And rewind! Recycling discourses of knowledge work and knowledge society

While knowledge work is privileged by contemporary managerial discourse as a principal tenet of the present epoch, this paper examines an earlier knowledge society the Renaissance and argues that the contemporary designation of society as a 'knowledge society' is neither new nor unique. In contemporary discourse, much as during the Renaissance, institutional authorities sought to control unauthorized knowledge through disciplinary actions. There is also a parallel between the historical conditions that enabled the Renaissance to emerge and those preceding the emergence of a contemporary knowledge society. The paper argues that discourses of knowledge work and knowledge society may be seen as recycled, making what is old seem new again. © 2013 © 2013 Taylor & Francis.