A Hermeneutic Approach to the Knowledge Economy

Abstract

Although mainstream economics continues to ignore the hermeneutic turn that occurred in the last century, enterprises are de facto adhering to it in their creative praxes. Having outlined a hypothesis about why and how this discrepancy happened, the chapter provides a reassessment of both the notion of the ‘knowledge economy’ and of the relationships between knowledge and creativity. Showing that a hermeneutic approach endows actors with incomparably higher creative potential than the usual cognitivist approach, the chapter further explores the spatial dimension which is inherent in hermeneutic practices. This exploration leads to a reassessment of Durkheim’s seminal notion of generative milieu, with specific reference to collective learning. As a result, the concept of landscape turns out to be crucial in enhancing learning and creativity. With the aim of building a bridge between the theoretical and the empirical parts of the volume, this chapter finally provides an analytical frame for scaling milieus, from the dialogical to the organisational and further to the urban scales. In order to achieve this, it proposes the operational notions of ‘Knowledge-creating Milieu’ and ‘Knowledge-creating Services’.