Stehr's vector: knowledge in the city coordinates

Abstract

The “Stehr vector” is a metaphor associated with the name of the modern philosopher and sociologist of science Niko Stehr and designating the trajectory of movement towards a “knowledge society”, where intellectual achievements as a public good have the highest value - they are priceless and, therefore, are not sold or bought, and access to them is free. Since a number of obstacles are characteristic to the formation of the ascent to the knowledge society, the main one is the usurpation of cognitive resources by digital giants with the help of legal coding tools for intellectual products. Knowledge is expropriated from its creators - scientists - and then sold, thereby further enriching the “knowledge monopolists”. The “Stehr vector”, overcoming such barriers, is aimed at the future, where different forms of social exchange are developing on the model of social communications among representatives of the “creative class” (R. Florida), concentrated in the centers of knowledge - cities with great scientific and educational potential. Since the “city of knowledge” is a cognitive generator, as a result, the ability to think scientifically becomes a property of every person. The article shows that certain analogies are possible between “cities of knowledge” as a “new utopia” developing in the algorithms of the “Stehr vector”, and the first university cities in Medieval Europe, which arose and developed as accumulators of knowledge and university life. These “new Middle Ages” promise to be more intellectually free than modern knowledge capitalism. Thus, the “Stern vector” makes it possible to design not the Berdyaev dystopian version of the “New Middle Ages”, but, on the contrary, more intellectually free version than modern knowledge capitalism.