An eduction model of disciplinary emergence: the ripples of knowledge management

Abstract

Using the field of knowledge management, this paper examines how discourses form and evolve from the perspective of eduction (a type of reasoning that involves extracting principles from data). Conceptual development within a discipline depends on concepts borrowed from other disciplines through the interaction of two multifaceted, interwoven processes: the scientific process and the social process. On the basis of a citation analysis, this paper illustrates how this interaction creates two distinct episodes of eduction that coexist and evolve in parallel. The concept of eduction does not separate the effects of the social process from the scientific process and realistically assumes that both processes are necessary. Thus, collaborative interests expand and contract, leading to the development of the discipline from other disciplines, while simultaneously establishing its own foundations. This study has implications for understanding how other discourses emerge, diffuse their ideas, and shape new fields and for understanding interdisciplinary interactions.