The role of sharing in the circulation of knowledge

One of the points stressed in 'A new paradigm in the organization of knowledge', Futures, 26, 1994, pages 781-786, was the determinant role of sharing in the emergence and configuration of the paradigm of the immaterial. We resume the elements suggested then and develop their analysis in three stages: first, by characterizing the operational singularity of sharing; second, by considering its cognitive and disciplinary incidence; and finally, by pointing out its theoretical consequences, namely in what concerns the thematic of rationality. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd