What is "knowledge order" Simply speaking, knowledge order means organized arrangements or patterns of producing, circulating and consuming knowledge. Knowledge order as understood in this way is closed related to the existing structure of political ...
What is "knowledge order" Simply speaking, knowledge order means organized arrangements or patterns of producing, circulating and consuming knowledge. Knowledge order as understood in this way is closed related to the existing structure of political authority operating to produce, circulate, and consume knowledge in global politics. This kind of knowledge order has been existed since the human history began, and evolved through the medieval and modern times to the so-called information age of our time. Obviously the concept of knowledge order is a barometer to help us understand the dynamics of global politics driven by the development of information technologies and other related social transformation.
This project explores the conceptual and empirical aspects of knowledge order, which are still brand-new theme in International Relations, and especially focuses on the following five groups of research questions. First, this project explores what knowledge order is, what elements constitute the order, and how the order should be measured. Second, it explores how the order transforms in a structural sense, and in what mechanism the knowledge order consequently produces a new structure of global order in the information age. Third, the transformation in knowledge order affects that in global politics in general, such as military, security, political, economy, and cultural arenas. Finally, it explores how the global politics of knowledge is reflected in the East Asia region, and how East Asian countries are coping with the above challenges.
Having these research questions in mind, this project examines the structural transformation of the East Asian knowledge order from the perspective of triadic variables -- i.e., ideas, interests, and institutions. In particular, it focuses on three groups of empirical and conceptual topics. The first group of topics deal with the East Asian knowledge order per se -- especially three aspects of i) technological knowledge order, ii) scientific knowledge order, and iii) ideological knowledge order. The second group examines the impacts of knowledge order on the East Asian regional order in a broader sense -- i.e., military, security, political, economic(trade and finance), cultural arenas. The final group of topics collects and interprets quantitative data concerning the knowledge order at the global as well as East Asian level. It particularly looks at four layers of knowledge order -- i) information infrastructure, ii) human resources, iii) knowledge researches, and iv) meta-knowledge(knowledge imposes order on substantial knowledge).