Questions about knowledge flows between different fields of science are important &om
a policy perspective.
This thesis focuses on knowledge transfer between physical sciences and life sciences.
Science and technology are increasingly intemvined in a complex continuum. This
complexity of the science and technology today asks for a concerted, articulated and
comprehensive understanding of the process of science and technology.
The approach that this research has taken is to analyse the process of science and
technology. The thesis asks: What is the trade of science and technologv? In order to
answer this question we developed an anatomy of knowledge and we analysed the
internal developments in science via the analysis of the role of the researchers as carriers
and producers of knowledge.
Secondly the thesis asks: What are the mechanisms and directions on which scientzjic
knowledge migrates? This research postulates that the analysis of the process of science
and technology translates to the analysis of the production and transfer of scientific and
technological knowledge.
What is obvious and essential for science and technology is the difference between the
specific mechanisms of knowledge production. This thesis suggests that the modem
mode of knowledge production is characterized by an increasing density of
communication on three levels: between science and technology - on one hand - and
society on the other-; between scientific practitioners; and with the entities of the physical and social world. Central to our research is the concept of 'mode of knowledge
production ' with mode 1 and mode 2 being defined by Gibbons.
The four case studies employed emphasise on how collaboration across disciplines is
highly important for the production of new knowledge. The main characteristic of newly
emerging fields in an increasing synergy between disciplines, which leads to several
types of communication between them.
With the increasing of the interdisciplinary intensity the border between the production of
knowledge and the transfer of knowledge begins to be blurred. The transfer of knowledge
occurs today at a more conceptual level. It follows that the production of knowledge has a
large .component of knowledge transfer. To study it, ths thesis proposes a quasiquantitative
model. In h s unified &mework for the knowledge tmnsfer mechanisms,
transfer is seen as a process with a number of stages and forms. We tested our framework
on four case studies.
The third part of the thesis proposes a taxonomy of interdsciplinarity. and deals with the
social engineering of knowledge transfer that is the design of adequate guidelines for
policies aiming at maximization of knowledge transfer. In this way the thesis aims to
contribute to the understanding of processes of development of new emerging scientific
fields.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/221784 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Daniela Nicolau |
| Publisher | Murdoch University |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.murdoch.edu.au/goto/CopyrightNotice, Copyright Daniela Nicolau |
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