Symposia 1 - 10

Symposium 1 - Clashes of Knowledge 

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Was ist Wissen – und wo verlaufen seine Grenzen? Das erste Symposium der Reihe Knowledge and Space widmet sich den Ursprüngen, Formen und Konflikten von Wissen in kulturellen, sozialen und wissenschaftlichen Kontexten. Im Fokus stehen Fragen nach der Entwicklung wissenschaftlichen Wissens, seiner Grenzen und Kriterien – ebenso wie sein Verhältnis zu Religion und Ethik. Wie wurde religiöses Wissen durch wissenschaftliche Rationalität abgelöst? Welche Rolle spielten dabei die „drei Säulen“ europäischer Kulturgeschichte: Wissenschaft, Religion und Gnosis?

Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt liegt auf kognitiver Dissonanz und der Frage, warum Menschen widersprüchliche Informationen ignorieren. Wie beeinflussen soziale Normen und kultureller Druck unser Wissen und unsere Überzeugungen? Zudem geht es um Machtverhältnisse im wissenschaftlichen Feld: Unter welchen Bedingungen gelten Theorien als „unwissenschaftlich“ und werden ausgeschlossen? Was geschieht bei Paradigmenwechseln?

Zur Springer-Band

Symposium 2 - Milieus of Creativity

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Was ist Kreativität – und wie hängt sie mit Problemlösung zusammen? Das zweite Symposium der Reihe Knowledge and Space untersucht die kulturellen, psychologischen, sozialen und neurologischen Grundlagen kreativen Denkens. Im Zentrum steht die Frage, wie kreative Leistungen entstehen und welchen Einfluss der sozio-räumliche Kontext auf kreative Prozesse und Problemlösungen hat. Thematisiert werden Unterschiede in der Kreativität, ihre affektiven und motivationalen Aspekte sowie ihre Rolle in regionalen Wissensökonomien. Wie wird Wissen in wirtschaftlichen Zusammenhängen verarbeitet? Welche Auswirkungen haben Zugangsbeschränkungen und Barrieren im Wissenstransfer auf kreative Leistungen? Auch in der Wissenschaft ist Kreativität zentral: Welche Bedingungen fördern bahnbrechende Erkenntnisse an den Forschungsfronten? Und wie tragen Utopien und Visionen zur Entstehung kreativer Milieus bei? Schließlich wird die Rolle kognitiver Konstrukte in der Wahrnehmung und Strukturierung von Raum beleuchtet.

Knowledge and Space Vol. 2: Milieus of Creativity

Symposium 3 - Geographies of Science

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Wie sehr ist Wissenschaft räumlich verortet und lokal geprägt? Das dritte Symposium der Reihe Knowledge and Space widmet sich der Frage, wie wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse durch lokale Gegebenheiten, verfügbare Infrastrukturen, Forschungsstile und Netzwerke beeinflusst werden – historisch wie gegenwärtig.

Im Fokus stehen die räumlichen Kontexte der Wissensproduktion und -nutzung: Welche Bedingungen fördern oder behindern wissenschaftliche Innovationen? Welche Rolle spielt die Architektur der Wissenschaft – also die Gestaltung von Laboren, Museen oder Fakultäten – für kreative Prozesse und Erkenntnisgewinn? Auch informelle Netzwerke, räumliche Anordnungen von Menschen und Geräten sowie kulturell-politische Kontexte beeinflussen, wie Wissen entsteht, zirkuliert und akzeptiert wird – etwa im Fall von Darwinismus oder rassentheoretischen Debatten. Was kennzeichnet also die Orte, an denen wissenschaftliches Wissen erzeugt, präsentiert und legitimiert wird?

Zum Springer-Band

Symposium 4 - Cultural Memories

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1. Which social and biological factors influence the adoption and processing of information? From cognition to knowledge? How are the various types of knowledge transmitted between sender and receiver? The positions of psychology and brain research.
2. Psychology of memory. How are individual and collective memories formed and retained? What is the influence of spatial and cultural contexts? Which semiotic codes are used?
3. The spaces of cultural representation. Where do we store our knowledge? What is the role of monuments, museums and memorials for establishing and sustaining cultural memories? How can the built environment serve as a memento and as a trigger for memories?
4. What are the ordering principles of different storage locations (brain, libraries, museums, memorials)? Theatres of memory.
5. Persistence and change of cultural memories.

Symposium 5 - Knowledge and Economy

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1. Under what conditions does knowledge become an economic product in different cultures? What types of knowledge can be turned into economic products? What are the societal consequences if knowledge becomes an economic product and if it does not?
2. Research and industry in historical perspective. Knowledge transfer between universities and economic institutions and vice versa? The recruitment of scientists and top managers in various types of firms.
3. Evolution of technologies in time and space. Knowledge, technologies and regional competitiveness. The effects of technological change on regional development.
4. Innovations and regional development. How can we define and measure spatial disparities of innovativeness? Which factors contribute to regional disparities of innovativeness?
5. Knowledge in economic theory. Is rationality enough?

Symposium 6 - Learning Organizations

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1. Knowledge and organizational structures. Where should rare (specialized) knowledge be located within an organization with regard to the goals of the organization and the uncertainty of the environment? What external and internal factors influence the question whether centralized or decentralized decision-making or whether organic or bureaucratic structures are more efficient in different types or organizations?
2. What do we mean by organizational learning and how can it be defined? Psychological, sociological and geographical foundations of organizational learning. Triggers of organizational learning. How do organizations learn from success and failure, from their competitors and their spatial environment? What improves or inhibits these learning capabilities and processes?
3. Is the individual the main agent of organizational learning or should we pay more attention to structures, rules, cultures, and traditions of organizations as well as to their locations and environment? The role of experience, routines and previous knowledge for organizational learning.
4. Learning in Multinationals. Knowledge transfer between cultures, and between centre and periphery. The role of power, networks, emotions and conflicts for organizational learning. International division of labour concerning research and development of Multinationals. Face-to-face contacts and the role of information technology in Multinational.
5. Can knowledge and organizational learning be managed? Knowledge sharing and knowledge management in firms. Conditions, practices, tools and barriers of organizational learning. Perspectives and limits of knowledge management. Are Chief Learning Officers or Chief Knowledge Officers a reasonable and efficient concept?

Symposium 8 - Ethnic and Cultural Dimensions of Knowledge

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1. What is the impact of schools and universities on the evolution of cultural identities? What is the relation between ethnicity, cultural identity and educational attainment? How can educational institutions contribute toward the integration or assimilation of immigrants? What methods have been used to destroy the particular knowledge of cultural minorities? How are cultural identities constructed and presented?
2. What do different cultures consider as knowledge? How did different cultures receive and value (western) scientific knowledge? The role of indigenous knowledge.
3. What socioeconomic and cultural factors influence the spatial diffusion of literacy? What are the interrelations between literacy and socioeconomic development? What factors inhibit modernization in countries with a low degree of literacy? What are the differences between literate and oral cultures?
4. Causes and consequences of regional disparities in computer literacy. Is there a new digital gap, which leads to disparities between regions and societal categories, to new constellations of power and to new dependencies?

Symposium 9 - Knowledge and Action

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1. Psychology of knowledge. Knowledge as a competence for action. What do we know about the relation between knowledge and action and what do we not know? How much of our actions are governed by routines, experience, intuition and knowledge? What about actions vs. better knowledge?
2. To what extent do various types of knowledge influence the steps from cognition to action, e.g. aspirations, attention, the evaluation of situations, search for alternatives, problem solving, decision-making, implementation of decisions?
3. Rationality and Knowledge. What categories of rationality should we distinguish? Concepts of rationality in social and economic theories. Rationality in everyday life.
4. Action theory and knowledge - trends and perspectives. Subject-centred action theory. Symbolic action theory. Knowledge and action potential.

Symposium 10 - Spatial Mobility of Networks

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• Which role does travel and movement play in the production of knowledge?
• How does knowledge travel across time and space?
• To what extent is knowledge being transformed through travel?
• Why do different types of knowledge travel more successfully than others?
• Which aspects facilitate or complicate international collaborations for knowledge production?
• How do social, cultural, political and economic contexts shape the spatial mobility of knowledge and knowledge workers?
• What is the role of migrants, expatriates, and travellers in the circulation of knowledge?
• How do flows of knowledge and/or knowledge workers impact on the transformation of the global knowledge economy and vice versa?