by Alan Wilson, London and New York, Routledge, 2010, 184 pp., ISBN 0415553113
Wilson loves to coin new phrases. Thus modern economies become knowledge economies and are regarded as post‐service economies. It is somewhat difficult to see how knowledge economies differ from information economies and how knowledge as an economic commodity can be delivered as anything other than a service. To facilitate the change from the present to the desired future, Wilson calls for a revolution, particularly in education. But is the called‐for revolution more than a game with words and slogans? The education of the future is unhelpfully characterised as ‘{R(T,C,A,L),S, P, Tech}’ or, in words, ‘{Reform (Teacher quality, Curriculum, Accountability, Leadership), Skills, Pedagogy, Technology}’. The call is for teacher quality to be improved at all levels, but have we ever desired anything other than good teachers?
What is actually new in all this is hard to tell, except that modern education at all levels needs to try and keep abreast of the very rapid creation of new knowledge. Wilson thinks that the process of absorption of new knowledge needs to permeate schools, universities, all kinds of organisations, and even individuals. What is not quite clear is whether the call for accountability and leadership should be interpreted as independence of teaching institutions from government, whether at central or local level, and thus a plea for independent schools.
The volume of knowledge is expanding dramatically – the knowledge explosion – and the nature of knowledge is changing so that it does not easily fit into the traditional packages. This implies the need for a reformed education system, offering both breadth and depth and with some repackaging.
The sub‐title of the book says it all: the book is a declaration of Alan Wilson's faith in the power of science for the solution of social and human problems. If science is powerful, interdisciplinary science is more powerful because most real problems do not fall neatly into a domain of any classical discipline but pose interdisciplinary questions and hence require interdisciplinary answers. In a nutshell, the book is a plea for interdisciplinary research and interdisciplinary teaching and a confession of faith in the ability of science to contribute much to the solution of social or economic problems and to the betterment of society. Wilson appears to think that indeed all problems can be solved with the aid of science and does not mention once that political decisions are made not so much on the basis of scientific analysis but as a result of the rivalry and interplay of group interests. He appears to think that a proper analysis of a problem will lead to a proper solution, irrespective of interests involved. To be fair, Wilson acknowledges the existence of competitive forces in society but puts little emphasis on the role of group interests in decision making. In that sense it is an idealistic book; a plea for rationality and learning to replace power struggles.
An early chapter of the book is a tour‐de‐force through all modern developments in all the sciences. Each complex scientific discipline or method is described in a few words. Very apt words, no doubt, but wholly inadequate for any real understanding. Physics and chemistry are given seven pages between them, biology two, social sciences two and a half, humanities and creative arts one page between them. Apart from these ultra‐brief basic descriptions, knowledge is also usefully described in relation to its practitioners. The extreme brevity of the descriptions is supported by the extensive use of abbreviations – a method that does not make reading any easier or understanding any clearer. I find the relentless use of abbreviations unhelpful and rather irritating. Having skated through the sciences at an alarming rate and thrown in a few new concepts and ‘superconcepts’, Wilson proceeds to discuss what he calls the ‘knowledge space’ and defines, inter alia, what policy is: ‘Policy is concerned with the articulation of objectives – what the planning process aims to achieve; design is invention – problem solving; and analysis provides the underpinning knowledge core’. Somewhat idiosyncratic, but quite interesting.
What is helpful is the discussion of the possibility of defining knowledge by the professions associated with the various branches of knowledge. Thus different engineering practitioners each use their own brand of knowledge in their professional life and the same may be said about the practitioners of other professions, including those engaged on planning and providing for cities and regions, health, and even the performing and creative arts.
One of Wilson's favourite leanings is the use of extravagant new word‐creations. Thus particularly widely applicable concepts or bundles of concepts are called ‘superconcepts’. Various aspects of knowledge are accommodated in ‘knowledge space’. I fail to see the utility of a concept that involves no more than the listing of various branches of knowledge and their combinations. What I do find useful is Wilson's definition of ‘requisite knowledge’. In a world that consists of organisations, each organisation requires a certain package of knowledge in order to function, and is required to ensure that this core knowledge grows and adapts as new knowledge is created within or without the organisation.
The description and discussion of urban and regional problems and their analysis is truly interesting and illuminating. We might call this chapter ‘in praise of systems analysis’, as this is the preferred method of tackling the interdisciplinary problems arising in the analysis of the life of cities and regions. The concept of systems is well explained and the virtues of this approach are well illustrated by its utility in dealing with many interdisciplinary problems arising in the study of cities, smaller communities and regions. Systems analysis can help in town planning, in transport planning, and in analysing needs for the provision of health and education services. For the non‐expert it is amazing how many questions relating to cities and regions can be asked and answered.
In a chapter called Knowledge Development the author speculates on the future of all sciences and engineering. The wider application of mathematical modelling and advanced computing will, so Wilson believes, lead to more advanced applications and better solutions for complex problems. It is unfortunate that the chapter is not much more than a catalogue of plausible developments, without any depth of explanations. The main thrust of the chapter is a plea for breadth of analysis of societal problems, such as the siting of airports or other facilities. If we wish to pursue evidence‐based policies, as undoubtedly we should, we need to make sure that all relevant evidence is taken into account.
One chapter is devoted to the universities. Essentially Wilson argues that universities ought to devote more effort to the development of new ‘products and services’, particularly in interdisciplinary areas. The big problem of universities is their relation to large and powerful, often commercial, research organisations. Can and should they compete or should they develop new cooperative models? The thorny question arises of whether universities should strive to be ‘relevant’ in the sense of researching and teaching in ways that are of current interest in the wider world, or should they stick to fundamentals and leave relevance to more commercial organisations. Wilson believes that some universities might well add to their structure a College of Lifelong Learning, a College of Corporate Learning and a Consulting Company. Many similar developments have indeed been pursued in the recent past at different scales and with varying success.
An obvious problem caused by rapidly expanding knowledge is how to keep abreast of developments. This is true for individuals as well as for organisations. Wilson goes into some detail how different types of organisations are affected and what measures they can take to apply new knowledge relevant to their business.
In view of the perceived widespread phobia of mathematics, the author relegates mathematics to an appendix. In this he describes how a mathematical abstraction can be used to solve a problem of flows of goods or people between two centres. The example chosen is the flow between a residential area to a retail shopping centre. We can run a model calculation on a computer and obtain, for example, the total cash‐flow into the shopping centre under various conditions and assumptions. This is an extremely useful tool for planning purposes.
Finally, Wilson describes what is needed to obtain a sea change in the application and development of science. Obviously education plays a major role in achieving this sea change and new teaching methods play a large role in the discussion. All in all, however, there is little novelty in the discussion of what is needed and even less discussion on why it is needed.
This is a book by an author of great experience and distinction at the highest levels of academic life, with much involvement in academic and educational politics. Perhaps it is an attempt to draw conclusions for the future on the basis of his life‐long extensive experience. In my view, a more anecdotal approach, rather than the formal approach, would have been more useful to the reader.
© 2010, Ernest Braun