Knowledge Gap

This entry focuses on the concept of the knowledge gap, which is a specific hypothesis within the area of [Page 410]diffusion of knowledge, and subsequent derivations. A number of models of social change are based on the notion that change is a cumulative process. In such models, small changes result in differential rates of change for the social system—slow system change at first, followed by increasingly faster rates of change during the middle of the change process, followed by slowing rates of societal change at the end. This process is reflected in the familiar "S-curve" which shows an accumulative sum over time. Two prominent models that follow the logic and assumptions of the cumulative process perspective include models of diffusion of technologies and diffusion of ...