Review article
https://doi.org/10.5559/di.20.4.01
Croatia in the Knowledge Economy: What Are We Talking About?
Jadranka Švarc
orcid.org/0000-0003-1702-3674
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb
Abstract
The terms "knowledge economy" and "knowledge society"
have been a part of the political rhetoric and conventional
use in Croatia since the nineties, while there is little
understanding and even less agreement about the meaning
of these terms, their origins and the context of
conceptualisation. Understanding the concept of knowledge
economy is not only of cognitive and theoretical importance
but it has also practical and political implications because
the dominant interpretation of this concept and of its
influence on social development determines the strategic
development of politics and instruments of policy
implementation. Today in Croatia there is no clear discourse
about what Croatia, as the economy / knowledge society
should be, so there are no mechanisms to achieve this
transformation. Therefore, the aim of this study is to
contribute to the understanding of the concept of knowledge
economy, which starts from the thesis that knowledge
economy is based on scientific knowledge which is a result of
institutionalized scientific research, related technologies and
educated workforce that knows how to use such knowledge.
In order to prove this thesis, the paper discusses five factors
that condition or determine the knowledge economy as a
specific economic system. It concludes that the performance
of the Croatian economy and research sector suggests that
Croatia is moving away from the knowledge economy as
described in the adopted definition, while the main reasons
are thought to be in the socio-cultural and political
environment that does not encourage scientific knowledge as
a factor of development.
Keywords
knowledge economy; conceptual definition; origin; characteristics; position of Croatia
Hrčak ID:
75843
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2011.
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