{"id":14228,"date":"2021-08-31T17:05:52","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T07:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.thomsonreuters.com.au\/journals\/?p=14228"},"modified":"2024-07-10T04:14:42","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T04:14:42","slug":"on-the-capitalisation-of-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.thomsonreuters.com.au\/journals\/2021\/08\/31\/on-the-capitalisation-of-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Capitalisation of Knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Workplace Review<\/em><\/a> is nothing if not broad in its coverage of work. In its current issue, Vol 10 No 3<\/a>, David Nikolas Brodsky compares academic studies from the discipline of organisational behaviour, and is led to consider the ways in which knowledge itself is gained and organised.<\/p>\n

Bedevilled by all manner of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inherent weaknesses\u00e2\u20ac\u009d including the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cherry-picking\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of evidence, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153subjective bias\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a priori knowledge\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, being too context-specific \u00e2\u20ac\u201c academic studies today often yield \u00e2\u20ac\u0153very little generalisable knowledge\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, argues Brodsky in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Mere Reflection on Knowledge and Humility\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/a>. More, truth<\/em> itself may be obscured, he suggests.<\/p>\n

This flawed pursuit of knowledge is connected with its institutionalisation. Overseen by \u00e2\u20ac\u0153establishments\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, the search for knowledge is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153organised into sciences\u00e2\u20ac\u009d; disciplines have their \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inherent norms \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 encapsulated within their accepted paradigms\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153fixed assemblage of thought patterns and assumptions considered to be legitimate\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) with their \u00e2\u20ac\u0153accepted methods\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n

Brodsky says this approach \u00e2\u20ac\u0153engenders general efficiency and order\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, but also \u00e2\u20ac\u0153some fragmentation\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n

This manner in which the search for knowledge proceeds, is arguably attributable to its social context:<\/p>\n

The capitalisation of knowledge over the past century has necessarily led to its protection under systems of intellectual property. \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the truth has become less important than a new angle. Now, even an angle is capitalised upon by way of the need for academics to secure their positions and futures by recognising some opportunity for intellectual property, staking a claim to it, and then selling it as a service (even if it does not constitute any real truth). This has culminated in knowledge ownership <\/em>guised as knowledge management<\/em>, the peril of which being that (capital \u00e2\u20ac\u0153T\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Truth\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has become a higher priority than the truth <\/em>(which requires much more digging).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With knowledge viewed as the accumulation of any other resource to be exploited, it is unsurprising notions such as protectionism and nationalism preclude the sharing of knowledge freely and openly, suggests Brodsky.<\/p>\n

While conceding \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the more Truths found, the closer to the truth we may be\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, he asks whether there may not be a better way. At the risk of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153being branded an idealist\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, he considers a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153best practice\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/em>for the pursuit of knowledge and scientific innovation may \u00e2\u20ac\u0153<\/em>require only fundamental ingredients \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 curiosity, data openness, testing rigour, critical thought, humility, and honesty\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n

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Workplace Review is nothing if not broad in its coverage of work. In its current issue, Vol 10 No 3, David Nikolas Brodsky …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":11957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,36,161],"tags":[3044,997,18178,18179,18180,18181,18182,6578,18183,196,18051,18184,18185,18186,18187,18188,18189,18190],"class_list":["post-14228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-journals","category-uncategorized","category-workplace-review","tag-academics","tag-best-practice","tag-capitalisation-of-knowledge","tag-critical-thought","tag-curiosity","tag-data-openness","tag-establishments","tag-honesty","tag-humility","tag-intellectual-property","tag-knowledge","tag-nationalism","tag-organizational-behaviour","tag-protectionism","tag-resource-to-be-exploited","tag-subjective-bias","tag-testing-rigour","tag-the-truth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.thomsonreuters.com.au\/journals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.thomsonreuters.com.au\/journals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.thomsonreuters.com.au\/journals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.thomsonreuters.com.au\/journals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.thomsonreuters.com.au\/journals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.thomsonreuters.com.au\/journals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.thomsonreuters.com.au\/journals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.thomsonreuters.com.au\/journals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.thomsonreuters.com.au\/journals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.thomsonreuters.com.au\/journals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}