Peter Meusburger

Johannes Glückler

Martina Meskioui

The broad spectrum of topics surrounding what is termed the ‘knowledge economy’ has attracted increasing attention from the scientific community in recent years. The nature of knowledge-intensive industries, the spatiality of knowledge, the role of proximity and distance in generating functional knowledge, the transfer of knowledge via networks, and the complex interplay between knowledge, location and economic development are all live academic issues. This book, the fifth volume in Springer’s Knowledge and Space series, focuses on the last of these: the multiple relationships between knowledge, the economy, and space. It reflects the conceptual and methodological multidisciplinarity emerging from this scholarship, yet where there has up to now been a notable lack of communication between some of the contributing disciplines, resulting in lexical and other confusions, this volume brings concord and to foster interdisciplinarity. These complications have been especially evident in our understanding of the spatiality of knowledge, the part that spatial contexts play in knowledge creation and diffusion, and the relevance of face-to-face contacts, all of which are addressed in these pages. The material here is grouped into four sections—knowledge creation and economy, knowledge and economic development, knowledge and networks, and knowledge and clusters. It assembles new concepts and original empirical research from geography, economics, sociology, international business relations, and management. The book addresses a varied audience interested in the historical and spatial foundations of the knowledge economy and is intended to bridge some of the gaps between the differing approaches to research on knowledge, the economy, and space.

Knowledge and the Economy

Thomas Schwan

Die Beziehungen zwischen Mensch und materieller Umwelt zahlen nicht nur zu den fundamentalen Grundfragen der Geographie, sondern sie haben in juengster Vergangenheit auch ueberraschend viel Interesse bei anderen sozialwissenschaftlichen Disziplinen gefunden. Beitrage von Geographen, Soziologen, Psychologen und Anthropologen versuchen in diesem Buch u.a. Antworten auf folgende Fragen zu geben: Kann die physisch-materielle Welt ursachlich auf die soziale Welt einwirken? Wie konnen Aspekte wie Natur, Technologie, Umwelt und lokale Kontexte in humangeographische (sozialwissenschaftliche) Untersuchungen integriert werden, ohne der physisch-materiellen Welt eine deterministische Bedeutung fuer menschliches Handeln zuzuweisen? Mit welchen theoretischen Ansatzen konnen die Dichotomien zwischen Individuum und Umwelt oder zwischen Kultur und Natur ueberwunden werden? Welche Raumkonzepte erweisen sich fuer sozialwissenschaftliche und humanokologische Studien als tragfahig? Welche Rolle spielen Unterschiede des Wissens? Wie werden Probleme der aUmweltgerechtigkeito gelost? "Pflichtlektuere fuer all jene, denen eine theoretische und methodische [a] Weiterentwicklung geographischer Sichtweisen am Herzen liegt." Die Erde "adie einzelnen Beitrage werdena von einem erstaunlich konsistenten analytisch-normativen roten Faden zusammengehalten a [man] wird den Band mit Gewinn zur Hand nehmen, da er Einseitigkeit vermeidet und ueberdies auf vielen Gebieten interdisziplinaren Forschens den aktuellen Stand reflektiert und vorantreibt." GAIA.

Ansätze zur Überwindung der Natur-Kultur-Dichotomie

Humanökologie

Andras Klinger

Am Beispiel Ungarns werden die Voraussetzungen, Probleme und Folgen des Übergangs von der sozialistischen Planwirtschaft zur Marktwirtschaft untersucht. Die 15 von Geographen, Soziologen, Ökonomen und Demographen verfaßten Aufsätze untersuchen ein breites Spektrum von Themen. Es umfaßt die Privatisierung der Wirtschaft, Probleme des Arbeits- und Wohnungsmarktes, die Veränderung der Frauenerwerbstätigkeit, die demographischen Strukturen und die Rekrutierung von Eliten. Das Buch unterscheidet sich von vergleichbaren Arbeiten vor allem dadurch, daß einige Aufsätze Datenquellen aus der Endphase des Sozialismus und aus der Anfangsphase der Marktwirtschaft verwenden konnten, die noch in keinem anderen Land Ost- und Mitteleuropas zugänglich sind. Bisher noch nicht behandelte Fragen werden hiermit erstmals untersucht.

Eine Untersuchung am Beispiel Ungarns

Vom Plan zum Markt

Klaus Kempter

Umfassend und interdisziplinär: Der vorliegende Band reflektiert die Begriffe "Bildung und Wissensgesellschaft". PISA-Studie, Diskussionen um die Zukunft unseres rohstoffarmen Landes und kulturell bedingte weltpolitische Spannungen verleihen dem Thema Aktualität und Bedeutung. Sind wir in eine neue, wissensdominierte Epoche gesellschaftlicher Selbstorganisation eingetreten? Welche speziellen Arten von Wissen und Wissensvermittlung brauchen wir?

Bildung und Wissensgesellschaft

Michael Heffernan

Heike Jöns

This collection of essays examines how spatial mobilities of people and practices, technologies and objects, knowledge and ideas have shaped the production, circulation, and transfer of knowledge in different historical and geographical contexts. Targeting an interdisciplinary audience, Mobilities of Knowledge combines detailed empirical analyses with innovative conceptual approaches. The first part scrutinizes knowledge circulation, transfer, and adaption, focussing on the interpersonal communication process, early techniques of papermaking, a geographical text, indigenous knowledge in exploration, the genealogy of spatial analysis, and different disciplinary knowledges about the formation of cities, states, and agriculture. The second part analyses the interplay of mediators, networks, and learning by studying academic careers, travels, and collaborations within the British Empire, public internationalism in Geneva, the global transfer of corporate knowledge through expatriation, graduate mobility from the global south to the global north, and the international mobility of degree programs in higher education.This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.

Mobilities of Knowledge

Edgar Wunder

The revival of interest in collective cultural memories since the 1980s has been a genuinely global phenomenon. Cultural memories can be defined as the social constructions of the past that allow individuals and groups to orient themselves in time and space. The investigation of cultural memories has necessitated an interdisciplinary perspective, though geographical questions about the spaces, places, and landscapes of memory have acquired a special significance. The essays in this volume, written by leading anthropologists, geographers, historians, and psychologists, open a range of new interpretations of the formation and development of cultural memories from ancient times to the present day. The volume is divided into five interconnected sections. The first section outlines the theoretical considerations that have shaped recent debates about cultural memory. The second section provides detailed case studies of three key themes: the founding myths of the nation-state, the contestation of national collective memories during periods of civil war, and the oral traditions that move beyond national narrative. The third section examines the role of World War II as a pivotal episode in an emerging European cultural memory. The fourth section focuses on cultural memories in postcolonial contexts beyond Europe. The fifth and final section extends the study of cultural memory back into premodern tribal and nomadic societies.

The Geographical Point of View

Cultural Memories

Caroline Kramer

Holger Jahnke

This open access book explores the complex relationship between schooling as a set of practices embedded in educational institutions and their specific spatial dimensions from different disciplinary perspectives. It presents innovative empirical and conceptual research by international scholars from the fields of social geography, pedagogy, educational and social sciences in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Czechia, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Norway and Canada. The book covers a broad range of topics, all examined from a spatial perspective: the governance of schooling, the transition processes of and within national school systems, the question of small schools in peripheral areas as well as the embeddedness of schooling in broader processes of social change. Transcending disciplinary boundaries, the book offers deep insights into current theoretical debates and empirical case studies within the broad research field encompassing the complex relationship between education and space.

Geographies of Schooling

Laura Suarsana

Derek Gregory

Interest in relations between knowledge, power, and space has a long tradition in a range of disciplines, but it was reinvigorated in the last two decades through critical engagement with Foucault and Gramsci. This volume focuses on relations between knowledge and power. It shows why space is fundamental in any exercise of power and explains which roles various types of knowledge play in the acquisition, support, and legitimization of power. Topics include the control and manipulation of knowledge through centers of power in historical contexts, the geopolitics of knowledge about world politics, media control in twentieth century, cartography in modern war, the power of words, the changing face of Islamic authority, and the role of Millennialism in the United States. This book offers insights from disciplines such as geography, anthropology, scientific theology, Assyriology, and communication science.

Geographies of Knowledge and Power

Joachim Funke

Milieus of Creativity is the second volume in the book series Knowledge and Space. This book deals with spatial disparities of knowledge and the impact of environments, space and contexts on the production and application of knowledge. The contributions in this volume focus on the role of places, environments, and spatial contexts for the emergence and perpetuation of creativity. Is environment a social or a spatial phenomenon? Are only social factors relevant for the development of creativity or should one also include material artefacts and resources in its definition? How can we explain spatial disparities of creativity without falling victim to geodeterminism? This book offers insights from various disciplines such as environmental psychology, philosophy, and social geography. It presents the results of a research conference at Heidelberg University in September 2006, which was supported by the Klaus Tschira Foundation.

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Spatiality of Creativity

Milieus of Creativity

Benno Werlen

This volume explores interdependencies between knowledge, action, and space from different interdisciplinary perspectives. Some of the contributors discuss knowledge as a social construct based on collective action, while others look at knowledge as an individual capacity for action. The chapters contain theoretical frameworks as well as experimental outcomes. Readers will gain insight into key questions such as: How does knowledge function as a prerequisite for action? Why are knowledge gaps growing and not diminishing in a knowledge society? How much knowledge is necessary for action? How do various types of knowledge influence the steps from cognition to action? How do different representations of knowledge shape action? What impact have spatial conditions for the formation of knowledge? What is the relationship between social and geographical space? The contributors consider rationality in social and economic theories as well as in everyday life. Attention is also given to action theoretic approaches and rationality from the viewpoints of psychology, post-structuralism, and human geography, making this an attractive book for students, researchers and academics of various backgrounds. This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.

Knowledge and Action

This open access volume raises awareness of the histories, geographies, and practices of universities and analyzes their role as key actors in today’s global knowledge economy. Universities are centers of research, teaching, and expertise with significant economic, social, and cultural impacts at different geographical scales. Scholars from a variety of disciplines and countries offer original analyses and discussions along five main themes: historical perspectives on the university as a site of knowledge production, cultural encounter, and political interest; institutional perspectives on university governance and the creation of innovative environments; relationships between universities and the city; the impact of universities on national and regional economies and cultures; and the processes of internationalization through student mobility, the creation of education hubs, and global regionalism in higher education.

Geographies of the University

Michael Welker

Do traditional distinctions between "belief" and "knowledge" still make sense? How are differences between knowledge and belief understood in different cultural contexts? This book explores conflicts between various types of knowledge, especially between orthodox and heterodox knowledge systems, ranging from religious fundamentalism to heresies within the scientific community itself. Beyond addressing many fields in the academy, the book discusses learned individuals interested in the often puzzling spatial and cultural disparities of knowledge and clashes of knowledge.

Peter Meusburger

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