Unesco

A new future for the Knowledge age

M. -P. Verlaeten

Introduction
http://www.arenotech.org

1. This short paper delivers a message on a new vision about knowledge needed to give the global village better chance to achieve a future less cruel than the past from the view points of development and holistic values. The vision designs and shapes a new knowledge age. It might be welcome today because around the table of international agreements, whichever they are, civilisations encounter more and more. This is the major result of the openness of market economics or said differently the transition from national economies to global activities, the global age as some guru say. Indeed, its competition addresses now systematically numerous and various issues at the world level. They have effects on economic targets and their frameworks everywhere. But not only. They are not limited to these ones. They go further through the communication processes carried on by market operators. Indeed, they communicate information and interpretation in such a way that there are biases on the understanding of what occurs. Some rationales are favoured at the expense of some others. This has gradually effects on the full set of values and related processes of embodiment carried on by history everywhere. In short, this gives greater value to some countries compared to others. And therefore their civilisation also gets more legitimacy than others do. They create better chance for their population than others do. This is dangerous. Why? Because that means that the economic transition is the fuelled engine of changes through which all civilisations are getting transformed. How? Some people answer that they simply are taught to boost more efficient activities while others reply wisely that it is an open but also a global question. Well-balanced answers might come from a new vision about how to design and shape linkages between the knowledge each civilisation has and its global opportunity to capture growth and wealth and to illuminate some principles. In this new framework, holistic values issued from all civilisations from the planet will blossom again. This will transform civilisations through their openness for the best of the mankind. This is a path of peace.

2. Civilisations share a common concern for growth although there are rich and poor countries.

At the long run i.e. on a period of two centuries, available data as published by OECD in the year 2001 (The World Economy-A Millennial Perspective by A. Maddison) indicate there are roughly two groups of countries. In a first group comprising Western Europe, the U.S, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, 19 multiply G.D.P. per capita (in international dollars of 1990) which amounts 21,470 dollars. In a second group, the rest of the countries, the multiplication factor is 5.4 and the level of G.D.P. per capita is 3, 102 dollars. On average, this factor reaches 6.6 and the corresponding income level is 5,908 dollars. So there are income inequality featuring the” village “ at the long run even accounting for income increase for both groups. The rich countries became richer even when the poor ones got better. And furthermore in some parts of the village featuring mainly the second group billion of people are so poor that they are out from the monetary economy. Some live with less than two dollars a day or worse with less than one dollar a day. Therefore these people are deprived from all forms of institutionalised protection and physical security.

3. Poverty to eradicate and world income distribution to modify so as to reduce income inequality in the global village are the key issues for the future. But not only. Indeed, these issues are only the tops of some iceberg. For instance, drastic changes have to come to protect the health of billion of people, their right to have access to good food, to safe water, to toilets and drains, to give them physical security, to reduce corruption, and so on. And finally, one has also to mention sustainability. The growth process as it has been predicated and applied is not sustainable. That means it cannot become the dominant growth model for all people of the planet. The more and the more it has global measured effects exceeding the gains that people are able to measure today. Furthermore, it erodes the value of world’s civilisations that of the West excepted creating a future of global latent clashes between people from these civilisations.

4. During the” Doha days”, some of the preceding issues have been looked at. That is the reason why the accepted agenda is so large. Such an agenda was also a way to get an agreement between countries with various interests both at short and long run. But this does not mean that needed agreements to get a better future for all in the global village might be achieved at short run. Still now there are fronts of bottlenecks regarding subsidies, access to markets and the Kyoto agreement. The health issues may also create problems through the intellectual property protection ones still to be debated. Food sovereignty is also a problem. Moreover, the change in the nature of the growth process favouring intangible investments (i. e investments in education and training, PC and software, R. & D., services to enterprises, marketing and management) to push up innovations to create growth and to capture wealth at the village level has not been emphasised at Doha .So it has not been said that rich countries capture growth and wealth using” brains rather than brawns”. Indeed, these countries have entered into a knowledge age as also emphasised by some experts. That transition means that brawns remain the dominant resource of poor countries. Roughly said rich countries have the intellectual capital of the world plus the monetary wealth while the other ones have the physical capital and natural patrimonies they are not able to value alone.

5. No good future for the “village” has to be expected if the present state of the world wealth ‘s sharing goes on prevailing. How to push up new better expectations concerning growth and income sharing for all is therefore a global and unavoidable question. It is also a difficult one because there are various conflicts of interest everywhere. But since September 11 (at least symbolically) many governments have come to understand they must address the question and offer legitimate and global answers. One legitimate way is to share a new vision about the future of the knowledge age and to act consistently to it.

What is the new vision? It is the will and the strategy ceasing to privilege only some forms of skills and their economic activities at the expense of the others through applied policies, agreements and recommendations

6. . Indeed, this way to push up growth will continue favouring rich countries already well endowed with ad hoc skills and investments compared to other countries .At the long run, no big global change to the income ranking per capita has to be expected. No big change has to be expected from scarce knowledge i. e knowledge some countries have more than other ones. Increased competition will prevail between countries catching up with some leading ones. It will have the same results as in the past. But better global expectations might come when numerous countries build up upon the knowledge their population has. This knowledge is abundant and diverse. And furthermore it is embedded in their civilisations. Indeed, knowledge is carried on by a complex intricacy where are nested Culture, Sciences, Technology, Arts, Letters, Languages, Power organisation, Processes of identity and values carried on by the preceding. Therefore, to promote growth and wealth with this new basis of knowledge is a powerful way to value all civilisations of the world. But one has to be cautious. What matters with the preceding is not to come back to the past, to tradition. It is to go into the knowledge spectrum of all civilisations still there. How to proceed? Through four steps at least.

7. First step. It is to help people from the “ village” to enter into a continuous process of discovering the content of the spectrum. Briefly said it has two components: explicit knowledge of which some parts are embedded and implicit knowledge. This latter is like a sleeping beauty waiting to be kissed to awake. The voluntary transition from implicit to explicit knowledge is a powerful tool to solve many unresolved questions particularly those linked to sustainability. Indeed, these questions require redefining fields of sciences. The transition is also welcome to identify knowledge from enterprises. It is largely unknown today. No many people have really in mind that an enterprise is like a special school though a cruel one sometimes. It is not only an information unit. It is also a place where there are numerous learning curves. No strong growth process without the diffusion of these learning. Therefore, this transition could be like a new epoch for sciences, technology, economics, sociology,… and holistic values. Some might even call it a new “renaissance”.

8. Second step. It is to share world wide all what is discovered. The sharing process will issue waves of information around the global village through which people from this village will really become owners of a global patrimony of knowledge. ICTs are welcome from this viewpoint. They will have new markets also. The waves of information and communication are also a way to illuminate all the civilisations and render more readable the various paradigms ( i .e the civilisations’ mindset) in which people from the “ village” are living. This would change the unbalance between civilisations previously indicated. This would show that they all have many things to offer to the mankind. This is a key issue to peace.

9. Third step. It is to promote growth from all the patrimonies with the more adequate global framework. No doubt for instance that countries could better manage intellectual property protection since they all would have something to protect. Countries would also benefit from waves of innovation since creativity rises when people are helped to better live with their knowledge. Indeed, creativity is cherished when people appropriate knowledge in a process of being.

10. And fourth step. It is to help people to take care of the discovered knowledge continuously. Here is a true pillar for lifelong education and training and changes favourable to cross-fields’ teachings and new ones.

11. The preceding will change the burden of competition because of the increased weight of creativity coming from the promoted diversity. This will strongly modify the present disequilibrium between economic values and holistic ones. All this will give birth to a new knowledge age.

12. The new knowledge age carries with it a new information one. It will be more legitimate than today since it will be part of processes through which numerous fractures (growth, education, training,) could be reduced. In this framework, ICTs will rocket for the best of the mankind.

13. The new knowledge vision asks for a new methodological approach to be achieved. It has to be a global one. It is that of a systematic dialogue between world’s civilisations about their knowledge patrimony leading to research in co-operation to decide and do “things” with the discovered patrimonies. UNESCO might play a very important role organising the expected dialogue and circulating its discoveries. Acting as such the organisation will help to revitalise “Multilateralism « a key issue to get the expected new future.