IIM Calcutta professor Somprakash Bandyopadhyay has launched a book on “Social Knowledge Management for Rural Empowerment: Bridging the Knowledge Divide Using Social Technologies”. He along with co-authors Sneha Bhattacharyya and Jayanta Basak from Social Informatics Research Group at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta have attempted to provide a theoretically embedded practical guide-map to achieve holistic rural empowerment in developing nations using the connecting spirit of contemporary digital technologies through the book.
The book was conceptualized to study the aspects of rural Indian marginalization and in turn, work upon devising holistic empowerment strategies for the marginalized rural population by deploying a social knowledge management framework.
The book, an outcome of a five-year-long journey undertaken by the research group at IIM Calcutta, covers diverse issues such as conceptual foundations; bridging the rural-urban knowledge and information divide; information and knowledge asymmetry; a knowledge-theoretic perspective of rural empowerment to provide a comprehensive outlook on building a knowledge society through digital empowerment.
Talking about the book, Prof. Somprakash Bandyopadhyay, Head of Social Informatics Research Group at IIM Calcutta said,“Our book attempts to expand the notion of knowledge management as practiced inside business organizational perimeters to social knowledge management, referring to the aspect and effectivity of managing social knowledge for rural empowerment. Social knowledge management in our context is a framework for rural empowerment using knowledge creation, assimilation and dissemination through digital connections and social collaboration, enhanced by contemporary digital technologies. We have attempted holistic rural empowerment by facilitating rural urban virtual community formation through our proposed social knowledge management framework, whose motto is dedicated to eradicate knowledge asymmetry of rural members and empower them in the process by triggering purposive virtual collaborations”.
Praising the book,Prof Anju Seth, Director - IIM Calcutta said, "Congratulations, I'm delighted to hear about this accomplishment! This will be a most valuable scholarly work on an important topic for India and other developing countries".
Published by Routledge (Taylor and Francis Group) on 1st September 2020 the book is currently available for purchase on Amazon.
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