FROM FACTORIES TO SHOPS: DECONSTRUCTION OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT A CLIENT

Resumo

ABSTRACT

Some arguments have been advanced in this paper that has a bearing upon re-definition of which kind of knowledge will be the focus of universities. With new technology, firms and universities are increasingly devoting to the task of changing tacit knowledge into a concrete and distinct product. It is argued that some factors such as globalization, the increasing salience of the market in organizational decisions have promoted commodification of knowledge even in universities. While globalization has worshipped innovation as the solution to upgrade the level of development of a given nation, this has also subverted the social importance of science in innovative processes. Because of the demise of basic science and the increasing external pressures universities, from now on, will tend to pay more attention to solution of problems that are assumed to impact on a country’s relative  position in competitiveness ranks. Thus the market, the State, TNCs or industry, those institutions that have been empowered by new-liberalism will have a stronger voice in defining the worth of research subjects rather than it will be a matter of academics’ own discretion or choice.