A national academic production study about knowledge management through Haberma's knowledge theory

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to challenge the academic production on Knowledge Management (KM) recently published by the Brazilian academy. A total of 6,096 published articles in the Proceedings of the National Meeting of Postgraduate Management Programs, named ENANPAD, from 1997 to 2007, were compiled. Habermas' knowledge theory has great relevance for the critical debate on the area of knowledge management (KM) in three types of knowledge: technical, practical and emancipatory. Through the documental research it was possible to identify the absolute predominance of the technical interest as a characteristic of the instrumental reason directed to constant prediction and control in the area of KM. Approximately 75% of these empirical studies did not address the question of power relations and knowledge nor did it address human consciousness emancipation towards a critical reflection of oppressive practices or political and ideological social approaches.