The general aim of this conference is to compare, assess and further develop different approaches and explanatory models to the multiple roles of science, expertise and the professions in contemporary knowledge societies. ’Knowledge society’ (Stehr 1984, 1996) is defined by the increasing amount of new ideas and rapid transformations in science, technology, organization, economy and culture. It is advanced by a specific social ‘complex’ (Parsons), primarily involving scientists, experts and professional occupations, the tasks of which are to develop, take responsibility for, apply and distribute new knowledge and knowledge-based practical skills. Various scholars have given other names to this ‘complex’ like ‘system of professions’, ‘professional landscape,’ ‘layer’, and even ‘class.’ Combinations of scientific knowledge and expert knowledge on the one hand and knowledge-based practice on the other constitute the basis of knowledge society. Currently, this layer represents 15 – 20 % of the total labor force in most industrialized nations. It possesses key positions in regards to discovery, innovation and development, and for distribution and implementation of knowledge; its practitioners are the agents and carriers of knowledge. It is not possible to understand contemporary social development without substantial insights into the functions and dynamics of this layer, of its ‘essence’. Simultaneously, this layer is clearly unexplored by the social sciences. This conference addresses the contemporary knowledge layer from three dissimilar but related themes.
