Knowledge Exclusivity: A Swinging Pendulum

According to one of my old professors, diagrams with
triangles and circles are a key part to any presentation.
So here is a triangle diagram that illustrates exclusivity
with respect to knowledge institutions across time. 

As we have studied various types of knowledge institutions during the semester, we have come across various different patterns that transcended each of the different types of knowledge.  In our “salon” activity yesterday and while studying the different blog posts in preparation for the activity, I realized that one of the important trends in the knowledge systems was exclusivity and complexity of knowledge.  From folk knowledge to written knowledge, exclusivity increased, but then it came back full circle and is once again widespread with digital media.  After the move from folk and oral knowledge to written knowledge, the increased exclusivity and problems that accompanied it were the cause for a drive to increasingly widespread forms of knowledge systems.

Folk knowledge is the most basic of all knowledge systems.  It is so basic in fact that we often don’t even realize we are learning these types of skills.  From birth we begin to pick up on social norms and habits from our parents.  Although these types of knowledge might exclude people of other cultures somewhat, folk knowledge is usually open to anyone who is willing to observe and learn. 

As Folk knowledge transitioned into oral traditions, information became more exclusive.  Bards and poets became the people in control of information, but they still weren’t generally trying to keep information from others.  Oral traditions were meant to be heard by others and anyone who could procure an audience with a storyteller would have access to these stories.  Schools are also an example of a largely oral knowledge institution, where knowledge is a little more exclusive to only those who are able to access education.

The move from an oral to a written knowledge system marked a huge jump in exclusivity.  Suddenly, only a select few were able to read and write.  The scribes and the nobility controlled all knowledge that was to be passed down.  Cost of production for manuscripts in Europe was so high that it literally cost a fortune to own just one codex, let alone a library of them.  Difficulty, cost, and time of production all contributed to the scarcity of information.  It was like ‘occupy Europe’: something like 5% of the people easily controlled 90% of the information.  What resulted was an inversion of power that caused oppression and lack of progress.  Writing, which had at one time been a proponent of progress, was now causing this plateau in societal progress.  The dark ages truly were a time of great stagnancy, greatly because of exclusivity of knowledge in the written system.

The drive for the diffusion of knowledge may not have been a conscious one, but it was powerful and necessary.  Guttenberg’s invention of the press gave a sudden liberation to almost every field of information.  Medicine, religion, law, and education were all suddenly able to break through the glass ceiling that was keeping them down.  Society slowly became literate and information became increasingly available to everyone.  Some exclusivity remained because only those able to find a publisher were able to spread their ideas, but by and large information was free once again.

Through centuries, the augmented globalization of commerce and cultures continued to drive man towards accessibility of knowledge.  With the advent of the personal computer and the Internet, suddenly anyone could access virtually any type of information.  This blog post for example is available to almost anyone in the world that can find a working computer.  Perhaps because of a longing to recreate the ties that are formed by sharing folk knowledge, digital media have even tried to imitate them by creating social networks.  The pendulum has swung again and we are now living in an age where almost all of anyone’s information can be accessed on the Internet.

 Our innate curiosity and drive for learning caused a swing in the accessibility of knowledge from folk to written, and from written back to digital and social media.  Obviously not all aspects of written knowledge were negative, but the wide range of knowledge institutions available to us now create an atmosphere conducive to the progress that we see today.