Perspectives on Knowledge Society: description
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Prof. Bernhard Gill, Department of Sociology, LMU - Dr. Olivier Nikutowski, Department of Strategy and Planning, LMU
Knowledge based work and knowledge based capital, it is said, is becoming ever more salient for economic development, particularly in the postindustrial world where routine work and material capital is either substituted by machines or relocated to cheaper labour markets. But up to now, "knowledge" - in contrast to labour and capital - has been an enigmatic phenomenon both to Economic Sociology and to Economics. This has to do with the fact that knowledge may switch between two states, the implicit and the explicit. Implicit knowledge is embodied in the skills of the (more or less professional) workers; it is intransparent and thus poses a principal-agent problem between shareholders and managers, managers and workers, and firms and clients. Explicit knowledge is embodied in textbooks, patents, machinery and organisations; since it is more or less collective in its production and non-rival in its use, the respective intellectual property rights are often conflictouus in their boundaries and granted only temporarily; most explicit knowledge which was accumulated during history therefore is falling sooner or later in the public domain, rendering it partly "invisible", since their is no economic price assigned to it.
Since "knowledge" always sounds good in political and managerial rhetorics but is slippery and contradictorial as an scholarly concept we try to depict routes of sound science to base it on a more rigorous interdisciplinary analysis from two perpectives: Economic sociology is represented by Bernhard Gill who works at the Institute of Sociology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) and has published widely on political, cultural and economic factors in the development of new technologies. Social Economics is represented by Oliver Nikutowski who has done his PhD research on educational effects of labour market differentiations at the Economics Department of the LMU and is now working with the strategy and planing unit of LMU administration. Both have worked together already in the past, e.g. in giving two courses on similiar interdisciplinary subjects and publishing a paper on the ecological effects of postindustrialisation.
Preliminary subjects for the course:
1. Schumpeter's innovation theory in contrast to the silence of classical and neoclassical theory
2. Nelson/Winter's theory on the path dependency of innovations
3. Romer's New growth theory in contrast to the neoclassical growth theory
4. The role of explicit and implicit knowledge in organisation theories
5. Varieties of capitalism - varieties of human capital investment
6. National and international conflicts on intellectual property rights
7. Theoretical problems and empirical evidence of research and development (R&D) investments
8. Are financial market's rational? Growing information assymetries of intangible assets.
9. Monopolistic competition as relevant economist market modell for information goods and knowledge based commodities
10. Market structure and price building for professional services and knowledge based commodities from the perspective of economic sociology
11. Transactions cost theory: Why (and when) do professionals work as employees for firms - and not as independant contractors?
12. Class structure of knowledge societies - are symbol analysts really becoming the ruling class?
13. Knowledge societies as rich societies - the continuing struggle for positional goods.
Students at LMU are recruited from the Institute of Sociology, the Economics Department and the Psychology Department (where Bernhard Gill is lecturing within the international "Psychology of Excellence in educational and business administration" programme). They meet with the instructors at the beginning of the winter term (in the middle of October) to distribute the subjects and the respective literature. Until December they prepare presentations and discussion points for one meeting. There are three meetings scheduled for each day with time arrangements according to local habits and circumstances (perhaps from 9.00 to 11.00, 11.00 to 13.00, and 14.00 to 16.00). Term papers should be finished until the end of the term in mid-February. Students from other universities who are present at VIU are invited to join in the discussions according to their convenience. A website will be established where the schedule and the materials of the course will be available to everybody.
Since "knowledge" always sounds good in political and managerial rhetorics but is slippery and contradictorial as an scholarly concept we try to depict routes of sound science to base it on a more rigorous interdisciplinary analysis from two perpectives: Economic sociology is represented by Bernhard Gill who works at the Institute of Sociology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) and has published widely on political, cultural and economic factors in the development of new technologies. Social Economics is represented by Oliver Nikutowski who has done his PhD research on educational effects of labour market differentiations at the Economics Department of the LMU and is now working with the strategy and planing unit of LMU administration. Both have worked together already in the past, e.g. in giving two courses on similiar interdisciplinary subjects and publishing a paper on the ecological effects of postindustrialisation.
Preliminary subjects for the course:
1. Schumpeter's innovation theory in contrast to the silence of classical and neoclassical theory
2. Nelson/Winter's theory on the path dependency of innovations
3. Romer's New growth theory in contrast to the neoclassical growth theory
4. The role of explicit and implicit knowledge in organisation theories
5. Varieties of capitalism - varieties of human capital investment
6. National and international conflicts on intellectual property rights
7. Theoretical problems and empirical evidence of research and development (R&D) investments
8. Are financial market's rational? Growing information assymetries of intangible assets.
9. Monopolistic competition as relevant economist market modell for information goods and knowledge based commodities
10. Market structure and price building for professional services and knowledge based commodities from the perspective of economic sociology
11. Transactions cost theory: Why (and when) do professionals work as employees for firms - and not as independant contractors?
12. Class structure of knowledge societies - are symbol analysts really becoming the ruling class?
13. Knowledge societies as rich societies - the continuing struggle for positional goods.
Students at LMU are recruited from the Institute of Sociology, the Economics Department and the Psychology Department (where Bernhard Gill is lecturing within the international "Psychology of Excellence in educational and business administration" programme). They meet with the instructors at the beginning of the winter term (in the middle of October) to distribute the subjects and the respective literature. Until December they prepare presentations and discussion points for one meeting. There are three meetings scheduled for each day with time arrangements according to local habits and circumstances (perhaps from 9.00 to 11.00, 11.00 to 13.00, and 14.00 to 16.00). Term papers should be finished until the end of the term in mid-February. Students from other universities who are present at VIU are invited to join in the discussions according to their convenience. A website will be established where the schedule and the materials of the course will be available to everybody.
