Although Considered By A Few Critics That The Sentence Structures Of The Book Are Quite Incomprehensible And Almost Unbearable To Read, The Book Is An Essential ...

Knowledge Societies offers both a critical examination of existing social theory, and a new synthesis of social theory with the actual study of knowledge relations in advanced economies. Some of the elements explored are scientization: the penetration not only of production but of most social action by scientific knowledge; the transformation of access to knowledge through higher education; the growth of experts (managers, accountants, advisors, and counselors) and of corresponding institutions based on the deployment of specialized knowledge; and a shift (...) in the nature of societal conflict from struggles about income and property to claims and conflicts about generalized human needs. Nico Stehr's argument amply demonstrates not only that all social theories now need to take into account the changing nature of social relations around knowledge, but also the parameters within which this analysis should take place. This book is essential reading for all those interested in social theory, sociology of knowledge and science, and the general issue of knowledge in the late 20th century. (shrink)

In the course of this reassessment Stehr examines the question of Keynesian economics: a classic case of the application of social science on a grand scale. To what extent can the political, social and economic policies pursued in Keynesian economics be related to Keynesian ideas as social science? Arguing for a reconception of the ways in which social science knowledge can be and is applied, this book will be of interest to a broad range of social scientists including social theorists, (...) economic theorists, sociologists of knowledge, historians of the social sciences, and all those concerned with the relation of social science to public policy. (shrink)