Project Details
Projekt
GRK 724: Entering the Knowledge Society: Institutional and Epistemic Transformations of Knowledge Production and their Social Repercussions
Subject Area
Social Sciences
Term
from 2002 to 2011
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 273341
The research training group is organized around the concept of the "knowledge society," around which revolve various societal hopes and fears. The knowledge society is characterized by the increasing social importance of knowledge, especially scientific and technical knowledge, and by the extension of processes of scientization into ever greater areas of social life. This extension of science into society increases the demands on science to explain and control social problems. The practical application of science begins to carry so much weight that the traditional division between science and technology tends to dissolve.
The increasing social importance of science is thus bound up with increased performance expectations, demands for social control, and growing social anxieties. The sciences face both high social uncertainty and high expectations for instrumental usefulness. Many social institutions depend increasingly on scientific knowledge, and many social groups increasingly demand that the sciences be held to standards of social responsibility and accountability.
In this context, the research of the program addresses the epistemic and institutional transformation of knowledge production and its societal dimensions. The program brings together several relevant fields of research into a systematic, convergent research context. This is achieved in part through an affiliation with the "Knowledge Society Research Group" supported by the Volkswagen Foundation.
The increasing social importance of science is thus bound up with increased performance expectations, demands for social control, and growing social anxieties. The sciences face both high social uncertainty and high expectations for instrumental usefulness. Many social institutions depend increasingly on scientific knowledge, and many social groups increasingly demand that the sciences be held to standards of social responsibility and accountability.
In this context, the research of the program addresses the epistemic and institutional transformation of knowledge production and its societal dimensions. The program brings together several relevant fields of research into a systematic, convergent research context. This is achieved in part through an affiliation with the "Knowledge Society Research Group" supported by the Volkswagen Foundation.
DFG Programme
Research Training Groups
Applicant Institution
Universität Bielefeld
Participating Researchers
Professor Dr. Werner Abelshauser; Professor Dr. Stephan Barton; Professor Dr. Alfons Bora; Professor Dr. Martin Carrier; Professor Dr. Michael Huber; Professor Dr. Wolfgang Krohn
Spokesperson
Professor Dr. Carsten Reinhardt
