The Arts in a Knowledge Economy: Creation of Other Knowledges

Abstract

The knowledge economy that is so much etched into contemporary collective consciousness is reviewed against the small city of Hong Kong, a large financial hub. In its ingrained and single-minded economic pursuit, the territory’s history and education has moulded it into the international status it is today. Where do the arts stand in the knowledge economy and how are the arts able to contribute to it? By exploring Santos’ (Glob, Soc Educ 4(2):303–318, 2006) sociology of absences and his call for a sociology of emergences, this paper explores the linear, literal and quantitative as characterised by economic development against the arts’ non-literal, abstract and qualitative features. If unchanged, I view the knowledge economy’s goal as a reductionist closed point, whereas the arts offer possibilities into the unknown where creativity is located. Taking Appadurai’s (1996) five “scapes” in the global cultural flow, I propose the sixth “creative learning-scape” led by the arts. In the concluding section, unlike the schooling system, I argue that arts organisations through an arts learning model could be better equipped to lead in knowledge creation for the twenty-first century.