Langfristiges exponentielles Wachstum der Wissenschaft?

Abstract

"Ever since Derek de Solla Price's path breaking work, an exponential growth of science during the last 400 years has been assumed, eventually leading to a knowledge society. However, we are suggesting here that a more realistic picture of the growth of science and knowledge can be found by taking other forms of knowledge and knowledge production in early modern Europe into account: the number of experts instead of scientists and learned societies instead of universities. From this perspective, the growth of science looks a lot less spectacular. At the same time, the economic productivity of research and development seems to have decreased." (author's abstract)