The information society and the restructuring of production: a critique of the utilitarian dimension of knowledge

Abstract

The paper discusses the concepts of the information society and knowledge society taking as an analytical framework the constraints imposed by the productive restructuring of capital on the world of work and production. It aims to show how, under a perspective of new liberalism, issues such as access to information and to the production of knowledge in the strict sense of the phrase, which continues to emphasize the utilitarian dimension of information and knowledge, subject to economic logic, which focuses on increasing productivity and competitiveness of organizations at the expense of not fully training the workers. Its theoretical point of reference are the discussions introduced by authors concerned with demystifying the spread of technological determinism offered by information and communication technology, emphasizing the role of education in its broadest sense and information science in its strictest sense, in the debates over the democratization of access, the dominion of informational content beyond the utilitarian dimension. The conclusion is that the lack of mastery over the technical and scientific processes is closely related to the utilitarian view of knowledge propagated by skills teaching. In the economic domain, especially for those countries that are not producers of technology, the abandonment of theory in favor of practice is expressed in the pragmatic actions that mark everyday relationships and the world of work; in the overvaluation of the multifunctional worker, to the detriment of their full training (technical/scientific and humanistic).