The Knowledge Ecology we need
Are the core assumptions of the knowledge economy sustainable?
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Summary

The notion of ‘knowledge economy' is underpinned by questionable assumptions and its current unit of analysis (the abstract copy of an idea) leads to intellectual monopoly and to a substantial destruction of the knowledge embedded in the natural world. A governance of knowledge is imperative so that society does not hugely overvalue human innovation over natural-world innovation and in the process corrupt and destroy what is best of both. Critical thresholds or ‘safe minimum standards' for both the intellectual asset base as well as the environmental asset base must be established and operationalised by economic science and other sciences. A comprehensive reframing of the core assumptions and values of the knowledge economy is in order, away from monopoly in knowledge and perhaps more in line with the values of competition and cooperation observable in the ‘knowledge ecology' of the natural world. For a governance of knowledge to happen society must use its institutions, governance capacity and creativity to replace its knowledge economy with a ‘knowledge ecology'.

A salient feature of a knowledge ecology in policy terms is the recognition that our real or imaginary dependencies on intellectual monopoly (wrongly called ‘intellectual property') to generate innovation, profits, economic growth and prosperity need to be vigorously and comprehensively removed by politics. Perhaps rather immediately. Peoples and cultures across the globe are sending a rather clear and powerful message in the form of stated preferences and purchasing decisions regarding the present and future of intellectual monopoly. Such a message contains also important information about the future context of sustainability. Without a reciprocal vigorous transformation in politics and in business, it is very difficult to see how the knowledge economy may evolve in parallel with the natural world, with human culture as a whole, or indeed how its current institutions, businesses and employment structures will survive a transition, orderly or not, to sustainability.