Knowledge Production and Distribution in the Disintermediation Era

Abstract

The diffusion of the World Wide Web has greatly expanded the creation of new models of knowledge production and distribution in higher education. This research uses as a framework Boyer’s model of scholarship and Gibbons taxonomy (Mode 1 and 2) to explore the role of the university in the knowledge society. These theoretical contributions are contrasted with online platforms and tools to generate and distribute knowledge in the 21st century. This qualitative exploration of disintermediation practices in higher education is used to identify dimensions such as: new coordination agents and new coordination mechanisms, as well as to suggest possible matrix to map a new territory full of proposals that promote disintermediation, innovation and openness within and outside of the universities.

Keywords: university, disintermediation, mode 2, knowledge production, knowledge distribution, technologies

JEL Classification: 031, 032, 033