Problématics

Knowledge ecology and knowledge economy are concepts often used indirectly inside texts related to Collective Intelligence, knowledge management, etc. It is proposed here to explore a distinction.

Proposed definition

The knowledge ecology is a context in which knowledge is interacting, exchanged, cross-fertilized, permanently built, by virtue of the laws of life.

Knowledge economy is a knowledge ecology sustained by an economical system allowing participants to get means of subsistance.

Discussion

Knowledge ecology can exist only with living, healthy participants, i.e. in a context in which they are fed by sources that are external to the system. The knowledge economy is a wider system because it possesses an autonomous energetic system for the participants. Such a system obeys the viability criteria for a knowledge economy?.

The main objection that can be raised against these definitions is that ecology is wider than economics because economics is a sub-organ of flux allowing the functioning of an ecologic system. This objection is pertinent if we consider the general meanings of the words ecology and economics. But then we need to invent other concepts specific to the TheTransitioner research frame, that make the distinction between a non-autonomous knowledge ecologic system and an autonomous knowledge ecologic system with an economy. The suggested definitions above have a practical aim: they easily emphasize the necessity of an economic dimension of knowledge.

The work of Pierre Lévy? and the approach of spiral dynamics should open interesting perspectives.

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Related wiki pages

• Knowledge Economy, Knowledge Ecology, Knowledge Competition-Economy, Knowledge Socioeconomy