Social technologies in the knowledge society: Cognitive Aspects

The development of social technologies is connected with the need for new activities that are designed to ensure the transfer of social knowledge based on current scientific evidence. If we accept fact that the knowledge is transformed into factor that structures all areas of social life, it is necessary to consider the possibility of all social actors to generate knowledge aimed at changing and the construction of social reality. Social technologies in close cooperation with the converging nano-, bio-, info- and especially cognitive technologies in many ways already define life and the development of modern society. These technologies are man-made forms of culture development and inseparable from human activity. Humanitarian reflection and practice must resist the technocratic approach to understanding technology use of social life. Social technologies can be considered as an alternative to the technocratic approach, expressing itself as a methodology, strategy and tactics of the practical implementation of social intelligence. Even the most valuable social ideas and technologies can get inadequate materialize if they are placed in the context of a significant another knowledge without the necessary corrections. The use of social technologies requires attention change the meanings of key concepts of social technologies. Knowledge in common level becomes the main condition for the success or failure of specific social technologies. Weak results of two decades of public administration reform is explained with inability to consider divergent cognitive picture of reality of different social and professional groups. Another one of the problems is that people who make decisions and specific administrants often can not perceive the depth of conceptual development plans of social technologies. Many experts state the fundamental impossibility achieve the strategic goals of "knowledge societies" because of insecurity of appropriate tools. As the "tools" they call a radical improvement of the business climate, competition, technology "e-government", "e-learning", "e-health", eliminating of information inequality of regions, etc. It is not financial, but the intangible resources, expressed mainly with concepts of "intellectual capital", "human capital", "social capital", information, etc. All of these are "knowledge" resources that require special, cognitive technologies. Thus, cognitive technologies become fundamental and crucially action and determine the impact of social technologies. Without cognitive study any social technology with all its positive view can worsen rather than improve the situation in the external and formal compliance of all the requirements of innovation.

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