Dear Igor and colleagues,
I don't buy your definitions of "Weltanschauung" as being necessarily
homogenized under a dominant one which can be simplified as "materialism",
"rationality" and "Protestant ethic". I think that we have moved in
sociology beyond these Weberian definitions. However, I agree that the other
issue is more interesting for the discussion on this list. (Perhaps, the two
problems cannot so easily be separated, but let us assume that for a
moment.)
The transition from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy is
not to be placed at the middle of the 20th century as your email suggested,
since this has been a post-Coldwar development. The first documents using
the words "knowledge-based economy" in OECD circles are from 1996 (on the
basis of drafts from 1994). Thus, we are talking about a current transition.
For example, this transition was central to the Lisbon agreements of the EU
summit of 2000.
What is the difference? Let me take a simple example. Compare two megacities
like Calcutta and New York. Both have of the order of 10^7 inhabitants. New
York is much more resource-intensive (in terms of using energy, etc.) than
Calcutta, but few of us would consider Calcutta as more sustainable than New
York. For example, in New York the streets are reasonably maintained and
clean, and one lives with much less risk of infections, etc.
What makes the difference between Calcutta and New York? I would say a
knowledge-based infrastructure like first a sewage system, but then also a
telephone system, a subway system, etc. In short, a whole set of
communication networks in New York which does not exist in Calcutta. The
system is better sustainable because a set of coordination mechanisms is in
place which proliferates on top of "hardware".
Let us formalize this notion of communication systems which are added to the
people. As noted above, the N of both systems is of the order of 10^7. The
communication systems can be considered as an M. Thus a matrix N x M is
shaped. In the case of Calcutta N dominates this matrix and therefore the
system is "natural". As M expands, it can take over the dynamics. The
supporting capacity of the system (the maximum entropy) is N x M. The
extension of M to (M + 1) enlarges the matrix with N (= 10^) possibilities.
The extension of M is knowledge-based, while the extension of N is
resource-based.
Please, note that this has nothing to do with "materialsm", "realism" or "a
Protestant work ethic" as you wished to suggest.
With kind regards,
Loet
________________________________
Loet Leydesdorff
Honory Chair of the City of Lausanne (March - July)
Universit� de Lausanne, School of Economics (HEC),
BFSH 1, 1015 Lausanne-Dorigny, Switzerland
Tel.:+41-21-6923469
Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR)
Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam
Tel.: +31-20-525 6598; fax: +31-20-525 3681
[email protected];
http://www.leydesdorff.net
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Igor Matutinovic [mailto:igor.matutinovic@gfk.hr]
> Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2005 11:00 AM
> To: Loet Leydesdorff; 'Robert Ulanowicz'; fis@listas.unizar.es
> Subject: Re: [Fis] Economic Networks
>
> Dear Loet
>
> Thank you for your remarks! Our definition of "worldview" is
> basically equal to the term Weltanschauung, and differs only
> in that it explicitly introduces objective knowledge as its
> constitutive part - a distinction that is methodologically
> appropriate for analysis of Western societies. We do
> acknowledge the existence of mutually competing worldviews,
> but there is always a dominant one that streamlines
> collective behavior. We can, for example, condense the
> prevailing (Western) worldview around three basic
> dimensions: materialism, rationality and hard-wired working
> ethic (details are presented in Matutinovic, forthcoming in
> International Journal of Sustainable Development and World
> Ecology). This may be put also in different terms
> (dimensions), but any such combination of values and beliefs
> must be internally coherent and it must logically link to the
> extant institutional framework. The very existence of
> alternative worldviews in modernity, which "disturb one
> another and thus provide another source of change", as you
> mention it, provides one of the pillars of societal
> adaptability. We wished to emphasize that the pace of
> adaptive institutional change is unpredictable, and
> therefore, Western civilization runs the risk of a major
> environmental crisis (see for example latest reports on the
> state of global ecosystems: Mooney, H., Cropper, A., and
> Reid, W. (2005).
> Confronting the human dilemma: How can ecosystems provide
> sustainable services to benefit society? Nature, Vol.
> 434:7033, 561-562.; Scheffer, M., Carpenter, S., Foley, J.
> A., Folke, C., and Walker, B. (2001). Catastrophic Shifts In
> Ecosystems. Nature, 413, 591-596.).
>
> Concerning the knowledge-based economy and its impact on
> environment, I have a question: if we, for example, label the
> first fifty years of the 20th century as belonging to the
> resource-based economy and the subsequent period as a
> transition to the knowledge-based economy, than I can see no
> improvement at all. On the contrary, as our technology
> becomes more advanced and our communication possibilities
> widen and become more sophisticated our impact on environment
> increases. This can be seen on the example of IT industry
> which epitomizes the "New" economy: computer manufacturing
> uses about 1000 toxic materials, including heavy metals, and
> its product life cycle is extremely short resulting in
> enormous waste disposal and leaching of toxics into
> environment. Following is the quote form E. Williams,
> Environ. Sci. Technol., 38 (22), 6166 -6174, 2004:
> "The total energy and fossil fuels used in producing a
> desktop computer with 17-in. CRT monitor are estimated at
> 6400 megajoules (MJ) and 260 kg, respectively. This indicates
> that computer manufacturing is energy
> intensive: the ratio of fossil fuel use to product weight is
> 11, an order of magnitude larger than the factor of 1-2 for
> many other manufactured goods.
> This high energy intensity of manufacturing, combined with
> rapid turnover in computers, results in an annual life cycle
> energy burden that is surprisingly high: about 2600 MJ per
> year, 1.3 times that of a refrigerator.
> In contrast with many home appliances, life cycle energy use
> of a computer is dominated by production (81%) as opposed to
> operation (19%)."
> Besides IT, our increased ability to apply efficiently
> knowledge to manufacturing resulted in a myriad of new
> consumer products, cheap and attractive for use, which mass
> production, consumption, and short life cycles overburden the
> environment and degrade ecosystems around the earth.
> In the meantime, the "resource based" part of our economic
> activities did not diminish materially, except for their
> share in GDP. Concerning Western energy intensive
> agriculture, it is so inextricably tied to oil reserves (both
> in terms of energy and in terms of chemical ingredients for
> mineral fertilizers and pesticides) and I have not been able
> to learn so far about an alternative, plausible solution for
> the post-petroleum era.
>
> Perhaps you may have an idea how to relate economic networks
> (as Bob and myself briefly addressed them), your vision of
> the knowledge-based economy, and the constraints arising from
> the dominant Western worldview. This may be an interesting
> direction for further discussion...
>
> The best
> Igor
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Loet Leydesdorff" <loet@leydesdorff.net>
> To: "'Robert Ulanowicz'" <ulan@cbl.umces.edu>;
<fis@listas.unizar.es>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 7:49 AM
> Subject: RE: [Fis] Economic Networks
>
>
> > Dear Igor and Bob,
> >
> > Thank you for your interesting opening to the discussion.
> > While reading it, I had the impression that the
"worldview"
> is too much
> > conceptualized as a single and closed system like a Kuhnian
> paradigm.
> > Since
> > the 16th century worldviews are in flux and internally
> > differentiated/differentiating. The economic system of the
> market, for
> > example, is mapped cognitively in a discourse other than
> the discourse of
> > physics or the discourse of power. The different worldviews
> (codifications
> > of the communication) disturb one another and thus can
> provide another
> > source of change.
> >
> > Perhaps, your own statement can be considered as one such
> worldview,
> > namely
> > one of ecosystems theory. In this view the resources are finite and
> > therefore exhaustible. Information resources, however, are
> not finite. In
> > a
> > knowledge-based economy (unlike a resource-based economy)
> other dynamics
> > for
> > the expansion may feed new loops into the system. For
> example, Holland is
> > one of the largest producers of tomatos while tomatos can
> not be bred in
> > Holland naturally (because of the lack of sunshine). The
> production of
> > these
> > tomatos is completely knowledge-based. Indeed, this is
> energy-costly, but
> > energy is only finite at the level of the universe (and not
> at the level
> > of
> > the earth).
> >
> > Thus, one can entertain very different worldviews. The
> interfaces among
> > them
> > can be considered as sources of innovation, for example, when market
> > perspectives and research perspectives can be interfaced.
> >
> > Perhaps, you can easily integrate this into your model?
> >
> > With kind regards,
> >
> >
> > Loet
> >
> > ________________________________
> >
> > Loet Leydesdorff
> > Universit� de Lausanne, School of Economics (HEC);
> > Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR)
> >
>
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Received on Sat Apr 30 16:53:04 2005
