Introduction to the Special Section on Knowledge Management in Postmodern Society

This introductory essay contextualizes and meditates on the three articles-Bhattacharya, Day, and Waller-presented in this special section on "Knowledge Management in Postmodern Society." In the process it reflects on following points: (1) the capacity the university had in the past to incorporate the irregular and its loss in the contemporary university, (2) the devaluation of humanities and social sciences because of the reduction of the narrative as well as the reflective and critical thinking to mere doxa, (3) the competition from mass media on university's traditional role in knowledge dissemination and the building of the public sphere, (4) the oscillation of academy between Taylorism and post-Taylorism, (5) the possible role students can play in overcoming crisis faced by the university, and (6) the evolution of the binomial writing/reading in the shift to digitalization and the information society.