Integration of Social Knowledge by Government: A New Synthetic Model of Integration as Learning and Potential Research Directions

Abstract

This article explores the potential of business knowledge management and sociology of knowledge to theorize the integration of social knowledge by government. It understands social knowledge as dispersed societal knowledge emerging in contemporary information societies. The proposed synthetic model of knowledge integration builds on Donald Schön’s idea of integration as learning and the ideal of government as a learning system. The article develops a new definition of social knowledge. It identifies knowledge management theories of interorganizational knowledge transfer and sociology of knowledge theories of the macro-contexts of knowledge production as most relevant to further theorize knowledge integration by government.