HYB-KNOW
Hybrid Knowledge Society

The knowledge society concept emerged at a particular juncture in the 20th century, when advances in the forces of production promised new horizons, while the revolutionary and transformative projects engendered by the previous century squandered their last vestiges of historical credibility.
This situation resulted in a search for new vocabularies, research directions, and concepts in order to make sense of the changing societal landscape — and to articulate a society to come. The knowledge society was one such simulacrum-concept for assembling the future when the promise of science and technology eclipsed the faith in social relations.

HYB-KNOW is based on a custom methodology — the history of sense — with components from the history of ideas, historical and political epistemology, and discourse archaeology.
The history of sense approaches concepts as contingent architectures whose production is dispersed across diverse semiotic networks and registers, and whose synthesis is generally irregular and contested.
Within the history of sense, one particular method employed in HYB-KNOW is the study of abandonware social theory — that is, once-impactful scholarship whose significance has been largely forgotten.

By combining contemporary research, landmark historical sources, and abandonware scholarship, HYB-KNOW can contest the one-dimensional obscurity of the archive produced by an excessive focus on a limited range of renowned works and scholars.
In addition, the history of sense is a methodological innovation that can be developed for future interdisciplinary research.
Finally, the reconstruction of the knowledge society concept, which has become relatively forgotten despite being a conceptual star not long ago, contributes to the diagnosis of contemporary society.