" began to set in by the mid-1990s. This could be seen in many developments: the return to power of more social-welfare-oriented governments in many countries; the turn back to calling for government protectionist policies, especially by labor movements and organizations of rural workers; the worldwide growth of an alterglobalization movement whose slogan was "another world is possible."

..... So what are the policy conclusions that governments and populations are drawing? There seem to be four in the offing. The first is the end of the role of the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency of the world, which renders impossible the continuance of the policy of super-indebtedness of both the government of the United States and its consumers. The second is the return to a high degree of protectionism, both in the global North and the global South. The third is the return of state acquisition of failing enterprises and the implementation of Keynesian measures. The last is the return of more social-welfare redistributive policies.

The political balance is swinging back. Neoliberal globalization will be written about ten years from now as a cyclical swing in the history of the capitalist world-economy. The real question is not whether this phase is over but whether the swing back will be able, as in the past, to restore a state of relative equilibrium in the world-system. Or has too much damage been done? And are we now in for more violent chaos in the world-economy and therefore in the world-system as a whole.

read the original piece here.

2008-02-17T00:00:00.001+13:00

Shocking Reporting standards of The Tribune, Chandigarh.

2008-02-08T12:11:00.001+13:00

Lecture on Herbert Marcuse
Our Correspondent

Doraha, February 6
An extension lecture on "political ideas of Herbert Marcuse" was organised by the postgraduate department of political science, G.N.N.College, Doraha, today.
Bhupinder Singh Brar, Panjab University, Chandigarh, was the resource person. According to Marcuse, the means of exploitation by capitalist have changed in the modern times, he added. Nowadays, the process of exploiting through maximum work at minimum wages has changed. According to him presently, advanced capitalism is exploiting the consumers by increasing their purchasing power. Along with it, it exploits the consumers by controlling their thoughts also by inciting the consumer through various means to purchase a particular product.
Dr Brar further said the only method to escape from this advanced capitalism suggested by Herbert Marcuse was that the consumer should not only understand the means of exploitation of these advanced capitalists but should also oppose it. In his view, Marcuse gave another surprising fact that as exploitation is being done by advanced capitalism, in the same way the desired objective could not attained even in the socialists countries like Soviet Russia. Because there also like Advanced Capitalism, the thinking of the people was narrowed down by providing basic amenities to them.
According the Marcuse, there is not much difference between Capitalism of 19th and 20th century because in both men is one-dimensional. To be multi-dimensional man should broaden his outlook i.e. to accept as it is whatever is happening to him, he should adopt those things only after analyzing them keeping in mind there weaknesses. He also emphasized on the need of radical thinking, which is possible only by the students as they are revolutionary intellectuals.
Dr Brar concluded the lecture by saying that according to Marcuse in order to lead to a successful life man should create balance among freedom, reason and joy.
Dr Narinder Singh Sidhu, principal and retired professor from Panjab University, Chandigarh, especially attended the extension lecture. Gursharan Kaur, head of the department, Dr Kuldeep Singh, Upasana Kaushal, Hardeep Singh, Priya Sharma and Gursharanjit Singh were those present on the occasion