Hrvatska u gospodarstvu znanja – o čemu govorimo?
Croatia in the Knowledge Economy: What Are We Talking About?

Summary/Abstract: The terms "knowledge economy" and "knowledge society" have been a part of the political rhetoric and conventional use in Croatia since the nineties, while there is little understanding and even less agreement about the meaning of these terms, their origins and the context of conceptualisation. Understanding the concept of knowledge economy is not only of cognitive and theoretical importance but it has also practical and political implications because he dominant interpretation of this concept and of its influence on social development determines the strategic development of politics and instruments of policy implementation. Today in Croatia there is no clear discourse about what Croatia, as the economy / knowledge society should be, so there are no mechanisms to achieve this transformation. Therefore, the aim of this study is to contribute to the understanding of the concept of knowledge economy, which starts from the thesis that knowledge economy is based on scientific knowledge which is a result of institutionalized scientific research, related technologies and educated workforce that knows how to use such knowledge. In order to prove this thesis, the paper discusses five factors that condition or determine the knowledge economy as a specific economic system. It concludes that the performance of the Croatian economy and research sector suggests that Croatia is moving away from the knowledge economy as described in the adopted definition, while the main reasons are thought to be in the socio-cultural and political environment that does not encourage scientific knowledge as a factor of development.

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