Knowledge, Economy, Development and Society: Complex Sketches

With the appearance, in recent decades, of so-called knowledge-based economies, there have been various explanatory proposals or theoretical frameworks for understanding them. In this paper we aim to ponder, within a humanistic outlook, various concepts introduced by thinkers like Dominique Foray, from economic theory, Javier Echeverría, from philosophy of science, Manuel Castells, from sociology, and Edgar Morin, from the perspective of complex thinking. Situating human at the center of the equation, we want to approach the problem of knowledge and their meanings. To that end, this essay begins with a consideration on different conceptions of knowledge and the role that it has taken in the new society, continues with an analysis of the relations between the new economy and the idea of integral human development, and ends by outlining the application of the principles of Morin's complex thought as a proposal to articulate different perspectives on knowledge and the global society to which we belong.

knowledge, complex thinking, knowledge based economies, science, technology