Knowledge Production Research Articles

A Critical Look at Digital Media, the Intellectual Property Regime and Free Open Source Software

This article examines how the intellectual property regime works in digital media and how free open source software is pushing the boundaries of the regime on the digital realm. The main purpose of this article is to highlight the differences that models of knowledge production can make in the process of building a participatory society. This article uses Michael Gibbons' Mode 1 and Mode 2 theories as a method. In the light of this theory, power relations in the production and distribution of knowledge are discussed. The Mode 2 model points to a commons-based model of knowledge production that has a democratic potential. The intellectual property regime is struggling to control the flow of information on the internet. It is quite difficult for the intellectual property rights regime to control the circulation of knowledge on the Internet, as digital media play a key role in the free flow of knowledge. Free open source software is an effective model for those who support the free flow of information in the digital space.

The Mode 3 Networked University

The idea of a modern university is a constantly changing and often contested concept. This paper traces the idea of a university using three modes. These modes are the Mode 1 Ivory Tower, Mode 2 Factory and Mode 3 Network. This framework draws upon higher education literature as well as three modes of knowledge production. I use these modes as a framework to describe the genealogical and historical development of the university in the Western world. These however are not purely historical and elements of their characteristics can be found within and between university institutions today. A genealogy shows a historical path dependency (i.e a teaching and research institution) of the idea of a university and a new materialism perspective shows the coming together of the many elements of the network assemblage which includes the discourse on the idea of a university clashing with new ideas, technologies and policy. The growth and development of the modern university from small, autonomous, elite and autonomous in mode 1 to large, mass regulated factory with marketplace outputs within neoliberal societies is well documented. The Mode 3 Network University is emerging with a potential for universal access with networked societies and technologies and has many actors influencing its becoming and idea. The 2020 Covid-19 pandemic and a broadening multidisciplinary approach to the field of Networked Learning has been called for and I introduce the possibility of theoretically analysing the becoming and enactment of the Mode 3 Network University using concepts and frameworks from the broad field of New Materialism. Such approaches take into account the complex assemblage and network of actors which are human and non-human in the growing and diversifying university. The growth and marketisation of the university has added to this complexity with commercial 'unbundling' taking place. Degrees, institutions and functions are being unbundled and rebundled and this active complex network of actors including technologies, humans (academics, students, employers, wider public) and the residual path dependency of the three modes are in tension and conflict but come together to enact the modern university. New Material methodologies allow for these many influences to come together in a 'flat ontology' to allow for a more nuanced and new approach to research in Networked Learning.

Strategic connectivity in 5G and 6G and remote surgery: The case of Germany

This article addresses the topic of 5G and 6G as a Technological Innovation System (TIS) along with the industrial application of Remote Surgery as an empirical case, exploring three main contributions. Firstly, this research contributes to the connection of the Technological Innovation Systems perspective and 5G and 6G networks in a quantitative viewpoint at national and international levels. Secondly, it contributes to Knowledge Production (F2) and Diffusion (F3) studies through Bibliometrics and software uses. Third, it contributes to the studies of a connection in 5G and 6G networks in the Remote Surgery empirical case application on TIS analytical background. Methodologically, the research problem of this study is to explore the R&D capacity in 5G and 6G TIS concerning the applicability of Remote Surgery worldwide and, consequently, in Germany. The general objective is to improve the industrial relevance of Remote Surgery through quantifying publications and patents and the collaborative networks in these domains. According to publications and patent data, the results reveal a crucial R&D map of Germany until 2021.

Studying and stimulating a sense of community through co‐productive zine‐making in public libraries

AbstractThis paper reports on our ongoing experiences of using co‐productive zine‐making as a creative and participatory method in a research project on public libraries as social infrastructures. Engaging different audiences, including library management and staff, patrons and urban government authorities, the project aims to simultaneously study and stimulate a sense of community in public libraries. While many libraries already deploy zine‐making programmes as a low‐cost visitor activity, we use it as both a data collection and community‐building tool. Co‐productive zine‐making offers opportunities for reflection and mutual understanding to foster education, exchange and encounter between different stakeholders. It challenges the traditional power dynamics of knowledge production in academia and beyond. Zine‐making can act as a creative tool that pushes researchers to be more (self‐)reflexive. Yet, despite these benefits, zine‐making does not come without challenges, and therefore requires a specific researchers' skillset. This paper provides insight into both practical and ethical issues we encountered before, during and after the organisation of the first out of five zine‐making workshops in our project, held with community librarians in Rotterdam.

Management of Context-Specific Knowledge Creation and Application through Collective Social Responsibility in School?Community Partnerships

In knowledge-based institutions such as schools, productivity is associated with effective creation and application of operational knowledge. Using collective fingers theory, this qualitative case study explored how a considerably effective partnership between a South African township secondary school and a network of community organizations/structures, facilitated the creation and application of context-specific and socially responsive knowledge that led to improved internal school conditions, problem solving strategies, poverty alleviation, and extension of social support to vulnerable learners and their families. Based on the thematic analysis drawn from utterances of eight purposefully sampled participants, the study showed that the school’s promotion of common purpose, mutual respect, collective decision making, care for others, collective social responsibility and democratic leadership practices contributed to the success of its mutually beneficial partnership with relevant community networks. It also emerged that by going an extra mile to lobby for multisectoral social support, the school richly benefited from the benevolence of a wide network of government departments; private-corporate sector and local businesses; faith-based formations; and non-governmental organizations some of which offered similar or overlapping services while others offered a diverse range of services to the school. The study proposed that the school must minimize the frequency of late arrival and unwarranted early recusals in knowledge production meetings. It further called for increased cultural capital and inclusion of parents from lower socioeconomic households in decision-making processes; and elimination of procurement policy red tape that occasionally delayed the provision of much-needed social support to schools, families and learners.

From global diffusion to local semantics: unpacking the scientization of central banks

Abstract This article investigates the scientization of central banks and analyzes the evolving knowledge production. Existing literature suggests that scientized knowledge production either becomes globally more similar over time or is driven by local political economy considerations. However, research on the structure of central bank knowledge production is lacking. To address this, I conduct semantic network analysis on 75 000 central bank working papers and articles from top economics journals. Findings show global organizational forms of knowledge production have diffused, but semantics remain localized. The semantic structure becomes increasingly clustered over time, with a notable division between the Federal Reserve System (FED) and non-FED clusters. Only Federal Reserve produces knowledge aligned with top academic journals. Cluster differences are not solely due to mandates or political contexts but depend on specific policy environments. This research illuminates the evolution of knowledge production within central banks and underscores the influence of organizational and policy contexts.

Developing theory by engaging in collaborative transformations of educational practice

This article presents a methodological approach to educational psychology research in which researchers engage in collaborative transformations of educational practice while developing theory concerning the societal and scientific relevance of these transformative processes. The theoretical inspiration for this approach stems from German-Scandinavian Critical Psychology, Transformative Activist Stance, and the Change Laboratory Framework — three research traditions with common roots in cultural-historical psychology and activity theory. Empirically, the article is based on a transformative research collaboration between the author and a 2nd grade teacher at a Danish municipal primary school. The aim was to develop an intervention framework to support the development of cultures of care within communities of children, while simultaneously producing theoretical knowledge about the conditions that enable the development of such cultures within the contradictory and dilemma-filled historical and socio-political context of Danish municipally governed schools. Empirical excerpts show how a novel intervention principle emerged as a synthesis of the researcher and the schoolteacher’s respective, seemingly contradictory knowledge contributions. Against a backdrop of historical-institutional analyses, it is argued that this intervention principle represents a novel scope of possibilities for educational professionals struggling to manoeuvre within the various contradictions and common problems inherent to Danish municipally governed schools. In the discussion, it is argued that the transformative approach presented here seems particularly promising for the democratisation of knowledge production. This assertion is supported by a demonstration of how the approach is particularly flexible to continuously integrate critique, contributions, and contestations from co-researchers within educational practice, adults as well as children.

Indigenous Sovereignty and Political Science: Building an Indigenous Politics Subfield

Scholarship from the nascent subfield of Indigenous politics illuminates an enduring tension between Indigenous politics and political science. Settler colonialism continues to configure the contemporary politics of the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia in profound ways that political science has been slow to grapple with. In a related concern, political science has little ability to engage in Indigenous knowledge production. This article reviews the structural exclusion of Indigenous knowledge despite increased inclusion of Indigenous scholarship and argues that Indigenous understandings of settler colonialism, sovereignty, and authority hold the potential to reconfigure political science's approach to Indigenous politics in research and teaching. This reconfiguration will not only impact the development of the Indigenous politics subfield but also expand the analytic potential of political science more broadly.

Blinded like a state: Water scarcity and the quantification dilemma in Morocco

Over the last two decades, the Moroccan state has had to deal with some deeply uncomfortable knowledge regarding mounting water scarcity. This presents governing actors with a difficult dilemma. On the one hand, this knowledge is politically disturbing as it could undermine prevailing hydro-agricultural policies, which are based on the promise of unlimited irrigation expansion. It could also corrode the dominant social alliance built around these policies. On the other hand, accurately quantifying water resources has long been essential for establishing the technocratic legitimacy of the state.This paper investigates how the state manages uncomfortable numbers that it has either produced or endorsed: an issue rarely addressed by social studies of quantification, but increasingly consequential in the current ecological crisis. Drawing from a literature on the production of ignorance, we highlight contradictory processes of knowledge production and ignorance. We show that Moroccan state hydrologists have dealt with uncomfortable figures by keeping them fragmented in space and time. They have continued to produce innumerable measurements of water scarcity. However, they have done so in an increasingly scattered manner, both spatially and temporally, while studiously avoiding integrating these fragments into updated national estimates.This uneasy compromise between “seeing” and “not seeing” like a State has so far helped reproduce the “modernizing” social alliance forged around large hydraulic projects. However, its durability is doubtful. Our case study thus raises a number of hypotheses about what the ecological crisis could do to state quantification in many places and in the near future.

Dáiddakárta Cartography in Contemporary Art Practices

This article explores contemporary art practices in Sápmi which utilise maps as a tool and medium. The importance of the artist Hans Ragnar Mathisen’s abundant maps from the mid-1970s is acknowledged, and furthermore the article looks into examples from the next generation Sámi artists who create dáiddakárta, which literally translates to art maps. Although not a traditional Sámi way of mapping and orientating in the landscape, dáiddakárt is significant in representing Indigenous people, in knowledge production, decolonial resistance, and reconciliation. Various dáiddakárta broaden the concept of what a ‘map’ has been, and could be, and contribute to the cartographic representations of other forms of being. Emphasising the concept of worlding helps understand mapping as a constant formation, relation and negotiation, and as a forceful and sometimes activist process, not only rendering or representing a world ‘already there’. Instead, the art maps serve as interpretative, aesthetic and even speculative actors in contemporary society.

The genocidal disruption of Johannes Jacob Manissadjian’s (1862–1942) lifework: a biographical approach to mass violence and indigenous knowledge production

ABSTRACT Relying on a biographical approach that reconstructs the life and work of Johannes [Hovhanness/Յովհաննէս] Jakob [Hagop/Յակոբ] Manissadjian [Manisacıyan/Մանիսաճեան] (1862–1942), a highly successful scientist at the Anatolia College (Merzifon/Marsovan/Մարզվան), who established a meteorological station and a natural history museum with an extensive collection of specimens, the paper traces the routes of disappearance, dispersal and ruination of indigenous lives, people, and knowledge within the context of the Armenian genocide. Drawing on documents from Ottoman, German, and American archives, I stress the potential of biographical methods to study the processes and structures of mass violence targeting the Ottoman Armenians, as well as to foreground the agency and subjectivity of genocide survivors. The article also focuses on post-genocide scientific (dis)engagements of Manissadjian in light of Theodor W. Adorno’s ‘after Auschwitz’ discussions and from the perspective of indigenous knowledge production. In particular, his two ‘archival acts’ in the post-genocide context, the ‘Catalogue’ of the collection of the Anatolia College Museum that he prepared as ‘the former Curator’ and his small pamphlet entitled Proverbs of Turkey, which provided an ethnographic portrait of Anatolia, were his humble acts of saving a treasure trove of knowledge that was in danger of becoming debris.

Research status and reflection of the mechanism of TCM manipulation in the treatment of cervical spondylosis under the background of multi-disciplinary intersection

The study of TCM manipulation's mechanism is the key scientific issue in the current manipulation research. It is the key and difficult point on the road of modernization and internationalization of Chinese orthopedics and traumatology. Meanwhile, it is also an important way to clarify systematically the scientific connotation of TCM manipulation. At present, our country is in an important period when multi-disciplinary intersection lead knowledge production, scientific innovation, and discipline development. The trend of cross-innovation between Chinese orthopedics and traumatology and other disciplines provides the carrier and method for the study of TCM manipulation's mechanism. Cervical spondylosis is the traditional dominant disease of Chinese orthopedics and traumatology. In recent years, many scholars have applied multi-disciplinary techniques and theories to explore the mechanism of TCM manipulation by focusing on the four dimensions of muscle, bone, blood vessel and nerve. The article takes the treatment of cervical spondylosis by TCM manipulation as the research entry point, and integrates the application status and implementation strategies of various techniques and theories under the background of multi-disciplinary intersection, which is conducive to the better combination, innovation and transformation of Chinese orthopedics and traumatology with other disciplines, and provides ideas and references for systematically clarifying the scientific connotation of TCM manipulation.

The inconspicuous power of border festivals: insights from the Chad-Cameroon border

ABSTRACT Held every two years and alternating venues between Yagoua (Cameroon) and Bongor (Chad), the Tokna Massana border festival celebrates the identity and culture of the partitioned Masa peoples. This article explores how border festivals like Tokna Massana can complement and innovate the study of borders and borderlands. Building on participant observation, semi-structured interviews and archival research, we analyze how exacting cross-border festival planning and preparation in the Masa homeland and the diaspora make each new edition possible. We argue that border festivals are worth our attention because their repertoires illuminate underrepresented knowledge production and transmission choices. Moreover, the expectation of festive commemorations underlines processual and performative modes of engagement and management of identity and historical memory. They draw our attention to unexpected use, counter use, and repurposing of border spaces and infrastructures. Finally, the study of border festivals can reveal unacknowledged histories of practical governance.

PAOLO SYLOS-LABINI’S CONTRIBUTION TO AND AFFINITIES FOR INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMIC THOUGHT

The text proposes a study of Sylos-Labini’s interdisciplinary orientation and how this relates to the institutional approach. Sylos-Labini’s multi-disciplinary approach seems to stand between Old Institutional Economics and New Institutional Economics. He states that an interdisciplinary approach, in which economic theory is juxtaposed with history, sociology, anthropology, and empirical research, is realistic and does not entail any limitation on the production of scientific knowledge. Thus, Sylos-Labini seems to be more interested in the old institutionalist school and sociology than new institutional economics and the theory of firms and contracts. Therefore, this paper investigates whether Sylos-Labini’s multidisciplinary approach to economics can represent a possible bridge between Old Institutional Economics and New Institutional Economics.

Reseña de «Estados mórbidos. Desgaste corporal en la vida contemporánea»

Estados Mórbidos. Desgaste Corporal en la Vida Contemporánea (Morbid States. Corporal Wear and Tear in Contemporary Life) is a feminist ethnography on the Central Sensitization Syndrome (CSS) −a disruption of nerve centres which causes chronic diseases such as fibromyalgia and chronic-fatigue. Méndez de la Brena takes distance from the hegemonic medical approach, and embraces an anthropological and a gender perspective to investigate the handling of the diseases and unravels new forms of resistance. The book can be briefly defined as a necro-political analysis of the disease in its material existence and of the production of knowledge and practices of resistance of women in a neoliberal context.

Fāṭima al-Qabbāǧ : histoire d’une savante marocaine entre Islam, droits des femmes et construction de la nation

Abstract Fāṭima al-Qabbāǧ was among the first women to graduate from Al-Qarawīyyn University in Fez and the only woman member of the Committee for Iftāʿ within the Council of Higher Knowledge (al-Maǧlis al-ʿilmī al-ʿalā) composed by the most important ʿulamāʾ of Morocco. This article contextualises the biographical trajectory of this major figure of Moroccan Islam in the period at the turn of independence and in the late 20th century–early 21st century, linking it, on the one hand, to nationalist discourses favourable to female education as one of the main pillars of national modernisation and, on the other hand, to the most recent developments brought about by the 2004 reform that incorporated women into the official structures of the Moroccan religious sector. Writing the history of women in relation to Islam in Morocco is not an easy task, given the scarcity of bibliographical sources on the subject. Because of this reason, the article relies on original documentary sources, among which the Review of Women Scholars, Religious Guides and Preachers (ʿAṭāʾ-Maǧalla al-ʿālimāt wa-l-wāʿiẓāt wa-l-muršidāt), published in Arabic in 2011 by the Council of Higher Knowledge, and also on interviews conducted by the author of the article with Fāṭima al-Qabbāǧ and other Moroccan ʿālimāt. The career and thought of this major scholar bears witness to the fact that the transformation of women’s roles in the official structures for the production and reproduction of religious knowledge takes place in a reinvented historical continuity that aims to open up the religious field to women while respecting the framework of certain discursive perimeters functional to the political stability of the Kingdom. At the same time, the article aims also to demonstrate that, far from being a mere object of these dispositives, Fāṭima al-Qabbāǧ – along with other contemporary religious actresses – must be seen as a protagonist of historical change, aware of her social, political and religious role and agency.

Politicizing science funding undermines public trust in science, academic freedom, and the unbiased generation of knowledge.

This commentary documents how federal funding agencies are changing the criteria by which they distribute taxpayer money intended for scientific research. Increasingly, STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine) funding agencies are requiring applicants for funding to include a plan to advance DEI ("Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion") in their proposals and to dedicate a part of the research budget to its implementation. These mandates undermine the academic freedom of researchers and the unbiased generation of knowledge needed for a well-functioning democracy. Maintaining excellence in science is fundamental to the continuation of the U.S. as a global economic leader. Science provides a basis for solving important global challenges such as security, energy, climate, and health. Diverting funding from science into activities unrelated to the production of knowledge undermines science's ability to serve humankind. When funding agencies politicize science by using their power to further a particular ideological agenda, they contribute to public mistrust in science. Hijacking science funding to promote DEI is thus a threat to our society.

Linked Data for modelling and replicating the knowledge production process in data-driven humanities research

Abstract The steps from primary source to scholarly claim typically follow a ‘breadcrumb trail’ of wide-ranging decisions by one or more scholars. For replication studies, these decisions must be identified and made as explicit as possible so that the results can be faithfully reproduced. We use a replication study of premodern population estimates as a use case to gain more insight into the kinds of scholarly practices that need to be made explicit, and to think about possible solutions for modelling this process with future replicability in mind. We argue that Linked Data is the logical and flexible technique for modelling such a replication study. For our use case, it allows us to capture both the data itself and the individual decisions made to arrive at a scientifically derived population estimate based on, for example, geographical phenomena or source criticism. In this article, we set an agenda for the use of Linked Data in data-driven humanities research by exploring the benefits, opportunities, and challenges associated with using Linked Data to conduct a replication study in the humanities (and to promote the reproducibility of humanities research more generally). We identify three key aspects that can benefit from the flexibility offered by Linked Data: increasing the trustworthiness of quantitative studies; facilitating the reproducibility of future studies; and facilitating the interpretation of replication results.

Correction: Signs of Dysconscious Racism and Xenophobiaism in Knowledge Production and the Formation of Academic Researchers: A National Study

Correction: Signs of Dysconscious Racism and Xenophobiaism in Knowledge Production and the Formation of Academic Researchers: A National Study

Minerva Research Initiative

In response to a number of military failures in a rapidly changing war environment, the Department of Defense put forth major efforts to incorporate social science research into the US national defense strategy. Three such efforts—Project Camelot, Human Terrain Systems, and the Minerva Research Initiative—represent iterative Department of Defense efforts to better understand and change their organizational environment through legitimate academic knowledge production. Our investigation of these efforts demonstrates that when the Department of Defense wants specific information and has a difficult time obtaining it, it eventually finds a way to produce it, in this case by employing tactics similar to those employed by economic elites when they want to develop knowledge that will help them achieve their goals.