Communication

Aim: To discuss the relationship between science and emotion and to address the role of communication in

post industrial society

CP Snow (1959)

• Snow wrote an influential Cambridge lecture on ‘the two cultures’ in which he argued that Western intellectual life was increasingly split into two polar camps with scientists and literary intellectuals ignoring or loathing each other. He saw this and all intense specialization as potentially unhealthy.

Huxley

• Sciences describe experiences which are accessible across nearly all subjective states, and which are based on experiment to test hypotheses, followed by comparison of outcomes, to see if they are consistent. (The world of quantifiable regularities)

• Literature makes statements about emotional and often private experiences to elicit understanding or appreciation in the reader. (The world of emotion)

Habermas (Towards a Rational Society)

• He argued it is wrong to ignore the subjective, emotional and personal response. He distinguished between the ‘social life world’ which individuals and communities inhabit, and the ‘worldless universe of facts’ or ‘quantifiable regularities’ which scientists try to inhabit.

Habermas

• ‘Until some great artist comes along and tells us what to do, we shall not know how the muddled words of the tribe and the too precise words of the text books should be poetically purified, so as to make them capable of harmonizing our private and unsharable experiences with the scientific hypotheses which may also explain them’.

The Information Society

• The information society follows the development of primary, manufacturing and service industries. (Also called post-industrial society)

• This society strengthens the scientific/technical forces in society as basic institutional necessities.

• By requiring and making decisions more technical it brings the scientist and economist directly into the political process. How is emotion treated?

Bell (The Coming of Post Industrial Society)

• Bell argued that an increasingly technocratic and scientific imperative produces diminution of past political differences.

• This has happened globally and also in Australian politics. (No more cold war, Lib/Lab converge)

• We should try to make our values clear and support our direction towards our goals with evidence. This will bring us all closer together?

Florida (The Rise of the Creative Class)

• Florida follows Bell and Drucker in believing knowledge is increasingly the major means of production, rather than capital, natural resources or labour. Knowledge production is different because its value increases through its creation, spread and use, rather than ‘the global commons’ being used up for private gain – as in the exploitation of the environment.

Florida

• Argues all traditional societies overprotect intellectual property and so reduce their opportunities for creativity. A good idea should be used over and over, as it can produce more value for the community the more it is used and built on. This produces increasing returns on production, rather than the diminishing returns traditional economists normally speak about.

Florida: The Creative Society

• Technology, talent and tolerance are the key requirements of the creative society

• Creativity is defined as the ability to synthesize or undertake ‘combinatory play’

• To achieve a creative society one needs to challenge the production of information in silos which operate separately and secretly.

The Creative Class

Computer and mathematical occupations

Architecture and engineering

Life, physical and social science occupations

Education, training and library occupations

Arts, design, entertainment, sport and media occupations

The Creative Class

• Florida says they value challenge, responsibility, the ability to work a flexible schedule, and having a stable work environment ahead of money.

• How well do Australian universities promote a creative society? (Not very well in my opinion because their fees are high and their education content is not open and freely available to all. They build their careers on academic theories and neglect practice which overturns them.)

Australia, IT and a national communications policy

• The combination of US money and communications are powerful driving tools in global development and Australia tends to follow. This may pose dangers for health and cultural diversity. Regional policy aimed at health and sustainable development requires a supporting approach to communication and skills development.

HEALTH, MIND AND ENVIRONMENT

• Health policy has traditionally been based on the medical research model (starting with the body of the individual)

• In community health policy the medical approach is ideally part of a total approach to community health and development in which play, self-expression, education and work are all valued as potentially promoting health and rehabilitation.

• What should research be like in this context?