The reinvention of knowledge

The key institutions that shaped knowledge in the West By studying the institutions responsible for knowledge in the West, Ian McNeely and Lisa Wolverton outline the production, preservation, and transmission of everything considered worth knowing and which has come to constitute the 'Western' tradition. The reinvention of knowledge shows that today's "knowledge society," despite all its apparent novelties and radical directions, is nothing more than a continuation of this age-old pattern. They argue that “the best way to define the 'West' is by its institutions designed to organize knowledge, not by a set of cultural values or as a region of the globe.” The authors elegantly and humorously survey the decisive moments of institutional change and cultural transformation from the classical period to the present day. Through this history, it is possible to understand the vast changes currently occurring in the field of knowledge.