Knowledge is a product of human social systems and, therefore, the foundations of the knowledge-based economy are social and cultural. Communication is central to knowledge creation and diffusion, and Public Policy in Knowledge-Based Economies highlights specific social and cultural conditions that can enhance the communication, use and creation of knowledge in a society. The purpose of this book is to illustrate how these social and cultural conditions are identified and analysed through new conceptual frameworks. Such frameworks are necessary to penetrate the surface features of knowledge-based economies - science and technology - and disclose what drives such economies.

The authors employ a trans-disciplinary approach to explore the nature of knowledge systems or environments and examine questions regarding the measurement of knowledge. Lessons are drawn from a variety of perspectives, including the history of information policy, philosophy, economic history, sociology, psychology, information economics, complex systems theory, organisational knowledge theory and political science.

This book will provide policymakers, analysts and academics with the fundamental tools needed for the development of policy in this little understood and emerging area.