FORECAST-2000 - WIDENING KNOWLEDGE GAPS

This report updates a 1983 analysis of fifty-eight knowledge gap studi es, adding thirty-nine studies and pointing out innovative ways to imp rove research in the area. The persistence of knowledge inequalities a cross topics and research settings has serious consequences. Gaps in p ublic affairs and health knowledge have an especially severe impact on those groups most negatively affected by socioeconomic changes, who a lso tend to be information poor. Rapid growth of socioeconomic divisio ns between ''haves'' and ''have-nots'' in the last two decades suggest s that knowledge gaps deserve increased research attention because the y are related and potentially affected phenomena.