Knowledge in Science and Innovation: A Review of Three Discourses on the Institutional and Cognitive Foundations of Knowledge Production

Description
Modern society is said to be a knowledge society. Yet the academic discourse on the
topics of learning and knowledge production is fragmented. In order to build bridges between
different traditions, we review three discursive formations on contemporary knowledge
production in science and innovation: the social shaping of science (SSS) discourse, the
knowledge in innovation (KNOWINN) discourse and the analogy in science (ANALOG) discourse. We argue that the three discourses should be seen as complementary; and that a more comprehensive approach to the study of knowledge production in contemporary society can be developed by combining them. We illustrate this with an empirical example from the field of
biotechnological science and innovation, and end the paper with a few proposals for fruitful
ways of combining and juxtaposing the perspectives developed within the three discourses.
Citation
Bruun, Henrik, and Aino Toppinen. "Knowledge in science and innovation. A review of three discources on the institutional and cognitive foundations of knowledge production." Issues in Integrative Studies 22 (2004): 1-51.
Date
2004