Hornidge, Anna-Katharina- Defining Knowledge in Germany and Singapore : Do the Country-Specific Definitions of Knowledge Converge?

Increasingly nation states and economies emphasize the importance of knowledge, creativity and innovation to economic, political and cultural development. Some even speak of ‘knowledge societies', ‘information societies' or ‘knowledge-based economies'. Yet, if knowledge increasingly emerges as one of the core factors of production, we have to ask ourselves how we define knowledge. Which types of knowledge form the core element of future development? The answer to this question highly differs in each country and their respective societies, meaning each society defines knowledge uniquely and different to other societies. Nevertheless, as shown in this paper, the definitions of knowledge prevalent in Germany and Singapore, two widely varying societies, become increasingly more similar. This leads me to the main question underlying this article: can and do the definitions of knowledge dominant in two societies as differing as Germany and Singapore converge? This article argues that a complete convergence of the traditionally widely varying definitions of knowledge is merely prevented due to the different legal infrastructures, allowing for and emphasizing different fields of knowledge production and dissemination