Complexity and the New Ecologies of Knowledge. Part 1

Abstract

Much has been written about complexity and complex-adaptive systems, and the need for complexity to be taken into account in the way we create, manage and distribute knowledge. However, the knowledge society was built on the shoulders of the industrialised society, which was not based on unpredictable, complex knowledge, but rather on predictive, positivist knowledge. The task is to integrate the two types of knowledge, so that we can move beyond this dichotomy. This article revisits these issues, and develops a new framework for an ‘ecology of knowledge’ that incorporates complex knowledge explicitly, and it puts formal, objective knowledge in its proper place: along side, but no longer predominant over, the other phases of the knowledge ecology. We live in a globally networked society, in which social, biological and financial systems all need to be addressed as ecologies. To do this, we need to acknowledge the value of objectified, positivist knowledge, while constraining its more ‘feral’ practices and, at the same time, accommodate complex knowledge and complex practices.