It is almost universally accepted that we are moving increasingly towards an information society, where knowledge and learning are the new currency of power. This book seeks to challenge this axiom by looking in more detail at the subtle relationships between knowledge and social development. The editors are at pains to differentiate the process of knowledge creation from the simple accumulation of knowledge.The original contributions within this book are aimed at capturing new socio-economic trends and finding policy strategies promoting the learning society in Europe through joint efforts and integrated actions on innovation, competence building and social cohesion. Innovation, Competence Building and Social Cohesion in Europe will be of special interest to researchers and scholars of science and innovation and technical change. Its policy recommendations will ensure that the book will also appeal to social scientists of education policy.

This book addresses the long overdue issue of how to adjust the concept of public goods to today's economic and political realities. It examines a series of managerial and political challenges that pertain to the design and implementation of product strategies as well as the monitoring and evaluation of global public goods provision. Suggestions are presented on a number of policy reforms and recommendations are made on how to move in a more feasible and systematic way towards a fairer process of globalization that works in the interests of all.

At the macroeconomic level, "innovation" increasingly means the ability of institutions to cope with uncertainty and change. This change can be associated with technological advances, but also with modifications to the regulatory framework of an industry, shifts in consumer preferences, emerging demographic trends, or even major alternations of global geopolitics. The changes brought about by these conditions ripple throughout an economy, affecting national institutions and individual citizens alike. Innovation for All? considers the case of Portugal from the perspective of innovation theory, providing new insights on how knowledge is generated and diffused over time and across space. The lessons from Portugal's experience can be applied more broadly to understand the challenges of developing policies that simultaneously promote scientific and technological innovation, societal creativity, and economic growth.

The essays in this book examine the role of education and the university in economic development. It is the contention of the contributors that knowledge--ideas and skilled and educated people--are increasingly important for economic development. How to promote inclusive development--the process of development that includes every citizen in any country--has become a wide-ranging puzzle.

After framing the problems associated with globally integrated learning processes from the perspective of science and technology policies, the essayists look at the role of the university in the knowledge economy drawing examples from the United States, Japan, and Portugal. They then review the role of innovation in the industrial policies of a variety of countries, look at systems of knowledge creation and diffusion, and conclude with commentary on the roles of public planning and policy in the achievement of sustainable development. This wide-ranging examination of knowledge and development issues will be of value to scholars, researchers, and policy makers involved with economic growth and development.

Despite the unprecedented development and growth of knowledge during the 20th century, the evolution of a peaceful 21st century will depend on our ability to address the challenges of prosperity, sustainability, and security. From these challenges, this collection seeks to devise a research agenda to help us to understand better the knowledge-based economy.

Science and technology have acquired increasing importance in the development of contemporary societies. Governments, firms, universities, and research laboratories all take part in the process of building what has been conceptualized as national and/or regional science and technology systems. The actions of these key players and the interactions between them determine the impact of science and technology activities and, more generally, of innovation strategies on the well-being of nations. One of the most important challenges in maximizing this impact is to understand and manage the complex processes that underlie world-class science and technology research, commercialization, and management. In addition, knowledge integration in key subjects is required to enhance economic wealth, shared prosperity, and social and cultural enhancement. In this context, this volume also addresses such important topics as policy and strategies for global sustainable development.

The world's agenda of international cooperation has changed. The conventional concerns of foreign affairs, international trade, and development assistance, are increasingly sharing the political center stage with a new set of issues. These include trans-border concerns such as global financial stability and market efficiency, risk of global climate change, bio-diversity conservation, control of resurgent and new communicable diseases, food safety, cyber crime and e-commerce, control of drug trafficking, and international terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Globalization and increasing porosity of national borders have been key driving forces that have led to growing interdependence and interlocking of the public domains--and therefore, public policy concerns--of countries, governments, private businesses, civil society, and people at large. Thus, new and different issues are now occupying top places on national policy agendas, and consequently, on the agendas of international negotiating forums. The policy approaches to global challenges are also changing. A proliferation and diversification of international cooperation efforts include focus on financing arrangements. Financing of international cooperation in most instances is a haphazard and non-transparent process and often seems to run parallel to international negotiations. There are many unfunded mandates and many-non-mandatory funds.
To agree on and to achieve international economic goals, we need to understand how financing of international cooperation efforts actually works. Our understanding is hampered by two gaps: 1) lack of an integrated and cohesive theoretical framework; 2) lack of consolidated empirical andoperational knowledge in the form of a comprehensive inventory of past, current and possible future (i.e. currently deliberated) financing mechanisms.
This book reduces these two gaps and provides a guide to improve our ability to finance international cooperation.