The Knowledge-Based Economy

Leydesdorff, Loet (2006) The Knowledge-Based Economy, in The Knowledge-Based Economy: Modeled, Measured, Simulated, pages pp. 1-25. Universal Publishers.

Abstract

This is chapter 1 of the book (first 25 pages of a book with 392 pages). How can an economy based on something as volatile as knowledge be sustained? The urgency of improving our understanding of a knowledge-based economy provides the context and necessity of this study. In a previous study entitled A Sociological Theory of Communications: The Self-Organization of the Knowledge-based Society (2001) the author specified knowledge-based systems from a sociological perspective. In this book, he takes this theory one step further and demonstrates how the knowledge base of an economic system can be operationalized, both in terms of measurement and by providing simulation models. Loet Leydesdorff (Ph.D. Sociology, M.A. Philosophy, and M.Sc. Biochemistry) reads Science and Technology Dynamics at the Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam. He has published extensively in science and technology studies about the Triple Helix of university-industry-government relations, scientometrics, systems theory, social network analysis, and the sociology of innovation. He received the Derek de Solla Price Award for Scientometrics and Informetrics in 2003. In 2005, he held “The City of Lausanne” Honor Chair at the School of Economics, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland. This interdisciplinary study provides both models of the knowledge base of an economy and instruments for its measurement, as applied to the German and Dutch economies in terms of regional and sectorial differences. The simulations introduce a set of algorithms for modeling various forms of anticipation in social networks. The knowledge base of an economy can be specified as a strongly anticipatory dynamic that operates at the supra-individual level.