Page - (000036) - in Knowledge and Networks

26 section with a call for imbricating social knowledges with an understanding of eco- nomic knowledge networks. In the next section I discuss a particular social prob- lem, segregation, which spatially expresses exclusions in everyday life. Crucially, segregation is driven by ignorance; therefore, constructively engaging segregation requires targeting ignorance by developing social knowledges—per the frame of this edited collection, specifi cally in the context of knowledge networks. I turn then to the literature on knowledge generation and exchange in economic-oriented litera- tures to cull insights regarding requirements for the development of socially ori- ented issues of trust and mutual respect that underpin collaborative project work . One limitation of this literature is that it presents a faceless landscape of actors, and thereby elides issues of difference. In light of my goal to conceptualize the proactive construction of diverse and inclusive knowledge networks, I then draw insights from the business, management, and information science literatures on potential problems of the frictions of difference in on-the-ground as well as virtual work- places. While useful, this literature nonetheless lacks attention to social goals— back to the problem of the usual instrumentality of the social for the economic—and thus requires attention to the multidimensionality of problems. As I will elaborate, I envision the construction of a web of inclusive knowledge networks in what I call “mediated crowdsourced project work,” supported by government and other orga- nizations to ensure continual, living-wage employment in ephemeral networks that form, dissolve, and form anew with different membership to meet the requirements for particular constellations of expertise across projects. At the outset I envision such a project at the metropolitan scale where fi eld research can identify the domain of skills in local populations, allowing for such projects to extend beyond localities over time. My aim is to develop a critical agenda—as opposed to a blueprint or policy brief—to clarify the issues, the logics, and, moreover, the need to chart a new course, while avoiding the replication of existing ills. The vision here derives ana- lytically from a critique of the existing system and a problematization of those new features of the production apparatus that require reconfi guration to achieve social as well as economic goals. Despite this admittedly ambitious agenda, precedents for discrete components nonetheless exist in various contexts. Open network strategies such as crowdsourc- ing connect fi rms seeking expertise or intellectual property with individuals who may be disassociated from fi rms (although not in association with stable, living- wage jobs). The U.S. government has supported the formation of open networks constituted by fi rms (although not open networks that draw from a skilled popula- tion of workers who may be disassociated from fi rms). Governments outside the United States support enterprises that privilege social objectives and community well-being over economic goals (although not in connection with new types of knowledge networks). Field research has identifi ed skill sets among marginalized, populations (although not in association with new approaches to production and not necessarily remunerative). The novelty of the agenda I develop, then, lies in the imbrication of components among discrete projects in a holistic approach to achieve both social and economic change. N. Ettlinger