On Centre for Knowledge, Culture and
Innovation Studies
By Prof Hari Babu, Dean, School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad.
The
Centre for Knowledge, Culture and Innovations Studies was established in 2006.
The significance of the Centre is to look at the ongBy Prof Hari Babu, Dean, School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad.
oing change in context of
knowledge production, and see what kind of knowledge is produced and how it is
going to impact Society. We keep talking about knowledge societies, Knowledge
Economy. What do these terms mean to us really in terms of innovation. These
are some of the questions, which this Centre addresses. We have a faculty, which
works on these issues. We have also started some teaching courses. We already
have a couple of courses being taught in the University, one is “Science,
Culture and Society". We also have "Technology, Culture and Society". Both
these courses are taught by faculty members of Sociology and Philosophy
Departments. This workshop is extremely important, because today civil society
is an important actor, most definitely in terms of policy formulation. Further,
it is very important for policy makers to listen to Civil Society Organizations
and groups before they formulate policy which have an impact of the whole
society.
The context, we all know is, we are signatories of the WTO. We are no longer in the era of import substitution. We have to produce new technology and new artifacts. These artifacts have to be very different, and these artifacts must be context- driven. The context may be Agriculture or Environment or information technology or energy. I think these are extremely important issues, which I am sure that the participants will deliberate over the next two days.
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