Introduction: New Directions in the Study of Knowledge,Economy and Society

Abstract

A reading of the articles of this issue of the Sage Series in International Sociology Monograph Issues of Current Sociology suggests two general issues, connectivity and reconstruction, which underlie the search for a more coherent and integrated view of the linkage together of the fields of knowledge, economy and society. `Connectivity' is displayed as alternate strategies of formulating the knowledge-economy-society relation: characterization of whole societies as manifestations of an overarching order of some dominant form of knowledge (that is, focus on relational features of a singular kind, for instance towards use of theoretical knowledge); or, characterization of the societal constitution of this relation. The latter strategy is demonstrated in this monograph issue. `Reconstruction' involves understanding the continuities and changes inscribed in the interrelations so constituted. An analysis of these issues, in the light of the articles, shows the elucidation, expansion and redirection of current sociological perspectives and debates achieved by a constitution-centred method of understanding knowledge and transformation.

Keywords

connectivity knowledge linkage reconstruction social change societal constitution

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