ABSTRACT

Notwithstanding the success of technoscience in improving life expectancy, human communications and environmental knowledge on a global scale, the search for collective and personal control in an unstable and uncertain world have been consistent features of Western modernity. This chapter focuses on some dimensions of the debate underpinning this search for control, notably arecurring concern to improve the quality of life. The chapter concentrates on the meaning and application of ‘useful’ knowledge which are implicit in this debate, including the sources, authority, ownership, access and ‘proper’ use. Whilst these issues are of recurring importance in intellectual and public arenas, the chapter examines their contemporary significance within a context of supposed doubt and uncertainty. With reference to examples, it explores the significance attached to boundaries, both moral and material, in shaping the discourse of ‘useful’ knowledge and how concepts of space, place, time and agency are implicated in their definition and manipulation.