Knowledge Revolution

First published in 1968, The Knowledge Revolution has been written to discuss Europe’s economic and cultural future against the whole background of the world market for brains. It examines the role of industry, governments, and universities in meeting the challenge of the 1970s and thereafter. The realization that a modern economy's most important capital resource is not money, raw materials or equipment but brains has been slow in coming. This fact is the kernel of the Knowledge Revolution.

There has been tremendous discussion both about the brain drain and about the American “takeover” of European industries. This book is the first to treat these phenomena as merely symptoms of the basic causes of European decay. Where others have concentrated on individual aspects of the problems faced by Europe, Professor Chorafas effectively examines the whole complex picture of the European malaise. Professor Chorafas maintains that Europe must take advantage of mass production and mass markets; and he not only advocates large scale pan-European industrial co-operation but also original methods of financing it. Although his attention is directed towards the economic future, he has not ignored cultural values. The book is mainly concerned with Continental Europe, Scandinavia and the USA, but the special problems of the Middle East and the developing territories are also discussed. This important historical reference work will be of interest to statemen, industrialists, academics, economists, and civil servants.

Dimitris N. Chorafas (1926-2014) was uniquely qualified to take a world view of the Knowledge Revolution. He was the faculty of the Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. (1956-1958). From 1962 to 1968 he chaired the Information Systems Department, Centre d'Etudes Industrielles of the University of Geneva; and was Visiting Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. His status as international management consultant, author and university professor has taken him to sixty different countries over his professional career. He spoke English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Greek.