Knowledge Utilization as Planned Social Change

Knowledge utilization might be considered a relatively new field in the sense that most people currently concerned with knowledge utiliza-tion have become so concerned rather recently. It would not be surpris-ing to find that most scholars in the history of the social sciences who have ever worked seriously in this area are also actively engaged in the area presently. In terms of diffusion theory, innovators in the acquisition or adoption of the idea that knowledge utilization is a critical issue in science span a considerable period of time in the history of the social sciences. Only recently, however, has the field moved into the first major growth phase in which so-called &dquo;early adopters&dquo; begin to commit themselves to an idea. Yet, viewed in another way, knowledge utilization might be considered &dquo;old hat&dquo; on the contempo-rary social sciences scene. In this view, knowledge might be considered. as a type of innovation; knowledge utilization as belonging to the more established field of social change. This is the view which i