Miroslav Dopita: Sources and Origin of the Concept of the Knowledge-Based Society

In the discourse of social sciences the notion of the knowledge-based society appeared in 1970´s in relationship with the works of Peter F. Drucker, and with the concept of post-industrial society of Daniel Bell. In his texts the designation of knowledge-based society and information society are used interchangeably. The focus on studying the characteristics of the information society in the late 20´s century caused the shift from valuing the quality of knowledge to the knowledge quantity. The paper describes the new analytical concepts of the knowledge-based society represented by the German sociologists Nico Stehr, the author of Knowledge Societies (1994), and Helmut Willke. Normative approaches of supra-national societies such as OECD and UNESCO are explained, too. The paper is targeted at clarification of the designation of knowledge-based society, the stumbling blocks of this designation, and at describing the newly appearing challenges linked to this concept.

PEDAGOGIKA.SK, 2010, Vol. 1, (No. 3: 197-222)

Key words: post-industrial society, information society, knowledge-based society, knowledge, information, education