“Knowledge to build the world, knowledge to destroy the world.” K.S. Pang (2013)

The Knowledge Economy

Chapter 4: Knowledge Reproduction

Three Forms of Knowledge Reproduction

Gestures and Speech this consists in demonstration which takes place primarily in

the context of relations between master and apprentice or teacher and learner. The

teacher lays down a set of rules which he or she transmits to the learner through

gestures and speech.

Codification included the script that is detached from the person in possession of

the knowledge, with a view to inscribing it in a medium. This form may require

successive modeling phases and the mobilization of languages other than natural

language. In this form, the script may be imperfect (e.g., the operating manual for a

machine) but it has the virtues of a public good (it is a nonrival good that can be

copied and distributed at a very low cost).

Filming and Recording this consists of an audiovisual recording of the action.

The recording of voices and images provides a means for facsimile reproduction,

which allows the memorization and analysis of knowledge mobilized during that

action. It is the notion of technical reproducibility. In this case, the script is not really

created, but the subject matter is there, faithfully memorized, available to be worked

on in constructing the script.

Knowledge Codification

When knowledge is tacit it can be reproduced in this form. Tacit knowledge is a good,

the very nature of which creates strict dependence between the potential value of the

intellectual asset and the good will of individuals who have the knowledge comprising

that asset. The exchange, diffusion, and learning of tacit knowledge require those who

have it to take deliberate or voluntary action to share it. These operations are therefore

difficult and costly to implement. The memorization of tacit knowledge is contingent

on the renewal of generation after generation of people who have such knowledge.

“Knowledge to build the world, knowledge to destroy the world.” K.S. Pang (2013)

The Visible and Invisible Functions of Knowledge Codification

The “Visible” Function: Cr eating Memory, Communication, and Learning Program.

The codification of a certain kind of knowledge (know-how) generates new

opportunities for knowledge reproduction.

Example 1, a written recipe is a “learning program” enabling people who are not in

direct contact with those who possess the knowledge to reproduce it at a “lower” cost.

Therefore, this written recipe fills the gap created by the absence of original creator.

Example 2, when a young technician receives a user’s manual, he or she is not

directly given knowledge on “how to run the machine.” That said, the manual is

helpful and will serve to reduce the costs of knowledge reproduction. Getting the

written recipe or user’s manual does not totally eliminate the learning costs. What is

expressed and recorded is not complete knowledge but this is a learning program that

helps to reproduce knowledge.

The Invisible Function: To manipulate symbolic representations by their reordering,

juxtaposition, visualization, and manipulation.

In particular, codification makes it possible to arrange and examine knowledge in

different ways. Tables, formulae, and virtual models are cases of progressively more

complex knowledge objects that codification is capable of creating.

Example 1, tables open the path toward taxonomic and hierarchical structures. While

such structures can be created by oral means, they do not work well as tools for the

extension and reordering of knowledge.

Example 2, formulae, which is the basis for mathematical constructions, becomes

meaningful when they can be visualized and manipulated in a space. These

capabilities are inherent in codification and essentially absent in facsimile recording.